Page:The story of the comets.djvu/276

218 comets he propounds a variety of questions, many of which are altogether outside practical politics. I select one as a sample of the rest. "Are comets habitable?" I should suppose that no Englishman who had read half-a-dozen pages in any English book on comets would have paused for a moment even to have discussed such a question, and though it must be admitted that Guillemin answers his question in the negative, he nevertheless wastes several pages over it, citing De Fontenelle and Lambert in particular. The form of his question he evidently borrows from Lambert, who seriously thought to advance reasons to permit us to believe that comets, more numerous than the planets in the Solar System, are habitable celestial bodies. I am sorry to have to add that one erratic Englishman was found in 1772 to take up the same line of writing.

During the visibility of Donati's Comet in 1858, I remember that a correspondence took place in the newspapers as to whether comets were mentioned, or in any sort of incidental way referred to, in the Bible. The following passages were adduced in support of an affirmative answer to this question:—

(1) In Leviticus xvii. 7, it is said, "They shall no more offer their sacrifices unto Seirim" or "Shoirim", which is rendered in the Authorized Version "devils", and in other versions "goats". The Jewish writer, Maimonides, states that the Sabian astrologers worshipped these "Seirim", which seems to confirm the idea that they were celestial bodies of some sort.

(2) In Isaiah xiv. 12, we find, "How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the nations!" In this passage a certain Hillel is said to have fallen from Heaven, but it is unknown what Hillel means. Some interpreters derive the word from Hebrew verbs signifying to shine, to glory, to boast, to agitate, to howl, &c. A writer minded to