Astronomy for amateurs . FiG. 50.—What our Ancestors saw in a Comet. After Ambroise Pare (1^28). scribes this awful phenomenon in terms anything butseductive, or reassuring, showing us the menacing swordsurrounded by the heads it had cut off (Fig. 50). Our fathers saw many other prodigies in the skies;177. Cavalry, and a bloody branch crossing the sun, June ii, 1554. Fig. 51.—Prodigies seen in the Heavens by our Forefathers. 178 THE COMETS their descendants, less credulous, can study the facsimilereproduced in Fig. 51, of the drawings published in theyear 1557 by Conrad Lycosthenes in his curi
Astronomy for amateurs . FiG. 50.—What our Ancestors saw in a Comet. After Ambroise Pare (1^28). scribes this awful phenomenon in terms anything butseductive, or reassuring, showing us the menacing swordsurrounded by the heads it had cut off (Fig. 50). Our fathers saw many other prodigies in the skies;177. Cavalry, and a bloody branch crossing the sun, June ii, 1554. Fig. 51.—Prodigies seen in the Heavens by our Forefathers. 178 THE COMETS their descendants, less credulous, can study the facsimilereproduced in Fig. 51, of the drawings published in theyear 1557 by Conrad Lycosthenes in his curious Bookof Prodigies. So, too, it is asserted that Charles V renounced thejurisdiction of his Estates, which were so vast that theSun never slept upon them, because he was terrifiedby the comet of 1556 which burned in the skies with analarming brilliancy, into passing the rest of his days inprayer and devotion. It is certain that comets often exhibit very strangecharacteristics, but the imagination that sees in themsuch dramatic figures must indeed be lively. In theMiddle Ages and the Renaissance these w^ere swords offire, bloody crosses, flaming daggers, etc., all horribleobjects ready to destroy our poor human race! At the time of the Romans, Pliny made some curiousdistinctions between them: Th
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectastronomy, bookyear19
