Metacomet

“ So did Mithridates. So did one Toma, in Hungary, only this year.
King Louis “the Debonair” of France, died from fear of a Comet (Halley’s Comet) in 837 A. D.
Emperor Charles V., of Germany and Spain, the monarch who boasted that “the sun never set on his dominions,” was so moved by the appearance of a Comet in 1556, that he gave up his crown and became a monk.
Certain metaphysicians have held that there is a substance in a Comet, or in its tail, which has a weird effect on man’s brain, as moonshine is believed to have on some men, making them lunatics. ”

“ But all Comet's dreams were centred in fields of broomstraw where birds lay hid and in the thrillings his nose told him there.
At six months he set his first covey of quail, and though he was trembling with the excited joy of one who knows he has found his life's work, still he remained staunch several minutes. And though when the birds flushed he chased them, he came quickly and obediently back at Jim's command.
Everything—size, contour, nose, muscle, intelligence, spirit—pointed to a great dog. Yes—Comet was one of the favoured of the gods. ”

“ It was now actively present in the world of human thought, every one was talking about it, every one was looking for its waxing splendor as the sun went down—the papers, the music-halls, the hoardings, echoed it.
Yes; the comet was already dominant before I went over to make everything clear to Nettie. And Parload had spent two hoarded pounds in buying himself a spectroscope, so that he could see for himself, night after night, that mysterious, that stimulating line—the unknown line in the green. ”

“ In the midst of all stood the Comet Master, with his hands behind him, holding a very long stick with a very sharp point. The comets knew just how the point of that stick felt, for they were prodded with it [130] whenever they misbehaved themselves; accordingly, they all remained very quiet, while he gave his orders for the day.
In a distant corner of the court-yard lay an old comet, with his tail comfortably curled up around him. He was too old to go out, so he enjoyed himself at home in a quiet way. Beside him stood a very young comet, with a very short tail. ”

“ The indicator was just at the dot that Sora had marked upon my arrival.
"'That is about all.
"'We rushed out to the ether ship, stored up what data we could gather and discarded all inside of the ship that we could dispense with. Then we set sail from the comet.
"'We had an uneventful trip. We have just landed. We saw this light and we came to it. This is our Earth. I have told you our story.'"
"He stopped," said Professor Mason, "and waited for me to speak. I watched them—the man and the maiden. They were beautiful beyond anything I had ever seen. ”

“ When Gor Han's deep whisper had ceased we were silent a moment, and surely never did stranger trio crouch in stranger place than we three, earth-man and amphibian Aldebaranian and great fur-clad Betelgeusan, there in the crimson dusk of the comet-city, all about us the pits that held its countless liquid-creatures and above us the glowing red coma which encompassed this world and was driving on toward our galaxy's doom. ”

“ ZIN OF ZAR
Astronomer and Star Rover
CHAPTER NINE
"'THE Great Zin had told me enough of his story to furnish me with thought for a lifetime. Henceforth the comet had new meaning. My theory had been confirmed.
"'I watched the path that led up the mountain; at its end lay the secret of all things. I longed to go up and throw the lever that would destroy the comet's cohesion. It would then be an ion gone mad!
"'What would happen? What would be the end!
"'And there was another who also thought.
"' "Are all men astronomers?" she asked. "Do all men just dream of the stars ”

“ It is scarcely likely that any very great number of amateur observers will ever be attracted by the branch of comet-hunting. The work is somewhat monotonous and laborious, and seems to require special aptitudes, and, above all, an enormous endowment of patience. Probably the true comet-hunter, like the poet, is born, not made; and it is not likely that there are, nor desirable that there should be, many individuals of the type of Messier, the 'comet-ferret.' 'Messier,' writes a contemporary, 'is at all events a very good man, and simple as a child. ”

“ As Ii came down the hill from Clayton Crest--for my shilling and a penny only permitted my travelling by train as far as Two-Mile Stone, and thence I had to walk over the hill--I remember very vividly a little man with a shrill voice who was preaching under a gas-lamp against a hoarding to a thin crowd of Sunday evening loafers. He was a short man, bald, with a little fair curly beard and hair, and watery blue eyes, and he was preaching that the end of the world drew near.
I think that is the first time I heard anyone link the comet with the end of the world. ”

“ About this time great consternation was caused by an announcement made by a philosopher named Baria, who said that he had discovered a new comet which he predicted would either destroy or entirely alter the earth. Most of the learned men, after examining the comet, gave credence to his statement, and all the astronomers confirmed the comet's existence. It came gradually nearer and nearer to our earth, but the city people and non-believers in the great sect's doctrines, only laughed. ”

“ The Comet Master spoke sharply and decidedly, as usual, but not unkindly.
“No. 73, Short-Tail,” he said, “has disobeyed orders, and has in consequence been devoured by the Sun.”
Here there was a great sensation among the comets.
“No. 1,” continued the Master, “you will start immediately, and travel until you find a runaway meteor, with a red face and blue hair. You are permitted to make inquiries of respectable bodies, such as planets or satellites. When found, [140] you will arrest him and take him to the planet Bungo. ”

“ Cometas, him who filched a pipe but two days back from me?
COMETAS.
Sibyrtas' bondsman own a pipe? whence gotst thou that, and how?
Tootling through straws with Corydon mayhap's beneath thee now?
LACON.
'Twas Lycon's gift, your highness. But pray, Cometas, say,
What is that skin wherewith thou saidst that Lacon walked away?
Why, thy lord's self had ne'er a skin whereon his limbs to lay.
COMETAS.
The skin that Crocylus gave me, a dark one streaked with white,
The day he slew his she-goat. Why, thou wert ill with spite,
Then, my false friend; and thou would'st end by beggaring me quite. ”

“ Sir William Huggins referred to the constitution of comets and their connection with meteors. Nothing is better established than the fact that the periodic meteor shower is a swarm of minute bodies revolving around the sun in an elliptic orbit, and that in the case of some of the greater showers, at all events, the highway pursued by the meteoric shoal is also the highway in which a great comet moves. That there is a connection between comets and meteors of this periodic class seems therefore unquestionable, though it does not seem easy to say what the precise nature of the relation may be. ”

“ On the whole, I am pleased with your new magazine. That's an honest opinion—and I'll prove it by saying that it is not the best issue of any magazine that I have ever read; I know that it is the tendency in writing one's first letter on any magazine to be super-lavish in one's praises, but I hope you can offset the relative moderacy of my good opinion by its sincerity. The first issue of Comet is very definitely above par as far as first issues go; it is even above par as far as today's science-fiction in general goes. ”

“ In 186939 Tait discussed, from a purely dynamical point of view, the question as to whether the swarm of meteorites attending a comet may not really be part of the comet itself; he showed that many cometary characters can be mechanically explained on the assumption that comets are really swarms of small meteorites, and pointed out that the self-luminosity may be produced by the heating of the individuals through collision with each other. ”

“ According to this metaphysical theory, the close approach of a Comet to the earth affects and disturbs men’s brains, so that men are inwardly stirred with warlike impulses. Hence the great wars almost invariably following the appearance of Comets.
Hence, too, the appeal to Comets made by so many conquerors, from William the Conqueror down to Napoleon. In the homely phrase of one writer, “the inner eye of man, under the weird effect of a Comet, sees red and makes him thirst for blood.” ”

“ A vast number of things that had happened before the coming of the comet had undergone the same transfiguring reduction. Other people, too, I have learned since, had the same illusion, a sense of enlargement. It seems to me even now that the little dark creature who had stormed across England in pursuit of Nettie and her lover must have been about an inch high, that all that previous life of ours had been an ill-lit marionette show, acted in the twilight. . . .
5
The figure of my mother comes always into my conception of the Change. ”

“ The air that we breathe is a dense blanket in comparison. Several hundred cubic miles of the matter composing that [Pg 105] wonderful luminous plume would not outweigh a jarful of air. By reason of its fairy lightness, it is possible for a tail occupying a volume thousands of times greater than the sun to sweep through our solar system without causing any perturbations in planetary movements.
No celestial phenomenon has caused more perplexity than the ghostly sheaf of light we call a Comet’s tail. In a day, in a few hours even, the form of that wonderful gossamer may change. ”

“ Mithridates’ Star.
Mithridates, King of Pontus, and conqueror of Asia Minor, another arch foe of the Romans, having been born under a Comet, seems to have fallen under the bane of Comets.
During the Winter of 134-135 B. C., preceding Mithridates’ birth, a Comet of unusual lustre flared over Asia Minor through 72 days. This Comet was so bright that its long, flaming tail was plainly visible even in day time. ”

“ I was bound up in the mystery of the comet, and in the man and the maiden.
" 'From the girl I had been unable to learn anything definite concerning the planet Zar and the train of circumstance that had brought her father with a mere babe to the nucleus of the comet. I could only gather that he was an astronomer, even as myself. Our adventures, up to the discovery of the nucleus must have been very near parallel. Of the planet Zar I could learn very little that was definite, other than the fact that it was a member of a solar system different from our own. ”

“ His works place him among the first mathematical astronomers of the age, and yet they do not seem to do his ability entire justice. Indeed, for fifteen years previous to the time of my visit his published writings had been rather meagre. But I believe he was justly credited with an elaborate witticism to the following effect: "In view of the fact that the only human being ever known to have been killed by a meteorite was a monk, we may concede that after four hundred years the Pope's bull against the comet has been justified by the discovery that comets are made up of meteorites." ”

“ First, jets of bright light start out from the nucleus, and move through the fainter haze of the coma toward the sun; and then these jets are turned backward round the edge of the coma, and stream from it, behind the comet, until they are fashioned into a tail." [1]
"The Midgard-serpent vomits forth venom, defiling all the air and the sea; he is very terrible, and places himself side by side with the wolf."
The two comets move together, like Biela's two fragments; and they give out poison--the carbureted-hydrogen gas revealed by the spectroscope. ”

“ By simply pressing a lever you will loosen an atomic current that will blow out the channel. The lake will drop down and rush into the rim. That will be all. The comet will no longer be cohesive. It will be a mad ion, a bit of heat, energy. It will pass to the surface of the substance, to the outside of the Universe.
"' "But the heat?" I asked, "such a speed is unknown. The nucleus would burn."
"' "Not at all. You cannot destroy an ion. You merely loosen it. The nucleus will be protected by its own coma. You will not notice its speed." ”

“ An intimate connection between, if not complete identity of, meteorites, shooting stars and comets, had indeed long been suspected. Astronomers were convinced that comets, though occasionally of enormous size, are always of extremely small mass, since they pass by the earth and other planets without sensibly disturbing their motions; the comet of 1770 passed through the system of Jupiter's satellites without any perceptible action upon them: it has been calculated that the mass of a small comet may be about eight pounds. ”

“ COMET (Gr. κομήτης, long-haired) , in astronomy, one of a class of seemingly nebulous bodies, moving under the influence of the sun’s attraction in very eccentric orbits. A comet is visible only in a small arc of its orbit near perihelion, differing but slightly 760 from the arc of a parabola. An obvious but not sharp classification of comets is into bright comets visible to the naked eye, and telescopic comets which can be seen only with a telescope. ”

“ On this matter Huggins has expressed himself with characteristic caution, though he acknowledged that there is some spectroscopic evidence which might be cited in support of the contention that the nucleus of the comet is not wholly different from the matter which falls down here as meteorites. With reference to the more characteristic features of comets, such as the rapid transformations which they undergo, and the marvellous tails which they shoot forth, the idea seems gradually developing that the phenomena are in the main of an electric character. ”