ear.

The Middle Ages have left us descriptions of comets, which show only too
well how the imagination will run riot under the stimulus of terror. For
instance, the historian, Nicetas, thus describes the comet of the year
1182: "After the Romans were driven from Constantinople a prognostic was
seen of the excesses and crimes to which Andronicus was to abandon
himself. A comet appeared in the heavens similar to a writhing serpent;
sometimes it extended itself, sometimes it drew itself in; sometimes, to
the great terror of the spectators, it opened a huge mouth; it seemed
that, as if thirsting for human blood, it was upon the point of
satiating itself." And, again, the celebrated Ambrose Pare, the father
of surgery, has left us the following account of the comet of 1528,
which appeared in his own time: "This comet," said he, "was so horrible,
so frightful, and it produced such great terror in the vulgar, that some
died of fear, and others fell sick. It appeared to be of excessive
length, and was of the colour of blood. At the summit of it was seen the
figure of a bent arm, holding in its hand a great sword, as if about to
strike. At the end of the point there were three stars. On both sides of
the rays of this comet were seen a great number of axes, knives,
blood-coloured swords, among which were a great number of hideous human
faces, with beards and bristling hair." Pare, it is true, was no
astronomer; yet this shows the effect of the phenomenon, even upon a man
of great learning, as undoubtedly he was. It should here be mentioned
that nothing very remarkable happened at or near the year 1528.

Concerning the comet of 1680, the extraordinary story got about that, at
Rome, a hen had laid an egg on which appeared a representation of the
comet!

But the superstitions with regard to comets were now nearing their end.
The last blow was given by Halley, who definitely proved that they
obeyed the laws of gravitation, and circulated around the sun as planets
do; and further announced that the comet of 1682 had a period of
seventy-six years, which would cause it to reappear in the year 1759. We
have seen how this prediction was duly verified. We have seen, too, how
this comet appeared again in 1835, and how it is due to return in the
early part of 1910.

[26] With regard to the words "Isti mirant stella" in the figure, Mr.
W.T. Lynn suggests that they may not, after all, be the grammatically
bad Latin which they appear, bu