eye and with the telescope, the most beautiful comet of which we have
any record. It too marked a rich vintage year, still remembered in the
vineyards of France, where there is a popular belief that a great
comet ripens the grape and imparts to the wine a flavor not attainable
by the mere skill of the cultivator. There are ``comet wines,''
carefully treasured in certain cellars, and brought forth only when
their owner wishes to treat his guests to a sip from paradise.

The year 1861 saw another very remarkable comet, of an aspect
strangely vast and diffuse, which is believed to have swept the earth
with its immense tail when it passed between us and the sun on the
night of June 30th, an event which produced no other known effect than
the appearance of an unwonted amount of scattered light in the sky.

The next very notable comet was the ``Great Southern Comet'' of 1880,
which was not seen from the northern hemisphere. It mimicked the
aspect of the famous comet of 1843, and to the great surprise of
astronomers appeared to be traveling in the same path. This proved to
be the rising of the curtain for an astronomical sensation
unparalleled in its kind; for two years later another brilliant comet
appeared, first in the southern hemisphere, and it too followed the
same track. The startling suggestion was now made that this comet was
identical with those of 1843 and 1880, its return having been hastened
by the resistance experienced in passing twice through the coronal
envelope, and there were some who thought that it would now swing
swiftly round and then plunge straight into the sun, with consequences
that might be disastrous to us on account of the ``flash of heat''
that would be produced by the impact. Nervous people were frightened,
but observation soon proved that the danger was imaginary, for
although the comet almost grazed the sun, and must have rushed through