, fled from the zodiac to the north pole, and obtained, from her
dishevelled locks, the name of the comet. The third period expires in
the year six hundred and eighteen, a date that exactly agrees with the
tremendous comet of the Sibyl, and perhaps of Pliny, which arose in the
West two generations before the reign of Cyrus. The fourth apparition,
forty-four years before the birth of Christ, is of all others the most
splendid and important. After the death of Caesar, a long-haired star
was conspicuous to Rome and to the nations, during the games which were
exhibited by young Octavian in honor of Venus and his uncle. The vulgar
opinion, that it conveyed to heaven the divine soul of the dictator, was
cherished and consecrated by the piety of a statesman; while his secret
superstition referred the comet to the glory of his own times. [79] The
fifth visit has been already ascribed to the fifth year of Justinian,
which coincides with the five hundred and thirty-first of the Christian
aera. And it may deserve notice, that in this, as in the preceding
instance, the comet was followed, though at a longer interval, by a
remarkable paleness of the sun. The sixth return, in the year eleven
hundred and six, is recorded by the chronicles of Europe and China: and
in the first fervor of the crusades, the Christians and the Mahometans
might surmise, with equal reason, that it portended the destruction of
the Infidels. The seventh phenomenon, of one thousand six hundred
and eighty, was presented to the eyes of an enlightened age. [80] The
philosophy of Bayle dispelled a prejudice which Milton's muse had
so recently adorned, that the comet, "from its horrid hair shakes
pestilence and war." [81] Its road in the heavens was observed with
exquisite skill by Flamstead and Cassini: and the mathematical science
of Bernoulli, Newton [8111], and Halley, investigated the laws of
its revolutions. At the eighth period, in the year two thousand three
hundred and fifty-five, their calculations may perhaps be verified
by the astronomers of some future capital in the Siberian or American
wilderness.

[Footnote 74: The first comet is mentioned by John Malala (tom. ii. p.
190, 219) and Theophanes, (p. 154;) the second by Procopius, (Persic. l.
ii. 4.) Yet I strongly suspect their identity. The paleness of the
sun sum Vandal. (l. ii. c. 14) is applied by Theophanes (p. 158) to a
different year. Note: See Lydus de Ostentis, particularly c 15, in which
the a