A comet is a small body orbiting the sun on an elliptical path with a long tail of dust and ice.
Some comets are only visible by the aid of the telescope, while others can be seen by the naked eye. In the latter case they usually appear like stars accompanied with a train of light, sometimes short and sometimes extending over half the sky, mostly single and more or less curved, but sometimes forked. In a comet which appeared in 1744 the train was divided into several branches, spreading out from the head like a fan. The train is not stationary relatively to the head, but is subject to remarkable movements. The direction in which it points is always opposite to the sun, and as the , comet passes its perihelion the train changes its apparent position with extraordinary velocity. The head of the comet is itself of different degrees of luminosity, there being usually a central core, called the nucleus, of greater brilliancy than the surrounding envelope, called the coma.
Comets were long regarded as supernatural objects, and usually as portents of impending calamity. Tycho Brahe was the first who expressed a rational opinion on the subject, coming to the conclusion that the comet of 1577 was a heavenly body at a greater distance from the earth than that of the moon. The general law of the motion of bodies, as well as his own observations on the comet of 1680, led Isaac Newton to conclude that the orbits of the comets must, like those of the planets, be ellipses, having the sun in one focus, but far more eccentric; and having their aphelions, or greater distances from the sun, far remote in the regions of space.
This idea was taken up by Halley, who collated the observations which had been made of all the twenty-four comets of which notice had been taken previous to 1680. The results were very interesting. With but few exceptions the comets had passed within less than the earth's shortest distance from the sun, some of them within less than one-third of it, and the average about one-half. Out of the number, too, nearly two-thirds had had their motions retrograde, or moved in the opposite direction to the planets. While Halley was engaged on these comparisons and deductions the comet of 1682 made its appearance, and he found that there was a wonderful resemblance between it and three other comets that he found recorded - the comets of 1456, of 1531, and of 1607. The times of the appearance of these comets had been at very nearly regular intervals, the average period being between seventy-five and seventy-six years. Their distances from the sun, when in perihelion, or when nearest to that luminary, had been nearly the same, being nearly six-tenths of that of the earth, and not varying more than one-sixtieth from each other.
The inclination of their orbits to that of the earth had also been nearly the same, between 17 degrees and 18 degrees; and their motions had all been retrograde. Putting these facts together, Halley concluded that the comets of 1456, 1531,1607, and 1682 were reappearances of one and the same comet, which revolved in an elliptic orbit round the sun, performing its circuit in a period varying from a little more than seventy-six years to a little less than seventy-five; or having, as far as the observations had been carried, a variation of about fifteen months in the absolute duration of its year, measured according to that of the earth. For this variation in the time of its revolution Halley accounted upon the supposition that the form of its orbit had been altered by the attraction of the remote planets Jupiter and Saturn as it passed near to them; and thence he concluded that the period of its next appearance would be lengthened, but that it would certainly reappear in 1758 or early in 1759. As the time of its expected reappearance approached, Clairaut calculated that it would be retarded 100 days by the attraction of Saturn, and 518 by that of Jupiter, so that it would not come to the perihelion, or point of its orbit nearest the 500 sun, until the 13th of April, 1759.
It actually reached its perihelion on the 13th of March, 1759, being thirty days earlier than he had calculated. Along with the period of this comet and its perihelion distance, the magnitude and form of its path were also calculated. Estimating the mean distance of the earth from the sun at 95,000,000 miles (the number which was at that time considered as the true one), the mean distance of the comet was calculated to be 1,705,250,000 miles; its greatest distance from the sun, 3,355,400,000; its least distance, 55,100,000; and the transverse or largest diameter of its orbit, 3,410,500,000. This comet, therefore, is a body belonging to the solar system, and quite beyond the attraction of any body which does not belong to that system; and as this is determined of one comet, analogy points it out as being the case with them all. In 1835 it again returned, being first seen at Rome, on August the 5th, and from that time continued to be observed until the end of the year in Europe, and through a great part of spring 1836 in the southern hemisphere.
The comet denominated Encke's comet, which has made repeated appearances, was first observed in 1818, and was identified with a comet observed in 1786, also with a comet discovered in 1795 by Miss Herschel in the constellation Cygnus, and with another seen in 1805. Its orbit is an ellipse of comparatively small dimensions, wholly within the orbit of Jupiter; its period is 1260 days, or about three years and three-tenths. It has been frequently observed since.
Another comet, the history of which is of the utmost importance in the latest theories regarding the connection of these bodies and the periodic showers of shooting-stars, is one known as Biela's comet, discovered in 1826. It revolved about the sun in about 6.75 years, and was identified as the same comet which was observed in 1772 and in 1806. Its returns were noted in 1832, 1839, and 1845. In 1846 it divided into two, returned double in 1852, but has not since been seen, the Supposition being that it has been dissipated, and that it was represented by a great shower of meteors that were seen in November 1872. One of the most remarkable comets of recent times was that known as Donati's, discovered by Dr. Donati of Florence in 1858. It was very brilliant in England in the autumn of that year, and on the 18th of October was near coming into collision with Venus, The year 1881 was remarkable for the number of comets recorded. During that year no fewer than seven comets, including the well-known short-period comet Encke's, were observed. Research Comet
Historically the Democratic Party was the most important of the American political parties, having been in continuous existence since the end of the 18th century. The rise of such a party, as soon as national politics began under the new Constitution, was natural. The love of individual liberty rather than strong government, was native in the minds of most Americans. Those who felt this most strongly would be likely to look with apprehension upon the Federal Government, and the possibility of its encroaching upon the States under cover of the new Federal Constitution. They were therefore likely to be advocates of strict construction of the Constitution and of States' rights. To these elements of party feeling, which had drawn the Anti-Federalists together in 1788, was added a few years later the strong sympathy of many Americans with the French Revolution, and the desire that Government should aid France in her contest with England.
Thomas Jefferson put himself at the head of the party drawn together by agreement in these sentiments, and led them in opposition to the Federalists. The party took the name of Democratic-Republican. Before Monroe's administration its members were more commonly called Republicans, since then most commonly Democrats. From the first the party was strongest in the Southern States. From its origin in 1792 to 1801, it was in opposition. In 1798 and 1799, upon the passage of the Alien and Sedition laws, it took strong ground for States' rights in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. The election of Jefferson. in 1801 brought it into power. The chief tenets of the party were, belief in freedom of religion, of politics, of speech and of the press, in popular rule, in peace, in economical government, in the utmost possible restriction of the sphere of government, in hospitality to immigrants, and in the avoidance of foreign complications.
Placed in control of the government, the majority of the party drifted away from its strict constructionist ground, and supported measures of a nationalizing character. After the War of 1812, the Federalist party went out of existence, and the Democratic party had complete possession of the field. In 1820, Monroe was re-elected without opposition. But opposing tendencies in the nation and in the party were already showing themselves, and preparing the way for a new party division, between the Whigs, advocates of protection and other nationalizing measures, and those Democrats who held to the old programme of States' rights and free trade and restricted government. With the accession of Jackson in 1829, new social strata came into power in the Democratic party, the widening of the suffrage giving it a more popular character. Managed by skilful politicians, not without the aid of the spoils system, the party won every Presidential election but two (1840, 1848) from this time to 1860, destroyed the US bank, annexed Texas, and carried the country through the war with Mexico. But meanwhile the slavery question, coming into increasing prominence, was gradually forcing a division between the Democrats of the South and the great body of those in the North, who were unwilling to go so far in the protection of slavery by national authority as was desired by their Southern allies. The final split came in the nominating convention of 1860.
Two candidates were nominated, Abraham Lincoln and the Republicans won the election, and the American Civil War broke out. Though many War Democrats aided the administration in preserving the Union, the party was discredited in the eyes of many by its previous connection with the Southern leaders and the pro-slavery cause, and won no Presidential election until that of 1884, when in the minds of many the war issues were extinct and economic questions had taken their place. Defeated in 1888, it was again successful in 1892. By the end of the 19th century the party was hardly more strict-constructionist than the Republican, nor more marked by devotion to States' rights and the party was mostly noted as the opponent of a high tariff.
By the end of the 20th century the differences between the Democratic party and Republicans had become blurred, though the Democratic party was generally perceived - not always accurately - as more left-wing or liberal than the Republicans. Research Democratic Party
Figaro is a character of dramatic fiction. He made his first appearance in Beaumarchais' plays The 'Barber of Seville' written in 1775, 'The Marriage of Figaro' written in 1784, and 'The Other Tartuffe' written in 1792. Since Beaumarchais' time Figaro has become the type of ingenious roguery, intrigue, and cunning, who displays the utmost sang-froid in all his daring deceptions. He appears conspicuously in Mozart's opera 'The Marriage de Figaro' written in 1786 and Rossini's 'The Barber of Seville' written in 1816, both operas being based on the plays of the same names. Research Figaro
History (from the Greek historia, from historeo, meaning I inquire into) is a term first used by Herodotus in the sense which it has since retained, of a narrative of events and circumstances relating to man in his social or civic condition. A. record of bare facts by themselves does not constitute history. Such a record (forming a chronicle or annals) is chronologically valuable; but to attain the dignity of history we must have social events and evolution detailed with considerable fulness, and the growth and movements of society, from one phase to another, distinctly traced and recorded.
The modern school of historians devote much attention to the social life of the people; their method being further characterized by the utmost accuracy of research, the extreme importance assigned to contemporary documentary evidence, and careful weighing of data. The field of history proper is so far restricted as to its subject, that only the doings of a community possessing something of an independent organic life can constitute it.
History may be conveniently divided into ancient, mediaeval, and modern; but these divisions have little scientific value. The first includes the Jewish history and that of the nations of antiquity, reaching down to the destruction of the Roman Empire in 476 AD; the second begins with 476 and comes down to the discovery of America in 1492, or to the Reformation; the third section extends from either of these eras to our own times. The earliest written history is found graven on the monuments of Egypt, Assyria, etc. These, though of the barest description, have the value of contemporary chronicles. Next come the histories found in the canonical books of the Old Testament; but the real inventors of the artistic form of history were the Greeks. Research History
A valet is a domestic servant performing a general role as a man's personal attendant and also superintending the other servants, a lady employing a waiting-maid in a similar role. Within the hierarchy of domestic servants, the valet was almost at the top, receiving orders only directly from his master, dressing him, accompanying him on his journeys, being a confidant and generally 'right-hand man'. In her book 'Household Management', published in 1861, Mrs Beeton describes the duties of a valet as follows:
His day commences by seeing that his master's dressing-room is in order; that the housemaid has swept and dusted it properly; that the fire is lighted and burns cheerfully; and some time before his master is expected, he will do well to throw up the sash [open the window] to admit fresh air, closing it, however, in time to recover the temperature which he knows his master prefers. It is now his duty to place the body-linen on the horse before the fire, to be aired properly; to lay the trousers intended to be worn, carefully brushed and cleaned, on the back of his master's chair; while the coat and waistcoat, carefully brushed and folded, and the collar cleaned, are laid in their place ready to be put on when required. All the articles of the toilet should be in their places, the razors properly set and stropped, and hot water ready for use.
Gentlemen generally prefer performing the operation of shaving themselves, but a valet should be prepared to do it if required; and he should be a good hairdresser. Shaving over, he has to brush the hair, beard and moustache, where that appendage is encouraged, arranging the whole simply and gracefully, according to the age and style of the countenance. Every fortnight, or three weeks at the utmost, the hair should be cut, and the points of the whiskers trimmed as often as required. A good valet will now present the various articles of the toilet as they are wanted; afterwards, the body-linen. Neck-tie, which he will put on, if required, and, afterwards, waist-coat, coat, and boots, in suitable order, and carefully brushed and polished.
Having thus seen his master dressed, if he is about to go out, the valet will hand him his gloves, and hat, the latter well brushed on the outside with a soft brush, and wiped inside with a clean handkerchief, respectfully attend him to the door, and open it for him, and receive his last orders for the day.
He now proceeds to put everything in order in the dressing-room, cleans the combs and brushes, and brushes and folds up any clothes that may be left about the room, and puts them away in drawers.
Mrs Beeton goes on to describe how some gentlemen are indifferent to their clothes and appearance, and how it is the duty of the valet to select suitable clothes for his master and to check and ensure all clothes are clean, paying particular attention to collars which often become greasy and dirty. In addition, the valet liases with the tailor, perfumer and linen-draper.
The valet also dresses his master for dinner and any other occasion, and is awaiting his master's return to the house, ensuring that the master's drawing-room is properly ready with fire lit and candles prepared. Research Valet
Alexander Hamilton was an American patriot. He was born in 1757 at Nevis in the West Indies and died in 1804 in a duel. He was on the one side of Scottish, on the other of French birth. Deprived of parental care at an early age, he developed an astonishing precocity, and was, in 1772, sent to New York City. There, after a short period of preparation, he entered King's (later Columbia) College. While the Revolutionary fever was at its height Hamilton, in July, 1774, made a public speech on the patriotic side, marvellous for a boy of seventeen. He followed up this success by a vigorous war of pamphlets. When hostilities began Hamilton organized a cavalry company and served at Long Island and White Plains. As a member of George Washington's staff he rendered valuable aid; resigning from membership in the staff in 1781 he ended a brilliant military career at Yorktown, studied law, and married the daughter of General Schuyler. For a short time, between 1782 and 1783 he was in the Continental Congress.
He had risen to eminence at the New York bar, when he took part in the Annapolis Convention of 1786. There followed two years of contests and triumphs of the greatest renown to himself and moment to his country. Alexander Hamilton was one of the chief members of the Constitutional Convention of 1787. He advocated a very strong-central government, but accepted the results of that assembly, and returned to New York to further by pen and voice the ratification of the American National Constitution. It is little exaggeration to say that Alexander Hamilton was practically the Federal party in New York. Of the eighty-five papers in the Federalist fifty-one are undisputedly his, and he had a part in the production of others.
At the State ratifying Convention in 1788 at Poughkeepsie he contended almost single-handed against a two-thirds majority, which he converted into a minority. He entered George Washington's Cabinet as Secretary of the Treasury in 1789. His report on the public credit, reports on revenue, the mint, the bank, manufactures, etc., were of the utmost value in placing the finances on a sound footing. Meanwhile within the Cabinet he was confronted with Jefferson, advocate of radically different ideas; the two great leaders quarrelled almost incessantly, and Alexander Hamilton resigned in 1795.
He had previously accompanied the army for the suppression of the Whiskey Insurrection. He defended Jay's Treaty with Great Britain in the able Camillus letters, and was concerned in the preparation of George Washington's Farewell Address. He was, in 1798, appointed inspector-general in view of the imminent war with France. But he quarrelled with President John Adams and intrigued against the latter and in favour of Pinckney. Alexander Hamilton and Burr had been political enemies; the latter, while Vice-President, brought on a duel at Weehawken, New Jersey, on July the 11th, 1804, in which Alexander Hamilton was mortally wounded.
He also wrote, the Pacificus letters, report on the public debt in 1789, etc. Alexander Hamilton was perhaps one of the most brilliant of early American statesmen; his state papers were models of luminous and convincing argumentation; and he had an extraordinary genius for administrative organization. His weaknesses were, an imperious self-confidence, and want of popular sympathies. Research Alexander Hamilton
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus often called simply Marcus Aurelius was Roman emperor and philosopher. He was born in 121 AD and died in 180 AD. He was the son-in-law, adopted son, and successor of Antoninus Pius. He succeeded to the throne in 161. His name originally was Marcus Annius Verus. He voluntarily shared the government with Lucius Verus, whom Antoninus Pius had also adopted. Brought up and instructed by Plutarch's nephew, Sextus, the orator Herodes Atticus, and Volusius Mecianus, the jurist, he had become acquainted with learned men, and formed a particular love for the Stoic philosophy. A war with Parthia broke out in the year of his accession, and did not terminate until 166.
A confederacy of the northern tribes now threatened Italy, while a frightful pestilence, brought from the East with the army, raged in Rome itself. Both emperors set out in person against the rebellious tribes. In 169 Verus died, and the sole command of the war devolved on Marcus Aurelius, who prosecuted it with the utmost rigour, and nearly exterminated the Marcomanni. His victory over the Quadi in 174 is connected with a famous legend. Dion Cassius tells us that the twelfthlegion of the Roman army was shut up in a defile, and reduced to great straits for want of water, when a body of Christians enrolled in the legion prayed for relief. Not only was rain sent, which enabled the Romans to quench their thirst, but a fierce storm of hail beat upon the enemy, accompanied by thunder and lightning, which so terrified them that a complete victory was obtained, and the legion was ever after called 'The Thundering Legion'. After this victory the Marcomanni, the Quadi, as well as the rest of the barbarians, sued for peace. The sedition of the Syrian governor Avidius Cassius, with whom Faustina, the empress, was in treasonable communication, called off the emperor from his conquests, but before he reached Asia the rebel was assassinated. Aurelius returned to Rome, after visiting Egypt and Greece, but soon new incursions of the Marcomanni compelled him once more to take the field. He defeated the enemy several times, but was taken sick at Sirmium, and died at Vindobona (Vienna) in 180.
His only extant work is the Meditations, written in Greek, and which has been translated into most modern languages. This may be regarded as a manual of practical morality, in which wisdom, gentleness, and benevolence are combined in the most fascinating manner. Many believe it to have been intended for the instruction of his son Commodus. Aurelius was one of the best emperors ever Rome saw, although his philosophy and the magnanimity of his character did not restrain him from the persecution of the Christians, whose religious doctrines he was led to believe - perhaps with good reason - were subversive of good government. Research Aurelius Antoninus
John Benbow was an Englishsailor. He was born in 1653 at Shrewsbury and died in 1702. The son of a tanner, he is said to have run away to sea, when apprentice to a butcher. In 1678 he became master's mate on board a man-of-war, and so distinguished himself that he was promoted to be master on board another, both vessels being actively engaged against the Barbary pirates. He appears to have again served on board merchant vessels in 1681 to 1686, and he is said to have shown the utmost skill and gallantry in beating off a pirate vessel when in command of a ship of his own in the Levanttrade.
He re-entered the navy in 1689, received rapid promotion, and was engaged in various affairs of importance. He took part in the unfortunate action off Beachy Head and in the glorious battle of La Hogue. He was for some time employed in protecting the English trade in the Channel, which he did with great effect, and in making attacks on St Malo and other places on the French coast; and in 1695 he was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral.
In 1701 he sailed to the West Indies with a small fleet, and in August of the following year he fell in with the French fleet under Du Casse, and attempted to close with it and bring on a general action, but was not well supported by some of his captains. While in chase of the French a chain-shot carried away one of his legs. At this critical instant, being most disgracefully abandoned by several of the captains under his command, who urged him to give up the pursuit, the French fleet effected its escape. John Benbow, on his return to Jamaica, brought the delinquents to a court-martial, by which two of them were condemned to be shot; and they were shot, some time after John Benbow himself had died of his wounds. He seems to have been a brave and able seaman, but rough and overbearing to those under him. Research John Benbow
The Marquis de Lafayette (Marie Jean Paul Joseph Roche Yves Gilbert du Motier) was a French soldier. He was born in 1757 at Auvergne and died in 1834. A general, he was born of a noble family distinguished in the service of the State. As a boy he was a page to the queen. He was still a mere youth when the outbreak of the American War of Independence excited the sympathy of many high-spirited young Frenchmen, Lafayette among others. Having equipped a ship at his own expense he sailed from Bordeaux, with the nominal disapproval of the French Government, in April, 1777. Landing in South Carolina he proceeded northward, and was in July appointed a major-general, and soon became a fast friend of George Washington. He was wounded at Brandywine, served at Monmouth and in the Rhode Islandcampaign, and sailed for France in 1779, returning in time to sit on the board of judges against Andre.
In 1781 he commanded in Virginia against Arnold and then against Charles Cornwallis, and earned distinction by his conduct of affairs against the able British general. After the war he returned to France, paid in 1784 a short visit to America, and on the breaking out of the French Revolution he was for a time one of the foremost figures. He commanded the National Guard, but by 1792 the Jacobins removed him, as a moderate, from the eastern department; escaping to Belgium he fell into the hands of the Prussians and Austrians and was imprisoned, chiefly at Olmutz, until 1797. He did not accept office during the Napoleonic regime, but was a member of the Chamber of Deputies in the Restoration period. In 1824-25 he visited the United States and was received with the utmost enthusiasm. His last conspicuous service was as commander of the National Guard in the revolutionary days of 1830. Research Marquis de Lafayette
Roberto Bellarmino was an Italian cardinal and celebrated controversialist of the Roman Church. He was born in 1542 at Monte Pulciano and died at Rome in 1621. He was ordained a priest in 1569 by Jansenius, bishop of Ghent, and placed in the theological chair of the University of Louvain. He was made a cardinal on account of his learning, by Clement VIII, and in 1602 created Archbishop of Capua. Paul V recalled him to Rome, on which he resigned his archbishopric without retaining any pension on it as he might have done. Roberto Bellarmino, whose life was a model of Christian asceticism, is one of the greatest theologians, particularly in polemics, that the Church of Rome has ever produced. He had the double merit with the court of Rome of supporting her temporal power and spiritual supremacy to the utmost, and of strenuously opposing the reformers. The talent he displayed in the latter controversy called forth all the similar ability on the Protestant side; and for a number of years no eminent divine among the reformers failed to make his arguments a particular subject of refutation. His principal work was Disputationes de Controversiis Fidei ad versus hujus Temporis Haereticos. Research Roberto Bellarmino
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Comet
