“Comets”

Date

9-25-1812

Newspaper

Raleigh Register

Page and Column

Page 4, Column 2

Newspaper Location

Raleigh, North Carolina

Serial Number

668

Abstract

Long article on comets and why they were harbingers of disaster. Earthquakes mentioned also.

Transcript

FOR THE REGISTER. COMETS. I have heard a number of remarks respecting the late comet, none of which are consonant with my own ideas on the subject. I do not pretend to rank myself among the literati; much less among philosophers and astronomers; yet I have not entirely neglected ancient and modern history, the source from which I have obtained some acquaintance with comets, and from which I shall draw my conclusions of the comet which has lately disappeared. How well founded the arguments of those are, who contend that they serve to connect the whole in one vast machinery, by excursions from system to system; or that they are to light up the consuming fire to which all nature must yield, it is not for me to determine. They were considered by the ancients as predictions of some great calamity on earth. But our modern writers on the subject, hoot at the idea as contracted and superstitious; and contend that they have no reference or effect, on the moral, political, or physical world. But it appears to me that there are some strong circumstantial evidences, of their being harbingers of some great calamity on earth. Let us take a retrospective view of these burning bodies anterior and subsequent to the christian era, and we will find that as often as comets appeared signal calamities visited the earth. An ancient historian* remarks, that a comet which made its appearance more than a century before the birth of Christ, was attended by a pestilence, the fatal consequence of which was, that Utica, Numidia and Carthage, were deprived of myriads of their citizens. About twenty years after, there was another appeared remarkable for its brilliancy; earthquakes, explosions and pestilence were its concomitants. And at the time of the assassination of the great Roman dictator, there was another made its way into the solar system, at which time the earth appeared ready to crumble into atoms, and the brilliancy of the Sun was considerably obscured.+ A short time before the christian era, we are informed that a very distinguished comet appeared; most distressing were the concurring events; the whole country of Judea, was awfully convulsed, Jerusalem depopulated by a malignant distemper, the fires of AEtna poured forth with a tremendous explosion, thunder and lightning, hail and snow, rushed violently from the firmament, and the banks of the Tiber were no longer able to contain its waters, and a great part of Rome inundated.+ About eighty years after the birth of Christ the heavens were illuminated with another; convulsions of the earth, pestilence and famine were its attendants. And in the years 335 407 & 525 comets appeared, all of which were attended with like phenomena of those already mentioned. A number of subsequent instances could be enumerated to prove that they are unquestionably the harbingers of some great calamity on earth, but I think it unnecessary, as they all bear testimony to the same point. We are now in some degree prepared to contemplate the comet which has lately disappeared. The annals of history does not inform us of a greater variety of seasons occurring within a shorter period, than we have experienced with the last twelve months. A summer and autumn marked for unusual warmth and destructive hurricanes, succeeded by a winter and spring unusually cold, and almost perpetual rain; accompanied by terrible convulsions of the earth; Europe shook to its centre, the United States awfully convulsed, and a tremendous eruption of the earth in the city of Carraccas has buried ten thousand of its inhabitants in its ruins; and many places in Europe have been sorely oppressed by famine. It is evident from the instances here recited, that comets are the harbingers of some dreadful calamity on earth. A. S. B. Orange County, Sept. 8, 1812. *Seneca. +Ovid. +Horace.

Link to Full Text

Share

 
COinS