Comets

"During the holy days of the solemnization of Easter, a phenomenon ever fatal, and of gloomy foreboding, appeared in the heavens. As soon as the Emperor, who paid attention to these phenomena, received the first announcement of it, he gave himself no rest until he had called a certain learned man and myself before him. As soon as I arrived, he anxiously asked me what I thought of such a sign; I asked time of him, in order to consider the aspects of the stars, and to discover the truth by their means, promising to acquaint him on the morrow; but the Emperor, persuaded that I wished to gain time, which was true, in order not to be obliged to announce anything fatal to him, said to me: 'Go on the terrace of the palace and return at once to tell me what you have seen, for I did not see this star last evening, and you did not point it out to me; but I know that it is a comet; tell me what you think it announces to me.' Then scarcely [pg 256] allowing me time to say a word, he added: 'There is still another thing you keep back; it is that a change of reign and the death of a prince are announced by this sign.' And as I advanced the testimony of the prophet, who said: 'Fear not the signs of the heavens as the nations fear them,' the prince with his grand nature, and the wisdom which never forsook him, said, 'We must not only fear Him who has created both us and this star. But as this phenomenon may refer to us, let us acknowledge it as a warning from Heaven."

Louis le Débonnaire gave himself and his court to fasting and prayer, and built churches and monasteries. He died three years later, in 840, and historians have profited by this slight coincidence to prove that the appearance of the comet was a harbinger of death. The historian, Raoul Glader, added later: "These phenomena of the universe are never presented to man without surely announcing some wonderful and terrible event."

Halley's comet again appeared in April, 1066, at the moment when William the Conqueror invaded England. It was pretended that it had the greatest influence on the fate of the battle of Hastings, which delivered over the country to the Normans.

A contemporary poet, alluding probably to the English diadem with which William was crowned, had proclaimed in one place, "that the comet had been more favorable to William than nature had been to Caesar; the latter had no hair, but William had received some from the comet." A monk of Malmesbury apostrophized the comet in these terms: "Here thou art again, thou cause of the tears of many [pg 257] mothers! It is long since I have seen thee, but I see thee now, more terrible than ever; thou threatenest my country with complete ruin!"

In 1455, the same comet made a more memorable appearance still. The Turks and Christians were at war, the West and the East seemed armed from head to foot—on the point of annihilating each other. The crusade undertaken by Pope Calixtus III. against the invading Saracens, was waged with redoubled ardor on the sudden appearance of the star with the flaming tail. Mahomet II. took Constantinople by storm, and raised the siege of Belgrade. But the Pope having put aside both the curse of the comet, and the abominable designs of the Mussulmans, the Christians gained the battle, and vanquished their enemies in a bloody fight. The Angelus to the sound of bells dates from these ordinances of Calixtus III. referring to the comet.

In his poem on astronomy, Daru, of the French Academy, describes this episode in eloquent terms:

"Un autre Mahomet a-t-il d'un bras puissant
Aux murs de Constantine arboré le croissant:
Le Danube étonné se trouble au bruit des armes,
La Grèce est dans les fers, l'Europe est en alarmes;
Et pour comble d'horreur, l'astre au visage ardent
De ses ailes de feu va couvrir l'Occident.
Au pied de ses autels, qu'il ne saurait défendre,
Calixte, l'oeil en pleurs, le front convert de cendre,
Conjure la comète, objet de tant d'effroi:
Regarde vers les cieux, pontife, et lève-toi!
L'astre poursuit sa course, et le fer d'Huniade
Arrête le vainqueur, qui tombe sous Belgrade.
Dans les cieux cependant le globe suspendu,
Par la loi générale à jamais retenu,
Ignore les terreurs, l'existence de Rome,
Et la Terre peut-être, et jusqu'au nom de l'homme,
De l'homme, être crédule, atome ambitieux,
Qui tremble sous un prêtre et qui lit dans les cieux."

This ancient comet witnessed many revolutions in human history, at each of its appearances, even in its later ones, in 1682, 1759, 1835; it was also presented to the Earth under the most diverse aspects, passing through a great variety of forms, from the appearance of a curved sabre, as in 1456, to that of a misty head, as in its last visit. Moreover, this is not an exception to the general rule, for these mysterious stars have had the gift of exercising a power on the imagination which plunged it in ecstasy or trouble. Swords of fire, bloody crosses, flaming daggers, spears, dragons, fish, and other appearances of the same kind, were given to them in the middle ages and the Renaissance.

Comets like those of 1577 appear, moreover, to justify by their strange form the titles with which they are generally greeted. The most serious writers were not free from this terror. Thus, in a chapter on celestial monsters, the celebrated surgeon, Ambroise Paré, described the comet of 1528 under the most vivid and frightful colors: "This comet was so horrible and dreadful that it engendered such great terror to the people, that they died, some with fear, others with illness. It appeared to be of immense length, and of blood color; at its head was seen the figure of a curved arm, holding a large sword in the hand as if it wished to strike. At the point of the sword there were three stars, and on either side was seen a great number of hatchets, knives, and swords covered with blood, [pg 259] amongst which were numerous hideous human faces, with bristling beards and hair."

The imagination has good eyes when it exerts itself. The great and strange variety of cometary aspects is described with exactitude by Father Souciet in his Latin poem on comets. "Most of them," says he, "shine with fires interlaced like thick hair, and from this they have taken the name of comets. One draws after it the twisted folds of a long tail; another appears to have a white and bushy beard; this one throws a glimmer similar to that of a lamp burning during the night; that one, O Titan! represents thy resplendent face; and this other, O Phoebe! the form of thy nascent horns. There are some which bristle with twisted serpents. Shall I speak of those armies which have sometimes appeared in the air? of those clouds which follow as it were along a circle, or which resemble the head of Medusa? Have there not often been seen figures of men or savage animals?

"Often, in the gloom of night, lighted up by these sad fires, the horrible sound of arms is heard, the clashing of swords which meet in the clouds, the ether furiously resounding with fearful din which crush the people with terror. All comets have a melancholy light, but they have not all the same color. Some have a leaden color; others that of flame or brass. The fires of some have the redness of blood; others resemble the brightness of silver. Some again are azure; others have the dark and pale color of iron. These differences come from the diversity of the vapors which surround them, or from the different manner in which they receive the Sun's rays. Do you not see in our fires, that various [pg 260] kinds of wood produce different colors? Pines and firs give a flame mixed with thick smoke, and throw out little light. That which rises from sulphur and thick bitumen is bluish. Lighted straw gives out sparks of a reddish color. The large olive, laurel, ash of Parnassus, etc., trees which always retain their sap, throw a whitish light similar to that of a lamp. Thus, comets whose fires are formed of different materials, each take and preserve a color which is peculiar to them."

Instead of being a cause of fear and terror, the variety and variability of the aspect of comets ought rather to indicate to us the harmlessness of their nature.

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