Text: C. F. Briggs (?), Literary, Broadway Journal (New York), March 28, 1845, vol. 1, no. 13, p. ??

[page 194, column 1, continued:]

POPULAR LECTURES OF ASTRONOMY. By M. Arazo, with acidifying and corrections by Dionyoiva Lardnor, L. L. D. Greeley & McElrath, Tribune Buildings. 1845. Price 25 cents.

IF M. Arago should ever chance to see a copy of this work, it would, probably, cause him as much surprise as the last comet did, which caught him napping. It is, unquestionably, a very excellent book for popular reading, and to those who know nothing about Astronomy, it will, as any work on Astronomy could not fail to do, convey many great truths which they will be the better for knowing. Nearly one half of the book has been contributed by Dr. Lardner, and the balance is ascribed to M. Arago, but as it was published from notes improperly taken, to which he never gave his consent, it is hardly doing him justice to pass it off as his work. The publishers give a perfectly satisfactory account of the manner in which it was obtained, and excuse themselves for republishing it by urging a plea very common with certain kinds of people, “if they did not, somebody else would.” Perhaps we are a little too strict in regard to the publication of other people's property without their permission, but there are so few in the country who err in this manner, that we may be forgiven for erring on the same side.

M. Arago asks two questions in his lecture on comets, only one of which he answers.

“If the Moon is an old comet, what has she done with her hair?”

“What would be the consequence if the Earth should ever become the satellite of a comet?”

In reply to this last supposition, M. Arago quiets the fears of the Earthites, by a very ingenious theory, from which it appears, that instead of the Earth being alternately vitrified, liquified, and congealed as it approached and receded from the sun, its condition would not very materially be changed, and that at its aphelion and perihelion, its temperature would not vary much more than it does now. “There is nothing, therefore, to prove,” M. Arago is made to say, and perhaps did say; “that in the hypothesis that the Earth should become the satellite of a comet, the human race must necessarily perish from thermometric changes.” An exceedingly consoling theory; for although we Earthites might not altogether be satisfied with so secondary a position in the Universe, as that of a satellite to a vagabond comet, still we need entertain no harassing fears of danger to life and property in the case of such an event taking place. But we trust it will be a long time before any comet shall think of annexation with an eye to our own planet; and we have no doubt that even our friends at the south, as zealous they are for annexation of another kind, would sturdily oppose this.