The whole argument of Bayle is rooted in the prophecy of Seneca. He declares, "Comets are bodies subject to the ordinary law of nature, and not prodigies amenable to no law." He shows historically that there is no reason to regard comets as portents of earthly evils. As to the fact that such evils occur after the passage of comets across the sky, he compares the person believing that comets cause these evils to a woman looking out of a window into a Paris street, and believing that the carriages pass because she looks out. As to the accomplishment of some predictions, he cites the shrewd saying of Henry IV, to the effect that "the public will remember one prediction that comes true better than all the rest that have proved false"; finally, he sums up by saying: "The more we study man, the more does it appear that pride is his ruling passion, and that he affects grandeur even in his misery. Mean and perishable creature that he is, he has been able to persuade men that he can not die without disturbing the whole of nature and obliging the heavens to put themselves to fresh expense in order to light his funeral pomp. Foolish and ridiculous vanity! If we had a just idea of the universe, we should soon comprehend that the death or birth of a prince is too insignificant a matter to stir the heavens."[1]
This great philosophic champion of right reason was followed by a literary champion hardly less famous; for Fontenelle now gave to the French theatre his play of "The Comet," and a point of capital importance in France was made by rendering the army of ignorance ridiculous.[2]
But the heart of the position held by the so-called "religious" party was not really touched until about the beginning of the eighteenth century. Then it was that the announcement of Doerfel as to the parabolic paths of certain comets, and the publication of Halley's "Synopsis" and "Tables" foreshadowed a final victory, and the complete accomplishment of the prophecy of Seneca. This victory was fully gained when Halley, observing the times of the comet which now bears his name, made his calculations, predicted the period of its return, and the prediction was fulfilled.
Still more evident was this victory when Clairaut, in France, foretold the exact time when the coming comet would reach its perihelion, and his prediction also proved true. Then it was that a Roman heathen philosopher was proved more infallible and more directly under divine inspiration than a Roman Christian pontiff; for the very comet which the traveler finds to-day depicted on the Bayeux tapestry as portending destruction to Harold and the Saxons at the Norman inva-
- ↑ For special points of interest in Bayle's argument, see Bayle, "Pensées Diverses," Amsterdam, 1749, pp. 79, 102, 134, 206.For the response to Jurieu, see "Continuation des Pensées Diverses," Rotterdam, 1705; also Champion, p. 164; also Lecky, as above; also Guillemin, pp. 29, 30.
- ↑ See Fontenelle, cited in Champion, p. 167.
