The works of Francis Bacon, lord chancellor of England.

582 DESCRIPTION OF THE INTELLECTUAL GLOBE.
tance, excess or want of light, and fineness or in their place. For, in the instance of the new
minuteness of substance, equally baffle vision: star of Hipparchus, of the appearance of which
thus, ii the eye were placed in the orb of the mention is made among the ancients, there is none
moon, it could not discern those changes which made of its disappearance; a new star has lately
take place amongst us here on the surface of the become visible in the breast of Cygnus, which
earth, such as inundations, earthquakes, structures; has now continued for twelve entire years, exceedor huge masses, which at so great a distance are ing the duration of a comet, which it has been held
not equal to the size of a gnat. to be, by a considerable period, and not yet lesNor should any one from the circumstance of sened in disk, or threatening to disappear. Nor,
the interstellar air of heaven being transparent, again, is it properly and invariably true, that the
and the stars on a clear night appearing of the old stars are not subject to change, but only the
same number and form, pronounce too readily, stars of later epiphany, in which it is not to be
that the entire body of the ether is diaphanous, wondered if change takes place, since their very
firm, and immutable. For the atmosphere itself production and commencement is not immemorial.
is subject to endless varieties of heat, cold, scents, For, passing over that fable of the Arcadians with
and every sort of amalgamation with subtler va- respect to the first appearance of the moon, in
pours, yet does not therefore lose its pellucid which they boast that they are of greater antiquity
quality: so in like manner we are not to trust to than that planet, there are not wanting in history
that feature and aspect of heaven. For, if those sufficiently authenticated facts on the subject, as
huge masses of clouds which occasionally cover when the sun three several times-without the
the heavens, and take from our sight the sun and occurrence of an eclipse, or the intervention of
stars, on account of their nearness to our point of clouds-appeared in a clear and serene sky, changvision, were suspended in the upper part of the edin appearance for many days, and yetnotaffected
atmosphere, they would by no means change the in the same way each time, being once of slender
appearance of a serene sky: for neither could they light, and twice of a ferruginous colour. For
be seen themselves on account of the distance, these phenomena took place in the year 790, during
nor cause any obscuration of the stars, on account seventeen days, and in the time of Justinian during
of the smallness of their size, compared to the half a year; and after the death of Julius Caesar,
magnitude of the stars. Besides, the body of the. duringseveraldays. To that obscuration we have
moon itself, except in the part in which it receives still extant that noted testimony in Virgil:light, does not alter the appearance of the sky, so
that were that light annihilated, so large a body Ila etiam extincto miseratus Caesare Romam
Cum caput obscura nitidtin ferrugine texit,
would entirely escape our view. But, on the con- Irnpiaque eternam tinuerunt szecula noctem.
trary, it is clearly apparent from those bulky bodies, which by their mass and magnitude over- And the statement of Varro, a most skilful anticome the effect of distance, and on account of their quary, to be found in Augustine respecting the
luminous or sparkling substance forcibly strike planet Venus, to this effect, that in the reign of
our view, that surprising changes and anomalies Ogyges it changed its colour, size, and figure,
happen in the heaven. And that is perceived in might well have been doubted, had not a similar
the higher order of comets, I mean those which fact occurred again, signalized by much observaassume ti-e appearance of a star without the coma, tion in our own days, in the year 1578. For then,
and which are not only proved by the doctrine of too, during a whole year, a memorable change
parallaxes to be placed above the moon, but bear took place in the planet Venus, which was seen
a certain and unchangeable relation of position to of unusual size and brilliancy, exceeding in redthe fixed stars, and retain their stations without ness even the planet Mars, and more than once
being erratic; of such our age has seen more than changed its figure, becoming sometimes trianguone, first in Cassiopwea, and afterwards not long lar, sometimes square, and sometimes circular, so
ago in Ophiuchus. And as to this kind of regu- that even its very body and substance seemed to
larity, which is seen in such comets, arising from be affected. Again, that star among the old
their following the motion of some star, (which stars, placed in the hip of Canicula, which Ariswas the opinion of Aristotle, who asserted that totle says he himself saw, having some coma,
there was a like relation of a comet to the motion which he particularly noted, vibrating when he
of a particular star, and of the galaxy to that of looked at it intently, appears to be since then
the stars collectively, both positions being false,) changed and to be divested of its hair, since no
that has now been long exploded, not without a trace of that appearance is found on it in our day.
stigma on the genius of Aristotle, who in his airy Add to these facts that many alterations of the
speculations had the presumption to invent such celestial bodies, particularly of the smaller, from
things. Nor in fact does this change in the hea- neglecting to make observations, easily escape
venly bodies with respect to such new stars, ob- notice, and are lost to us. Now, it will readily
tain only in those stars which appear to be of a occur to a sciolist to ascribe such appearances to
vanishing nature, but also of those which remain exhalations and the constitution of tLn medium