and revelation, constitute the whole scope of the work. Able theorists, and the learned advocates of ingenious hypotheses are cited as witnesses, and in all cases, where necessary, are allowed to narrate the facts and phenomena in their own way. Their conjectures may and do contravene the views presented in the book, yet their testimony, apart from theory, not only harmonizes with, but emphatically confirms them all. In most cases only the simplest modes of illustration have been adopted, and they not carried to their extreme and legitimate length, to adapt the work to popular use, and thereby many of the most conclusive verifications are necessarily omitted. These, however, may readily be supplied by the learned, if truly so disposed. That the work will encounter opposition may readily be anticipated, for its very character seemingly invites if not provokes it; and from man's contentious disposition, such is the fate of even the most simple propositions. Yet the truths enunciated have nothing to fear from the fiercest conflict, as they stand too firmly supported by a solid and invincible host, to yield the victory, much less to tremble or retreat at the thought of an enemy. Such a contest the writer by no means solicits. The work was begun simply for his own entertainment, and is now offered to the public, not for honor or emolument, but purely to furnish a substantial but much needed buttress to the citadel of truth, on the side of its fiercest assault. That point gained, all the shafts of opposition will be permitted to fall harmless and unheeded. FIRST-THE HEAVENS REJOICE AND THE EARTH GLADDENS; THE SEA MAKES A NOISE, AND THE FLOODS CLAP THEIR HANDS; AND THE HILLS AND THE FIELDS AND THE WHOLE ROUND WORLD BECOME JUBILANT, FOR ONE COMES WITH CHAPTER I. ON COMETS. Needy knife-grinder! whither are you going? WHENEVER a well-dressed stranger is found perambulating the streets of one of our country towns or villages, intense curiosity amongst its citizens is at once excited by his presence. A pause ensues in every department of village life. The housemaid rests upon the handle of her broom; the washerwoman leaves her tub; the clerk leaps the counter, and rushes to the door; and even the merchant quits his ledger to scan the dimensions of the visitor. Village society at once divides itself into two great classes the one, most numerous, is satisfied with the humble position of inquirers, and wonder who he can be-where he is from, and what possibly may be the purpose of his coming? The other, assuming a greater degree of acumen and penetration, readily affirms, that he is only some speculator, some excise man, some Johnny Reb, run away from home for stealing, or some accursed Yankee, come to rob us of our little store; yet, perchance, there may be found in this latter class a single one who, with more charity of heart, will venture to pronounce him a schoolmaster or a preacher. Even so has it ever been with comets, those errant strangers of the skies. After the wise men of the East, the astronomers and astrologers of Babylon and Chaldea, had assaulted the heavens, and there firmly fixed their celestial fauna and flora; the two bears and the fishes, the whale and the twins, the great eagle, the lion and the crab, living in peaceful bliss side by side; and had foretold the coming and the going of the planetary orbs, the rising and setting of the sun, with the lunations of the moon, they won the unbounded applause of an admiring world. But chaplets of laurel oftentimes rest as uneasily upon the head as crowns of gold. A stranger comes to view, a comet in the heavens. The maid and the cook, the merchant and his clerk, pause from their labors and are gazing upon the wanderer. The zoological charts of the skies are produced, and thoroughly discussed, from the tip of the little bear's tail to Hadley's Octant, yet his place is nowhere found thereon, and the magi are consulted as to his nature and movements. The wise men had seen such visitors before, and had labored in vain to read their eccentricities; to define their parabolic orbits, their perihelions, and radii-vectors; but all to no purpose. The ways of the Comet was a sore puzzle to them; but to make such a confession would tarnish their chaplets and humble their pride. So, with oracular dignity and |