The effects of this comet are represented as formidable and melancholy beyond description. "Etna, says the historian, ultra solitum exarsit, Catanam urbem finesque oppressit." The fires of Etna burst forth with unwonted violence, and overwhelmed the city of Catana and its confines. At the same period a plague arose in Italy and the neighbouring countries, which seemed to threaten, for a time, the depopulation of the earth. Nor were its ravages confined to the human race. Domestic animals, the wild beasts of the forest, and the very birds themselves, fell victims to the pestilential constitution of the atmosphere. Even the inhabitants of the deep were not secure in their watery element. Around the coasts of Sicily and the island of Lipari, the fish are represented to have perished in immense numbers on this memorable occasion. At the period of the assassination of Julius Cæsar, an event which occurred forty-four years before the birth of Christ, a comet of great magnitude and singular splendour appeared in the heavens. It is believed to have been the same that paid another visit to the solar system in the year 1680, during the life time. of sir Isaac Newton. The appearance of this comet, at the time of the death of the great Roman dictator, was accompanied by frightful commotions in all the elements. Earthquakes shook the solid ground, volcanoes poured forth their burning lava, tempests swept the ocean, inundations overwhelmed the land, fire-balls glared through the heavens, and pestilence and famine devastated the earth. By the partisans and flatterers of Augustus, appearances so portentous, accompanied by events so peculiarly afflicting, were not suffered to pass unnoticed. They were interpreted as unequivocal manifestations of the anger of the gods, on account of the murder of his great kinsman. So unusually powerful was the influence of this comet as even to diminish the transparency of the atmosphere, rendering the solar light defective and sickly. Pliny asserts that this dimness of the sun continued almost an entire year. Alluding to this defect of splendor in the solar orb, Virgil says, "Ille etiam extincto miseratus Cæsare Romam, "Cum caput obscura nitidum ferrugine texit." and in reference to the same event, Ovid asserts, that -Phœbi quoque tristis imago "Lurida solicitis præbebat lumina terris.” When the same comet, as astronomers now believe, appeared again in the year of Christ 530, it was accompanied by a similar dimness of day. We learn from the writings of Dion Cassius, that in the year 30; before the commencement of the Christian era, the heavens were illuminated by another comet of remarkable brilliancy. As concurrent events, Etna poured forth her fires in a violent eruption; an earthquake shook the country of Judea with a terrible convulsion, burying the inhabitants beneath the ruins of their habitations; a wasting pestilence depopulated Jerusalem; the low grounds of Rome were laid under water by an inundation of the Tiber; tempests and thunderstorms were frequent and terrific; and Italy experienced a winter of unusual severity. Some of these phenomena are commemorated by Horace in one of his most pleasing and popular odes. To the classical scholar no apology will be necessary for quoting the lines. "Jam satis terris nivis atque dira Terruit urbem: Terruit gentes, grave ne rediret Seculum Pyrrhæ nova monstra questæ Omne cum Proteus pecus egit altos Vidimus flavum Tiberim, retortis Littore Etrusco violenter undis,. In the sixteenth, and again in the fortieth year of the christian era, comets appeared in the heavens, accompanied, as usual, by earthquakes, tempests, fiery meteors, famine, and pestilence. In the seventy-ninth year after the birth of Christ, a little before the death of the emperor Vespasian, a comet appeared in the month of June, the length of whose tail measured half the hemisphere. On the first of November following, a tremendous eruption of Vesuvius occurred. It was on this occasion that the celebrated cities of Herculaneum and Pompeium were buried under the lava that issued from the mountain. This was, perhaps, the most fierce and awful eruption of Vesuvius that has ever occurred. For a time, Nature appeared to be in her last convulsions, and sending forth, in thunder, her dying groans. The agitations of the sea were beyond example. For three days and nights impenetrable darkness prevailed throughout all the adjacent regions. No eye could discriminate between midnight and noon. Large quantities of the ashes that issued from the crater were wafted to Africa, Rome, and Palestine. In the year 117, during the reign of the emperor Trajan, a violent earthquake demolished a great part of the city of Antioch. The emperor himself, being present on the occasion, very narrowly escaped being buried in the ruin. This event accompanied the appearance of a comet. At the same time, earthquakes, inundations, famine and pestilence, brought calamity and mourning on various sections of the Roman empire. In the year 335, not long before the death of Constantine the Great, a comet of unusual magnitude became visible. Its passage through the solar system was marked by phenomena in the physical world similar to those which we have already so often recited-earthquakes, inundations, pestilence and famine. In the year 383 a comet was in the heavens while a pestilence was raging in the city Rome. During the same year the Nile rose to such an unusual and alarming height, as to threaten Alexandria and Lybia with an inundation. In the year 407 a comet of a very extraordinary figure and character made its appearance, and continued visible for about four months. This period is peculiarly memorable for earthquakes, inundations, hail-storms, drought, famine, and pestilence. In the year 525 Antioch was again destroyed by an earthquake, during the appearance of a comet in the heavens. In 531 appeared again, as we have reason to believe, the large resplendent comet which was visible at the time of the fall of Julius Cæsar. The concomitant phenomena were similar to those already mentioned. A cotemporary writer declares, that, "Toto eo anno, sol, instar lunæ, sine radiis, lucem tristem præbuit, plerumque defectum patienti similis." We learn from the most authentic records of the times, that in each of the following years the heavens were successively lighted up by comets: 553-558-590-606-678-729-760 799-850-882-896-904-912-945-975. Nor did earthquakes, hurricanes, inundations, eruptions of volcanoes, or some of the physical phenomena already so repeatedly mentioned, fail, in a single instance, to mark the passage of these bodies through the solar system. Had we leisure to pursue our subject in chronological order, and to consider it in the detail which it so amply merits, we have ground for similar remarks in relation to the years 1005-1009 -1015-1020-1031-1042-1062-1074-1091 and 1116. In each of these years did comets make their appearance, accompanied by great irregularities and excesses in the economy of the globe. Were it necessary to our purpose, at least one hundred other appearances of comets might be here enumerated, in confirmation of the principles for which we are contending-all bearing testimony to the same point-all tending, we think, to establish the fact, that, in their passage through the solar system, these wandering orbs produce very signal irregularities in our seasons, and sometimes manifest an influence in the general economy of the globe. Instead, however, of dwelling any longer on remote events, let us descend, at once, to our own times, and take a hasty retrospect of the phenomena of nature that have marked the present and the preceding year. In this instance, we are happy in reflecting, that the recollection of our readers will bear testimony to the correctness of the statement we have to offer. The comet of 1811 was unusually large and luminous. From first principles, therefore, we would calculate on its being uncommonly powerful in its influence on our earth. Nor do we find ourselves disappointed in the actual result, as will fully appear from the following retrospect. A summer marked by an extremity of heat that has no parallel in the annals of our country, succeeded by a winter cor responding most perfectly in its excess of cold-Inundations in various quarters, unprecedented within the memory of our oldest inhabitants.-The Atlantic ocean swept by gales and tempests uncommonly numerous and surpassing in violence-Charleston partially destroyed by one of the most tremendous hurricanes that has ever spread consternation and dismay over a country— An autumn marked by weather extremely irregular and boisterous, as well as by an unusual prevalence of disease.-In the sea of the Azores, where the depth of the waters extended to upwards of two hundred fathoms, a new island, of considerable dimensions, thrown up by the operation of a submarine volcanoA number of villages buried under an eruption of mount Etna, more formidable and destructive than any that has occurred for half a century-The whole island of Great Britain shaken to its center, and the United States themselves convulsed from one extreme to the other, by an earthquake more awfully threatening than any we have experienced since the settlement of the country. Such are a few of the most remarkable phenomena of nature which accompanied the comet of 1811, and appear to be, in part, attributable to its influence. Similar events having uniformly accompanied other comets, of large dimensions, and no adequate cause appearing, except the late comet, to which the occurrences in question can be ascribed, we consider our inference on the subject authorised and supported by the soundest analogy. Should any one ask, "do not the physical convulsions and irregularities herein ascribed to the influence of comets, occur at times when no such bodies appear in the heavens'? we answer, yes; but neither so frequently, on a scale so extensive, nor with such tremendous violence. For the correctness of our reply, we appeal to the authority of observation and history. C. |