Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 July 1874 — The Hairy Visitor. [ARTICLE]

The Hairy Visitor.

Tiie comet now hanging in the vicinity of the earth and coming'constantly nearer will he the sensation of the season. It is a large one, and will be so distinctly visible that no one can help seeing it without trying. The appearance of an object so rarely seen and so strange naturally excites curiosity and sets speculation in a quiver of excitement. It will be remembered that for ages the appearance of a comet was thought to betoken wars, or plagues, or earthquakes, or some other dre calamity. It was the forerunner of disaster. It was the advance courier sent forward to herald approaching evils and warn men to prepare-for the worst. Exactly why the influence of comets was always considered baleful it is not easy to understand, except that, unable to account for any unusual appearance in the heavens save by the interference of supernatural powers, men took counsel of their fears rather than their hopes, and attributed a malignant design in whatever was out of. the natural order of things. The fact that war or pestilence or a volcanic eruption or aoyotlier calamity occurred within a year of a comet’s appearance was considered a sufficient proof of its baleful influence, and a mere coincidence was mistaken for a necessary consequence. The telescope and the facts it has revealed and the calculations it has led to have completely revolutionized the old theory of the heavenly bodies, and given even comets a place in the vast and grand order of which our solar system is an insignificant part. But there are still a great manj'people who associate calamity with the appearance of a comet, and when the hairy visitor comes trailing its "feathery - flakes of light across a quarter of the heavens they are disturbed if not alarmed. There is nothing so adhesive as a superstition that has once got fairly fastened to the human mind. Perhaps one reason why this old notion keeps its .hold so long is the difficulty of explaining the origin and orbit of comets to uneducated people in an intelligible manner. Indeed, very litflc is certainly known respecting them, even by astronomers. Newton thought their orbit was elliptical, while modern astronomers generally hold that it is a parabola. What substance they are composed .of is still uncertain, as the instruments and processes of the spectrum analysis were not sufficiently perfected to enable astronomers to subject Donati’s comet, which appeared in 1858, to a scientific test; and Biela’s Comet, which ’has appeared since, was too insignificant and remote to •throw any light on the subject. That they are composed of anything more substantial than the lightest gases is-exceed-ingly improbable. What are the chemical constituents of the gases is still a matter of mere guess-work. * The relation of the nucleus or head to the tail which spreads fan-like so far is not understood, and the law of their existence has yet to be determined. One reason why the coming of the present comet is specially welcome is that it will enable astronomers to study it with new and more powerful instruments and learn something specific and satisfactory respecting its composition and probable destiny. It will call the attention of in--telllgent observers anew to the demonstrated facts and unsolved problems of the astronomic universe, and lead them to forget for awhile the petty cares and frivolous excitements of our world in contemplating the wonders of tfie heavens and the mystery that still enshrouds their ongoing.— Y. Graphic. —The Methodist Episcopal Church of Camden, N. J., has recovered $11,700 from the .Pennsylvania Railroad "for the destruction of their house of woifihip, the fire originating from locomotive sparks