A dissertation on comets, extracted from the writings of the most eminent modern astronomers and philosophers. In a letter to a reverend professor. To which is prefixed the theory of a comet / by [according to the sentiments of] Sir Isaac Newton [and other ... astronomers].

Date:
[between 1700 and 1799]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dissertation on comets, extracted from the writings of the most eminent modern astronomers and philosophers. In a letter to a reverend professor. To which is prefixed the theory of a comet / by [according to the sentiments of] Sir Isaac Newton [and other ... astronomers]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    long Time had been fupported, almofl in Spite of Nature, by the Inventions of Phy- fick, might certainly die, without God’s fend¬ ing, to take away his Life, a Body a hundred Times larger than the Earth, and filled, like ^PandorasBox, withali Sorts of Maledictions; that it was fo little necefiary for God to in¬ form the World of his Intention to take to himfelf the King of Spain, that all Europe was amazed he could fubfifl fo long under his Diftempers. My Friend could make me no Reply. A late Reflexion upon this Thought convinced me farther, that thofe who main¬ tain the Predictions of Comets, not only make God do very idle Things, but Things alto¬ gether unworthy of his Hoi in els. I prove It thus: Comets can It is an Article of Faith, that the Liberty Jhretel only in Q£ ]y[an fUperior t0 the Influence of the Stars, and that no phyfical Quality drives him oeceffarily to Evil. T. hence I conclude that Comets are not the Caufe of thofe Wars that kindle in the World, becaufe the Defign of making War, as well as the Acts of Holtility commited in Confequence of it, are all Efe fects of Man’s Free-will. A Comet, then, at the moft, can be no more than a Signal of thofe Ills that are ready to happen on Earth, which God exhibits to the Eyes of Mankind, to incline them, by their Penitence, to pre¬ vent the dreadful Tern pell, with which they are threatned : For I have irrefragably proved, • by my firlt Reafon, that the Atoms of a Co¬ met have no Efficacy to produce the Plague, Famine, or any other Alteration in our Ele¬ ments*