Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1882-11-16

oertain sensational astronomers II
England. Mr. Proctor aud Professo,
fazlI Smith. have, according to lats
ei,blt dispatches, aroused considera
bic alarn there By their terryfyin,
predictions regarding the present
comet. According to them this fiery
yl<iiant, when il has completed il.
lfeseht tour around the sun, will next
year make another-its Iast-and
lien plunge into the body of the great
l'lnihary. and the effects will be so tre-
inetdous as TO destroy this earth. Il
seems incredible that men Of their
standing could have made a predic-
liun u this kind, and, in fact, a nu.n-
Der Of American professors doubt that
they did so. Still, the cable, letters
10 The New York papers assert it to
te fact. and ia London, Particular
Il, among the ignorant and snpersti-
iioes, there Is naturally very gen
ef'l right. something like that which
i'fetaiis at present among our negroes
"a lie South, who, without hav-
NJ .iiy scientific authority for their
ieiei, see in the presence Of the COM
g q warning Of the same dread cat
asispphe.
These two professors, as is we'll
Known, are lifelong and bitter enc
riiies Of the ancient science Of astrol-
sgy. Neither has ever taken the
trouble to examine what claims it has
eil her from It's past history or present
status, upon the faith of mankind:
bHt they take for granted that il is a
hsmbng, because they have read 50;
AID they never miss an opportunity
u denouncing it as such
Now, it would require a very bold
astrologer who wouId venture to pre-
diet the end of the world, either from
tie course OF comet or from any
other phenomenon. Although it has
boen revealed through Scripture that
We shall know Of the approach of the
end Things by the signs IN the heav-
ems, no one Of the mystic craft, 80 far
as he ann is as preserved show. has
ever undertaken to seek for those
gigas The ancient astrologers. and
Hose who lived in the Middle Ages.
we're very Tious men, and this was a
point at which their reverence for the
seciets OF the Almighty restrained
them. They would never, a. any
rate, have inferred the probability OF
50 tremendous a catastrophe from so
simple circumstances as the appari-
tioh OF a comet. They would, how
ever, look for ''signs elsewhere
among the planets. and perhaps for
certain great changes in the action
on ihings terrestrial OF TIE Sun and
Moon.
Astrologers do hold that comets
/ resage evil. and they point to the
stiange coincidence in the history Of
mankind Of nlislortunes with their
aplearaHce. War. pestiIence, famine
o. sonse startling event has almost in
sariably followed or accompanied the
prs sence of one of those mysterious
vlsiiant-. The orthodox astronomers
asimis that such things have indeed
been witnessed together in many in
stanees, but deny that there was any
connection between them, and thew
point out the undoEbted fact that
Aany Important events have taken
place that were not heralded hv
comets. Their chief argument Is
however. that il is impossible To as
tablish any relation that will be ac-
ceptable to reason between comets
and human affairs.
II IL certainly not less dificul. in
the present stage Of astronomical
science, to discover what possible con-
nection there can be between the col
lIsion Of a comet with the sun and the
destruction Of the earth. II is GER
tain that If anything happens to us it
must also take IN some Of our plane
t'rY neighborss but the professors 10
nos say that the whole planetary svs-
tenn is to be destroyed. We, for In
stance, are some ninety-two millions
u miles from the sun, whereas Mer-
curry i thiFty-seven millions and Ve-
nus sixty eight millions from him
both much nearer: and Mars is =
hundred and forty millions awav.
only . little further than ourselves.
y seems very strange that the con-
SEQUENCES Of fhs cnllsaior shnuaa F.ga