THE COMET.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 404, 17 September 1856, Page 4

THE COMET.

(From the " Daily News.") The astronomers tell us, Avith a confidence Avhieh astronomers, of all men, have a right to entertain, that Aye are in near neighbourhood (astronomically speaking) of an old comet, which our forefathers of remote and still remoter generations looked at with emotions stronger, no doubt than ours will be Avhen the wanderer comes once more into'human view. We shall feel less Avonder, less aAve, and immeasurably less terror than the men of old : but to make up for this, we see the former paths of this comet strewn Avith interests to which our forefathers Avere blind. We shall have intellectual pleasures of comparison, and social onss of progress, which are wor th all the emotions that barbarous or half-civilised men can bring to their fetish worship of rare natural objects.

Of the movements of this comet before the period of authentic history nothing seems to be known. How long it had fled flaring through space, and how often it had presented itself to human gaze before its appearance is recorded there is no 'saying.at present; though it is conceivable that a future generation may know more than we. The laws of science have an inexhaustible and infallible memory for the past; and the testimony that they bear puts to shame the uncertain and obscure records of history. ' Further explorations of the heavens and the earth may thus lay open to human imagination the picture of this comet and a more ancient earth than we read of—lace to face. While waiting for that disclosure —the remotest notice that we have of this comet is in A. d, 683 : and there may be some doubt whether that story is true. Taking the word of the learned for it, however, we cannot but be touched and impressed by the thought of who the men were that saw what we are about to see. We cannot but think of what, it must have been to Akbar, issuing from Damascus at the head of his mighty hosts, to see the mysterious fiery sign rise over the ridge of Antilibanus, and go down below the horizon of sand. Did Akbar .take it for a sign of encouragement or warning ? Aud what thought the Saracens as they swept like a whirlwind through Mauritania, terrifying the Roman colonies as .they went, and were stopped only by the Atlantic—the great sea which they reviled as opposing their missionar} r progress ?■ Did the comet hang above the sea inviting, or deterring ? And did any spectator discern in it a warning of the destruction of the second Carthage which was soon to follow. And how did the strange star look from northern seas and wildernesses ?—from the wild forests in Ireland, where the missionary preached to wild hearers the latest form of Christian doctrine as it was announced from the East ?—or from the tossing seas of Scotland, whei'e the convent lamp of lona served as a beacon to priests returning from their mission afar ? or to the pious builders of abbeys and churches in England, when they gathered up their tools at evening, and probably interpreted the sight as a sign that their work was -accepted ? Many, no doubt, believed in a connection between the comet and the consolidation of the Heptarchy, then going on. The seven states had become three, and the three were converging to an union. Egfrid, of _Torthumbria, was in trouble with the Picts, and within two years of his slaughter by them. It is probable that the king and his descendants looked on the strange star as a prophet—he with fear, and they as on a case of proved function. : [After alluding to the subsequent visits of the comet in 995, 1264, and 1556, our contemporary proceeds] :— Edmund Spencer was three years old when that last comet came ; and perhaps saw it from his nurse's arms, in some fit of childish wakefulness. We have had Shakespeare since, and a wide world of literature laid open. We have had an enlarging of the bounds of science, and a secure establishment of political liberties. But there would be no end to the inventory of what we have gained in the three centuries.

And hoAv Avill it be Avhen this same comet returns after an interval of perhaps three centuries more ? Events AAmich appear very great at this moment will have given place to much greater before that day. In Paris people think to-day that, the comet avlll mark the birth year of the Imperial Prince, the JSnfant.de France, as he is to be called. In. Russia, people Avill regard the comet as denouncing the Avar or promising peace, according to their mood or the instructions of their priests. In Spain, it Avill be a warning against Protestantism and democracy. In Turkey, it Avill be the Prophet's sign of displeasure or satisfaction at the surrender or the renoA-ation of his empire. In Rome, it Avill be connected somehoAv Avith the Immaculate Conception; and in the United States, with " manifest destiny." To us it ought to be a memorial and a measure of the march of human affairs, and an illustration of the steady law of social progression. It should light our path to future reforms—shine into all dark places of our polity, and mete out for us ne%v tasks of amelioration, and pew enterprises of Avisdom and ene n rgy- -Vhile it was away, men Avere busy on the earth as ants on a hillock. While it is again wandering 'away, men will be busy again— busier than • ever. May it be to such purpose that, Avhen Aye have long closed our eyes on the light, the eyes of a far future generation may hail the^ returning monitor more gladly and proudly than we, and have richer achievements

to compute, satisfied and grateful as-avo: may b in the review of Avhat has been gained from one period to another.