2]

"Crede ratem ventis corpus ne crede chimistis;
Est quaevis chimica tutior aura fide."[263]

Among the smaller paradoxes of the day is that of the _Times_ newspaper,
which always spells it _chymistry_: but so, I believe, do Johnson, Walker,
and others. The Arabic work is very likely formed from the Greek: but it
may be connected either with [Greek: chemeia] or with [Greek: chumeia].

Lettre d'un gentil-homme de province a une dame de qualite, sur le
sujet de la Comete. Paris, 1681, 4to.

An opponent of astrology, whom I strongly suspect to have been one of the
members of the Academy of Sciences under the name of a country
gentleman,[264] writes very good sense on the tremors excited by comets.

The Petitioning-Comet: or a brief Chronology of all the famous Comets
and their events, that have happened from the birth of Christ to this
very day. Together with a modest enquiry into this present comet,
London, 1681, 4to.

A satirical tract against the cometic prophecy:

"This present comet (it's true) is of a menacing aspect, but if the _new
parliament_ (for whose convention so many good men pray) continue long to
sit, I fear not but the star will lose its virulence and malignancy, or at
least its portent be averted from this our nation; which being the humble
request to God of all good men, makes me thus entitle it, a
Petitioning-Comet."

{128}

The following anecdote is new to me:

"Queen Elizabeth (1558) being then at Richmond, and being disswaded from
looking on a comet which did then appear, made answer, _jacta est alea_,
the dice are thrown; thereby intimating that the pre-order'd providence of
God was above the influence of any star or comet."

The argument was worth nothing: for the comet might have been _on the dice_
with the event; the astrologers said no more, at least the more rational
ones, who were about half of the whole.

An astrological and theological discourse upon this present great
conjunction (the like whereof hath not (likely) been in some ages)
ushered in by a great comet. London, 1682, 4to. By C. N.[265]

The author foretells the approaching "sabbatical jubilee," but will not fix
the date: he recounts the failures of his predecessors.

A judgment of the comet which became first generally visible to us in
Dublin, December 13, about 15 minutes before 5 in the evening, A.D.
1680. By a person of quality. Dublin, 1682