In 1737 there were two comets, and the weather was cool; in 1785 there was no comet, and the weather was hot; through the whole fifty years it was shown that comets were sometimes followed by hot weather, sometimes by cool, and that no rule was deducible.

The victory of science was complete at every point.( 123) (123) For Forster, see his Illustrations of the Atmospherical Origin of Epidemic Diseases, Chelmsford, 1829, cited by Arago; also in Quarterly Review for April, 1835.

For the writings of several on both sides, and especially those who sought to save, as far as possible, the sacred theory of comets, see Madler, vol.ii, p.

384 et seq., and Wolf, p.

186.
But in this history there was one little exhibition so curious as to be worthy of notice, though its permanent effect upon thought was small.
Whiston and Burnet, so devoted to what they considered sacred science, had determined that in some way comets must be instruments of Divine wrath.