Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution . •Miinuuuvmw %Z/\0i% ^^ I^ d Fig. 2.—Representation of comets as flaming swords. From Evelyns Diary of 1624: * * * the effect of that comet, IGIS, still working in the prodigious revolu-tions now beginning in Europe, especially in Germany. From Miltons Paradise Lost, II, 708-711 : * * * and like a comet fires the length of Ophiuchus hugeIn th Arctic sky, and from his horrid hairShakes pestilence and war. Not the least of the services of science to civilization has been thegradual emancipation of humanity from

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Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution . •Miinuuuvmw %Z/\0i% ^^ I^ d Fig. 2.—Representation of comets as flaming swords. From Evelyns Diary of 1624: * * * the effect of that comet, IGIS, still working in the prodigious revolu-tions now beginning in Europe, especially in Germany. From Miltons Paradise Lost, II, 708-711 : * * * and like a comet fires the length of Ophiuchus hugeIn th Arctic sky, and from his horrid hairShakes pestilence and war. Not the least of the services of science to civilization has been thegradual emancipation of humanity from all fear of comets. Astronomers will welcome the coming of Halleys comet, full ofhope that the photo-dry-plate, the spectroscope, and other ways andmeans of attack invented since its last visit in 1835 will enable themto remove something of the mystery of comets, the most mysteriousof all celestial ^:: -\;:i m Hj^^^^HPK^ ^Z^^HI^^^^ 1 l^-M ^ 94k -J. ^^

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Keywords: ., bookauthorsmithsonianinstitutio, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840