of Heaven is illuminated with their fantastic
light!

But first of all--what is a Comet?

If instead of living in these days of the telescope, of spectrum
analysis, and of astral photography, we were anterior to Galileo, and to
the liberation of the human spirit by Astronomy, we should reply that
the comet is an object of terror, a dangerous menace that appears to
mortals in the purity of the immaculate Heavens, to announce the most
fatal misfortunes to the inhabitants of our planet. Is a comet visible
in the Heavens? The reigning prince may make his testament and prepare
to die. Another apparition in the firmament bodes war, famine, the
advent of grievous pestilence. The astrologers had an open field, and
their fertile imagination might hazard every possible conjecture, seeing
that misfortunes, great or small, are not altogether rare in this
sublunar world.

How many intellects, and those not the most vulgar, from antiquity to
the middle of the last century cursed the apparition of these hirsute
stars, which brought desolation to the heart of man, and poured their
fatal effluvia upon the head of poor Humanity. The history of the
superstitions and fears that they inspired of old would furnish matter
for the most thrilling of romances. But, on the other hand, the volume
would be little flattering to the common-sense of our ancestors. Despite
the respect we owe our forefathers, let us recall for a moment the
prejudices attaching to the most famous comets whose passage, as
observed from the Earth, has been preserved to us in history.

[Illustration: FIG. 49.--Great Comet of 1858.]

* * * * *

Without going back to the Deluge, we note that the Romans established a
relation between the Great Comet of 43 B.C. and the death of Caesar, who
had been assassinated a few months previously. It was, they asserted,
the soul of their great Captain, transported to Heaven to reign in the
empyrean after ruling here below. Were not the Emperors Lords of both
Earth and Heaven?

We must in justice recognize that certain more independent spirits
emancipated themselves from these superstitions, and we may cite the
reply of Vespasian to his friends, who were alarmed at the evil presage
of a flaming comet: "Fear nothing," he said, "this bearded star concerns
me not; rather should it threaten my neighbor the King of the Parthians,
since he is hairy and I am bald."

In the year 837 one of these mysterious v