nd others, see De Nat., vol. xxiv; Joh.
Dam., De Fid. Or.,vol. ii, p. 7; Maury, La Magie et l'Astronomie, pp.
181, 182. For Albertus Magnus, see his Opera, vol. i, tr. iii, chaps.
x, xi. Among the texts of Scripture on which this belief rested was
especially Joel ii, 30, 31.

The main evils thence arising were three: the paralysis of self-help,
the arousing of fanaticism, and the strengthening of ecclesiastical
and political tyranny. The first two of these evils--the paralysis of
self-help and the arousing of fanaticism--are evident throughout
all these ages. At the appearance of a comet we constantly see all
Christendom, from pope to peasant, instead of striving to avert war
by wise statesmanship, instead of striving to avert pestilence by
observation and reason, instead of striving to avert famine by skilful
economy, whining before fetiches, trying to bribe them to remove these
signs of God's wrath, and planning to wreak this supposed wrath of God
upon misbelievers.

As to the third of these evils--the strengthening of ecclesiastical
and civil despotism--examples appear on every side. It was natural that
hierarchs and monarchs whose births were announced by stars, or whose
deaths were announced by comets, should regard themselves as far above
the common herd, and should be so regarded by mankind; passive obedience
was thus strengthened, and the most monstrous assumptions of authority
were considered simply as manifestations of the Divine will. Shakespeare
makes Calphurnia say to Caesar:

"When beggars die, there are no comets seen; The heavens themselves
blaze forth the death of princes."

Galeazzo, the tyrant of Milan, expressing satisfaction on his deathbed
that his approaching end was of such importance as to be heralded by a
comet, is but a type of many thus encouraged to prey upon mankind;
and Charles V, one of the most powerful monarchs the world has known,
abdicating under fear of the comet of 1556, taking refuge in the
monastery of San Yuste, and giving up the best of his vast realms to
such a scribbling bigot as Philip II, furnishes an example even more
striking.(94)

(94) For Caesar, see Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, act ii, sc. 2. For
Galeazzo, see Guillemin, World of Comets, p. 19. For Charles V, see
Prof. Wolf's essay in the Monatschrift des wissenschaftlichen Vereins,
Zurich, 1857, p. 228.

But for the retention of this belief there was a moral cause. Myriads
of good men in the Chr