N00277:54
Kometographia. Or A discourse concerning comets; wherein the nature of blazing stars is enquired…
Kometographia. Or A discourse concerning comets; wherein the nature of blazing stars is enquired into: with an historical account of all the comets which have appeared from the beginning of the world unto this present year, M.DC.LXXXIII. : Expressing the place in the heavens, where they were seen, their motion, forms, duration; and the remarkable events which have followed in the world, so far as they have been by learned men observed. : As also two sermons occasioned by the late blazing stars. / By Mr. Increase Mather, teacher of a church at Boston in New-England. ; [Three lines of Scripture texts]Kometographia. Or A discourse concerning comets; wherein the nature of blazing stars is enquired into: with an historical account of all the comets which have appeared from the beginning of the world unto this present year, M.DC.LXXXIII. : Expressing the place in the heavens, where they were seen, their motion, forms, duration; and the remarkable events which have followed in the world, so far as thay have been by learned men observed. : As also two sermons occasioned by the late blazing stars. / By Mr. Increase Mather, teacher of a church at Boston in New-England. ; [Three lines of Scripture texts]
printed by S.G. for S.S. i.e, 1683
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
But Appianus was the first that did fully and clearly discern it to be so, being convinced of the truth of this notion, by five several Comets which himself lived to see, viz. Those in Anno. 1531, 32, 33, 38, 39. Likewise Gemma, and Cornelius Frisius, Fracastorius, Tycho, and of later times Gassendus, and many other famous Mathematicians, and diligent observers of things of this nature whom the learned Reader may see quoted by sHevelius. Moreover, tLongomontanus observeth, that if the Comet have a more lateral disposition towards the Sun, then it will be Caudatus, but if the opposition to the Sun be more direct, or the Comet elevated above the Sun, then it will be Crinite, or the Blaze but short. The blaze is long or short according to the opposition towards the Sun, and distance from the Earth. The blaze of some Comets hath extended it self above ninety Degrees. There was one in Aristotle's time that was an 130 Degrees in Longitude. If the Comet be higher then the Sun, the blaze will be short. If the Comet be as low as the Sun, then ⟨p. 16⟩the nearer it is to the Sun, the longer will the blaze appear to be. By the things that have been thus far discoursed, we may conclude that the time of any Comets appearance cannot certainly be predicted before hand. Some very learned men, (in special the great and noble uVerulam) have supposed that this knowledge is attainable. Indeed, if Comets were sempiternal bodies, by experience and observation their appearance might be exactly predicted. But since they are generated in the Aether, no man can any more tell when they shall be seen, then he can know when a Paraelion, or Draco volans or the like will be generated in the Air. Yet I will not deny, but that a probable conjecture, as to the year of a Comets appearance, may be made from the conjunction of the superior Planets. It hath been wobserved that those rare Conjunctions are commonly attended with the appearance of some new Star, or Comet: So indeed it was as to the Blazing Stars in 1504, 1506, 1525, 1577, 1583. 1664. notable conjunctions of the Planets did precede them. Upon this ground,