95] The comet then lay between the earth and the sun at a
distance of about fourteen million miles from the former; its tail
stretched outward just along the line of intersection of its own with
the terrestrial orbit to an extent of fifteen million miles; so that our
globe, happening to pass at the time, found itself during some hours
involved in the flimsy appendage.

No perceptible effects were produced by the meeting; it was known to
have occurred by theory alone. A peculiar glare in the sky, thought by
some to have distinguished the evening of June 30, was, at best,
inconspicuous. Nor were there any symptoms of unusual electric
excitement. The Greenwich instruments were, indeed, disturbed on the
following night, but it would be rash to infer that the comet had art or
part in their agitation.

The perihelion-passage of this body occurred June 11, 1861; and its
orbit has been shown by M. Kreutz of Bonn, from a very complete
investigation founded on observations extending over nearly a year, to
be an ellipse traversed in a period of 409 years.[1196]

Towards the end of August, 1862, a comet became visible to the naked eye
high up in the northern hemisphere, with a nucleus equalling in
brightness the lesser stars of the Plough and a feeble tail 20 deg. in
length. It thus occupied quite a secondary position among the members of
its class. It was, nevertheless, a splendid object in comparison with a
telescopic nebulosity discovered by Tempel at Marseilles, December 19,
1865. This, the sole comet of 1866, slipped past perihelion, January 11,
without pomp of train or other appendages, and might have seemed hardly
worth the trouble of pursuing. Fortunately, this was not the view
entertained by observers and computers; since upon the knowledge
acquired of the movements of these two bodies has been founded one of
the most significant discoveries of modern times. The first of them is
now styled the comet (1862 iii.) of the August meteors, the second (1866
i.) that of the November meteors. The steps by which this curious
connection came to be ascertained were many, and were taken in
succession by a number of individuals. But the final result was reached
by Schiaparelli of Milan, and remains deservedly associated with his
name.

The idea prevalent in the eighteenth century as to the nature of
shooting stars was that they were mere aerial _ignes fatui_--inflammable
vapours accidentally kindled in our atmosphere. But Halley had