treatise of Heyn. In this book, which appeared at Leipsic in 1742, the
agency of comets in the creation, the flood, and the final destruction
of the world is fully proved. Both these theories were, however, soon
discredited.

Perhaps the more interesting of them can best be met by another, which,
if not fully established, appears much better based--namely, that in
1868 the earth passed directly through the tail of a comet, with
no deluge, no sound of any wailings of the damned, with but slight
appearances here and there, only to be detected by the keen sight of the
meteorological or astronomical observer.

In our own country superstitious ideas regarding comets continued to
have some little currency; but their life was short. The tendency shown
by Cotton Mather, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, toward
acknowledging the victory of science, was completed by the utterances
of Winthrop, professor at Harvard, who in 1759 published two lectures
on comets, in which he simply and clearly revealed the truth, never
scoffing, but reasoning quietly and reverently. In one passage he says:
"To be thrown into a panic whenever a comet appears, on account of the
ill effects which some few of them might possibly produce, if they were
not under proper direction, betrays a weakness unbecoming a reasonable
being."

A happy influence in this respect was exercised on both continents by
John Wesley. Tenaciously as he had held to the supposed scriptural view
in so many other matters of science, in this he allowed his reason
to prevail, accepted the demonstrations of Halley, and gloried in
them.(124)

(124) For Heyn, see his Versuch einer Betrachtung uber die cometun, die
Sundfluth und das Vorspeil des jungsten Gerichts, Leipsic, 1742. A Latin
version, of the same year, bears the title, Specimen Cometologiae Sacre.
For the theory that the earth encountered the tail of a comet, see
Guillemin and Watson. For survival of the old idea in America, see a
Sermon of Israel Loring, of Sudbury, published in 1722. For Prof.
J. Winthrop, see his Comets. For Wesley, see his Natural Philosophy,
London, 1784, vol. iii, p. 303.

The victory was indeed complete. Happily, none of the fears expressed by
Conrad Dieterich and Increase Mather were realized. No catastrophe has
ensued either to religion or to morals. In the realm of religion the
Psalms of David remain no less beautiful, the great utterances of the
Hebrew prophets no less powe