Part 6

Shortly after this the bloody battle of Borodino was fought, and Napoleon, with his army, appeared before the gates of Moscow. The hundred-towered city was abandoned by the Russians and was given over to the flames.

Years afterward this same nun thus told her story, as printed in the “Revue des Deux Mondes”:

“Every night the Comet blazed in the Heavens, and we all asked ourselves: What misfortune does it bring? Then the enemy came, and our sacred city was put to the torch. Our convent, together with all other cloisters, monasteries and churches, was burned to the ground.”

Many other writers of the time who saw the great Comets that blazoned Napoleon’s destructive wars have recorded how they were universally taken as omens of the great conqueror’s bloody trail.

Napoleon himself gloried in this dread omen and hailed the Comet as his “guiding star.”

All this has been fully set forth by the famous French astronomer Messier, a latter-day observer of Halley’s Comet, who wrote a special book on “The Wonderful Comet which appeared at the Birth of Napoleon the Great.”

As for the many Comets that have blazed down upon other great conquerors and other bloody wars, before the comparatively recent Comets of the American Civil War and the Napoleonic Wars, they are all set down in a special History of Comets.

In this great work, entitled “A History of All Comets,” the Latin scholar Lubienitius has pointed out all the calamities and dire events which attended the appearance of each and every Comet recorded in history.

THE EFFECTS OF COMETS ON MAN

Some thinkers have pointed out that there has often been a direct connection between the feelings produced in the human soul by the appearance of a Comet and the human deeds of violence or the human epidemics and excessive mortality following the widespread terror produced by Comets.

Only this year (1910) the appearance of Inness’ Comet over Mexico caused a panic-stricken holy pilgrimage to the Shrine of Talpa. In China, too, it caused terror, resulting in Christian massacres.

Hence, also, several Jewish massacres inspired by Comets in the past and hence also so many terrifying plagues connected with Comets.

Thus Ambroise Paré, the “Father of French Surgery,” who flourished in the sixteenth century, has recorded the effect produced upon his contemporaries by the Comet of 1528.

“This Comet was so horrible,” wrote Dr. Paré, “so frightful, and it produced such great terror among the common people, that many died of fear and many others fell sick.”

Dr. Paré himself appears to have come under the influence of this fear, judging from his awestruck description of the appearance of this Comet:

“It appeared to be of excessive length; and was of the colour of blood. At the summit of it was seen the figure of a bent arm, holding in its hand a great sword as if about to strike.

“At the end of the point there were three stars. On both sides of the rays of this Comet were seen a great number of axes, knives, and blood-coloured swords, among which were a great number of hideous human faces with beards and bristling hair.”

Hannibal committed suicide on account of a Comet. 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. As a matter of fact, as Arago pointed out, Comets have caused tremendous spring tides just like the moon. The same irresistible pull of gravity or electricity or light-pressure must perforce affect other substances besides water, such as human brains.

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.”

Those rare beings who have lying latent within them the gift of Second Sight or divination, according to this same metaphysical theory, upon the near approach of Comets find themselves stirred to prophesy. Hence, so many marvellous prophesies inspired by Comets since the ancient days of Merlin, the seer.

THIS YEAR’S PROPHECIES

The return of Halley’s Comet in this Year of Our Lord 1910 has already called forth several memorable prophesies.

On January 20th the French astrologer and prophetess Madame de Thebes, who predicted the disastrous French floods of this year, as well as the coming of Inness’ unexpected Comet, uttered the following prophesies:

“This year, 1910, will be one to look back to with trembling.