of these masses fell within his observation or knowledge. To walk a
few fields away and find out more would seem not much to expect from a
man of science, but it is one of our superstitions, that such a seeming
trifle is just what--by the Spirit of an Era, we'll call it--one is not
permitted to do. If those things were not masses of hay, and if Herschel
had walked a little and found out, and had reported that he had seen
strange objects in the air--that report, in 1846, would have been as
misplaced as the appearance of a tail upon an embryo still in its
gastrula era. I have noticed this inhibition in my own case many times.
Looking back--why didn't I do this or that little thing that would have
cost so little and have meant so much? Didn't belong to that era of my
own development.

_Nature_, 22-64:

That, at Kattenau, Germany, about half an hour before sunrise, March 22,
1880, "an enormous number of luminous bodies rose from the horizon, and
passed in a horizontal direction from east to west." They are described
as having appeared in a zone or belt. "They shone with a remarkably
brilliant light."

So they've thrown lassos over our data to bring them back to earth. But
they're lassos that cannot tighten. We can't pull out of them: we may
step out of them, or lift them off. Some of us used to have an
impression of Science sitting in calm, just judgment: some of us now
feel that a good many of our data have been lynched. If a Crusade,
perhaps from Mars to Jupiter, occur in the autumn--"seeds." If a Crusade
or outpouring of celestial vandals is seen from this earth in the
spring--"ice crystals." If we have record of a race of aerial beings,
perhaps with no substantial habitat, seen by someone in
India--"locusts."

This will be disregarded:

If locusts fly high, they freeze and fall in thousands.

_Nature_, 47-581:

Locusts that were seen in the mountains of India, at a height of 12,750
feet--"in swarms and dying by thousands."

But no matter whether they fly high or fly low, no one ever wonders
what's in the air when locusts are passing overhead, because of the
falling of stragglers. I have especially looked this matter up--no
mystery when locusts are flying overhead--constant falling of
stragglers.

_Monthly Notices_, 30-135:

"An unusual phenomenon noticed by Lieut. Herschel, Oct. 17 and 18, 1870,
while observing the sun, at Bangalore, India."

Lieut. Herschel had noticed dark shadows crossing the sun--but