At the appearance of a comet we constantly see all Christendom, from pope to peasant, instead of striving to avert war by wise statesmanship, instead of striving to avert pestilence by observation and reason, instead of striving to avert famine by skilful economy, whining before fetiches, trying to bribe them to remove these signs of God's wrath, and planning to wreak this supposed wrath of God upon misbelievers.
As to the third of these evils--the strengthening of ecclesiastical and civil despotism--examples appear on every side.

It was natural that hierarchs and monarchs whose births were announced by stars, or whose deaths were announced by comets, should regard themselves as far above the common herd, and should be so regarded by mankind; passive obedience was thus strengthened, and the most monstrous assumptions of authority were considered simply as manifestations of the Divine will.

Shakespeare makes Calphurnia say to Caesar: "When beggars die, there are no comets seen; The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes." Galeazzo, the tyrant of Milan, expressing satisfaction on his deathbed that his approaching end was of such importance as to be heralded by a comet, is but a type of many thus encouraged to prey upon mankind; and Charles V, one of the most powerful monarchs the world has known, abdicating under fear of the comet of 1556, taking refuge in the monastery of San Yuste, and giving up the best of his vast realms to such a scribbling bigot as Philip II, furnishes an example even more striking.( 94) (94) For Caesar, see Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, act ii, sc.2.

For Galeazzo, see Guillemin, World of Comets, p.19.For Charles V, see Prof.Wolf's essay in the Monatschrift des wissenschaftlichen Vereins, Zurich, 1857, p.

228.
But for the retention of this belief there was a moral cause.