Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 January 1886 — Literary Prophets. [ARTICLE]

Literary Prophets.

After Hall’s discovery of the two moons of Mars in 1877, it was pointed out that Swift, in “Gulliver’s Travels,” had prophetically made the Liliputian astronomers discover the two satellites. A still more curious circumstance is now mentioned by Dr. Sophus Troniholt, who relates that in 1851 d story was published by a Hungarian author, Maurus Jokai, in which reference was made to the star which has recently appeared in the Andromeda nebula. The star, according to the story, was revealed to a royal family by the evil spirit, who predicted death in battle to those who . could not see it. Jokai’s star was probably a thing of imagination only, although there are some reasons for believing that the tale was founded on a Jewish tradition, which would make it probable that the ’’new star” at which the world is wondering was seen by the Jews, and hag reappeared to view after many centuries of invisibility. In . other words, the existence of such a tradition would confirm the conclusion that the Andromeda star is a variable of long period. Experience can, discount advice, but the latter is used for economy’s sake.