I will not attempt to answer in regular order or in any set form the questions which I have just mentioned as being stock questions, but they will be answered in substance as we go along. There is one matter in connection with comets which has deeply impressed itself upon the public mind, and that is the presence or absence of a “tail.” It is not too much to say that the generality of people regard the tail of a comet as the comet; and that though an object may be a true comet from an astronomer’s point of view, yet if it has no tail its claims go for nought with the mass of mankind. We have here probably a remnant of ancient thought, especially of that line of thought which in bygone times associated Comets universally with the idea that they were especially sent to be portents of national disasters of one kind or another. This is brought out by numberless ancient authors, and by none more forcibly than Shakespeare. Hence we have such passages as the following in Julius Cæsar (Act ii., sc. 2):—
“When beggars die there are no comets seen,
The Heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.”
In Henry VI. (Part I., Act i., sc. 1) we find the well-known passage:—
“Comets importing change of times and states
Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky,
And with them scourge the bad revolting stars
That have consented unto Henry’s death.”
There are in point of fact two distinct ideas evolved here: (1) that comets are prophetic of evil, and (2) stars potential for evil.
There is another passage in Henry VI. (Part I., Act iii., sc. 3) even more pronounced:—