Last time, in 1835, Halley’s Comet returned within a few nights of their prediction.
This time, so the astronomers figured seventy-five years ago, the Comet should be plainly seen after dark late this May.
What they predicted has come true.
THE TERROR OF THE COMET
“Canst thou fearless gaze
Even night by night on that prodigious Blaze,
That hairy Comet, that long streaming Star,
Which threatens Earth with Famine, Plague and War?”
—Sylvester.
So long as the memory of man goes back, the appearance of a Comet has always been taken as a just cause for dread.