A dissertation on comets, extracted from the writings of the most eminent modern astronomers and philosophers. In a letter to a reverend professor. To which is prefixed the theory of a comet / by [according to the sentiments of] Sir Isaac Newton [and other ... astronomers].

Date:
[between 1700 and 1799]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dissertation on comets, extracted from the writings of the most eminent modern astronomers and philosophers. In a letter to a reverend professor. To which is prefixed the theory of a comet / by [according to the sentiments of] Sir Isaac Newton [and other ... astronomers]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/68 (page 11)
    ( 11 ) a Poem, takes Pofieffion of all Nature at the fame Time ; Heaven and Earth adt but by his Order; Eclipfes or Earthquakes hap¬ pen if he thinks good; and all the Ele¬ ments move as he fees Occafion : Armies in the Air, or Monfters on Earth, you behold as many alfo as he pleafes ; Angels and Daemons appear whenever he ordains; the Gods them- fel ves, mounted on Machines, are ready to fupply his Occalions; and as Comets, above all Things, are needful for him, becaufe of the Prejudice there is in their Behalf, he cer¬ tainly leizes all he finds in Hifiory : If he finds none, he makes them himfelf, and makes them in fuch a Manner, as to fhew Heaven moll peculiarly interefted in his Sub- jed. Who would not laugh, to fee Men of Underltanding give no other Proof of the Malignity of thefe new Stars, than the Terris mutanteni regna Comet en of hue an ; the Reg- norum everfor rubuit Jeibale Cometes of Sihus It aliens ; the Nee diri toties arfere Comet ee of Virgil; the Nunquam terns fpeffatum impune Comet en of Claudian, and other like Sayings of the Poets ? Hiftorians, I confefs, do not afllnne the Authority of fame Liberty of inventing extraordinary Phse- the Hiftorians, nomena: But they aifeover, for the moft Part, fo great a Propenfity to report all the Miracles and V7ilions which the Credulity of the Vulgar has authorized, that it would be imprudent to credit all they deliver of this Kind. Whether they believe their Hiftories would appear too iimple, without Prodigies and fupernatural Accidents ; or that they hope by this Sort of Seafoning to pleafe the B % 1 natural