218 ON THE INFLUENCE OF COMETS. "Canst thou the skies' benevolence restrain, Bid Mazzaroth his destined station know, And teach the bright Arcturus where to glow ? pour Myriads, and myriads I reserve in store."-YOUNG. A CONSIDERABLE proportion of the public may, perhaps, think that this is a subject which might safely be left in the hands of Mr. Francis Moore;-a sentiment in which that personage, for a very different reason, may, probably, acquiesce. It may, however, happen that a popular opinion, exploded and derided by the scientific, and cherished by those who make an unworthy gain of the superstitious terrors of mankind, may be established upon a more solid foundation than either party are aware of. What!-the reader will exclaim, are we then to have a defence of the contemptible follies of judicial astrology?—by no means; but it does not follow that because Comets and other celestial bodies have no astrological influence, they have, therefore, no influence at all. The character of science in the present day, is somewhat dogmatical and assuming; we are rather in danger of dictating to Omnipotence the laws and rules by which alone the world must be governed; and we are excessively unwilling to believe that there can be anything, either in heaven or earth, that is not only not dreamt of, but not ascertained and fathomed to the uttermost, in our philosophy. This tendency to deny what we cannot demonstrate,—to disbelieve what we cannot comprehend, is less characteristic of the spirit of true knowledge than of a self-complacency which is the natural inmate of the heart of man, springing from ignorance alike of himself and of his Maker. The bold assertion that Comets have not, and cannot possibly have, any influence whatever upon the earth, appears to be, in some measure, the fruit of this "philosophic pride ;" and though more justifiable, yet little more unquestionable, than the confident predictions of those who pretend to penetrate into futurity, from the aspect of the heavens. In answer to this assertion, my object is not to shew what kind of influence Comets may possess, nor even that they do absolutely possess an influence, but simply to point out that, as we have no proof to the contrary, so we have some inducement to suspect its existence. It has been always a commonly received opinion, whose origin may be plainly traced in the melancholy anticipations of this state of mortality, that a Comet is the unfailing precursor of calamity and trouble. Those who could not perceive the mode of the connection did not fail to acknowledge its certainty; but some there were whose powers of imagination carried them much farther, and enabled them to comprehend, with the most satisfactory distinctness, the whole progress of the mischief. So curious a specimen of the scientific discoveries of the followers of Aristotle, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, has been given, by Pingré, from Fortunius Licetus, that I shall here transcribe the substance of them. The light and heat of a Comet being incapable of producing the effects attributed to it, its influence must be derived from the matter of which it is composed. 1. This matter consists of terrestrial exhalations, not such as are continually evaporated from the surface, but derived from the interior; such as issue from volcanos, hot, dry, sulphureous, and bituminous. When very abundant, their efforts to escape are the cause of earthquakes, tempests, and hurricanes. 2. Having escaped, they heat and dry the air in their passage, thus producing the most powerful effects upon men in general, especially those of a warm and melancholic temperament; hence proceed anger, hatred, sedition, conspiracy, war, sickness, and epidemic diseases. 3. These materials having risen to form a Comet in the upper regions of the air, cease to affect us otherwise than by continually drawing up fresh supplies from the earth. 4. Of these additional exhalations, the heavier particles, less lofty in their ascent, corrupt the air we breathe; the lighter seize upon, volatilize, and dissipate the humidity of the atmosphere, thus producing winds and drought: the latter is the cause of famine and of atrabiliary complaints, to which princes, according to Aristotle, being remarkably subject, must, of course, be most affected by the influence of a comet. The humid particles are, however, sometimes so abundant, as to mollify the exhalations, and deprive the comet of its malignity, which is the reason why they are not constantly accompanied by some disaster. 5. The comet is on fire; and being composed, according to Aristotle, of earth and air, the earth is consumed, and the air is changed into a very volatile fire, which ascends and hurts nobody. 6. The earthy part is reduced to ashes, which fall to the ground in the form of motes, reducing the air to still greater dryness: they may employ some time in their descent, whence the famines, diseases, and wars, may not follow immediately upon the Comet's appearance; but the longer their effects are deferred, the more terrible they will be. Licetus attributes the wars and deaths of princes, under such circumstances, to their melancholy temperament ;* others think that their delicate constitution exposes them more to the Comet's influence; and others, that the volatile articles which they are in the habit of consuming convey to them, in particular, a greater degree of the poison which they imbibe from the infected air.† The reader need not be alarmed at the prospect of my undertaking the defence of this most ingenious, and connected, and satisfactory theory, which is perfectly capable of resting upon its own merits; although it has the advantage over some of the notions of the astrologers, in assigning a physical cause for the results which are stated to attend upon a Comet. I shall not even assume, as a fact, that Comets are accompanied by any perceptible effects whatever; but I cannot help looking upon it as probable that all the bodies in the system may be connected by a common bond of mutual influence, and that upon this combination of the whole may depend the welfare of every individual portion; and that the wisdom of the Creator has not only made nothing in vain as far as itself is concerned, but even as regards the system of which it forms a component part. That this is the case, in instances of greater proximity, is evident to observation: "Eraste dit qu'il seroit à souhaiter que la melancholie et la bile des princes fût la vraie cause des guerres: quelques gros de rhubarbe épargneroient bien de sang." + Pingré, Cométographie, i., 75, et seqq. the close connection and mutual dependance of all classes of animate and inanimate beings upon the surface of the earth, is too familiar to require illustration: and may we not admit a similar interchange of necessary and kindly influences among the various bodies which are grouped in the same system, or even dispersed throughout space? But they are not in contact-the objector may assert. Neither is the magnet in contact with the needle which it attracts, nor the moon with the ocean which it rules, nor the sun with the earth which it vivifies and cheers. Even were we ignorant of any influences which could be transmitted through the immense distances around us, what is distance in the hand of the Creator, who "stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in?"* But while we perceive that light, and heat, and gravitation, are continually penetrating through spaces of wonderful extent, and the effect of the former, in particular, is sensensible at distances that are almost beyond all assignable limits, how can we venture to assert, in positive terms, that no other influence, at present unknown to us, is capable of traversing the same extension, and operating as independently of contact or proximity?. The transmission of light and heat from the sun, was obvious to the earliest inhabitants of the earth; but century after century passed away, and the universal principle, which governs alike the fall of a stone, and the revolution of the planetary globes, continued shrouded in impenetrable obscurity. And is it improbable that many more such discoveries may remain to be made? and that many more principles will for ever remain beyond the reach of discovery? Does it not approach to presumption to suppose that we have entered into the adytum of nature, the very holy of holies, if I may so speak, of the great temple of the world? "Tantane vos generis tenuit fiducia vestri ?”+ Such is but too frequently the disadvantage attendant upon scientific research; it leads us to forget our profound ignorance: and in our eagerness to possess ourselves of the secrets of the Almighty, we may sometimes expose ourselves to the rebuke which he gave to his erring servant," Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?"* Can we comprehend the principle of vitality?-can we explain the development of the tree from the seed? -the bird from the egg?-can we trace the subtle and inscrutable processes that take place, as in the most exquisite laboratory, in every leaf and flower, and by such insignificant means supply all the animal kingdom with vital air and sustenance?—or have we even the slightest conception of that profound mystery, the connection of mind and matter, and their mutual influence, the secrets of life and death, of dissolution and reproduction? The proudest intellect will be humbled in the dust in the attempt to grasp even one of the least of the processes which are every moment going on around us, and by which we live and move: and so long as these remain unexplained, the language of dogmatical assertion is equally unsuitable and unavailing; and it is more fitting to confess that what we know is nothing, in comparison of what we know not. But since, from those operations which we are able, in some measure, to comprehend, we have deduced with certainty the existence of their proximate causes; since, from the revolution of the planets, we have inferred the force of gravity,-from the polarity of the needle, that of magnetism,-from the decomposition and re-combination of bodies, that of chemical affinity, may we not also admit the possibility that such unknown processes as have been alluded to may be the result of equally unknown, but most energetic, influences, and that these influences may depend upon the arrangement and adaptation of all the parts of the system to which we belong, or of the universe itself? and is it not within the bounds of credibility that every individual body may be contributing, in its appointed station, to the maintenance and welfare of the whole? We have no reason to suspect the immediate presence of the Deity among the inanimate works of his hands, since the time when the laws of nature were suspended, to bear testimony to the truth of revelation. He warms the globe but it is through his instrument the sun; he visiteth the earth and blesseth it—but not without the intervention of the chemical processes of evaporation and precipitation: and even so we may, per * Job, xxxviii., 2. |