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Yet the Opinion of Aristotle *, who would notallow Comets to be any thing but aerial Vapors,extending not so high as the Moon, prevailed somuch among these very People, that this part ofAstronomy, the most abstruse of any, remainedentirely neglected; for no one thought it worthwhile to observe and commit to writing, the vagueand uncertain Tracts of Vapors floating in the Air.And this has been the Reason that nothing certainhas been transmitted to us concerning the Motionof Comets.

But Seneca -j- the Philosopher having consideredthe Phænomena of two remarkable Comets of hisown Time, makes no scruple to rank them amongheavenly Bodies, affirming they are Planets whichwill endure as long as the Universe ; tho' he ac-

his Almagest , Book 7. This Ptolemy' s Name was Claudius ,born at Pelustum in Egypt , and flourished in the Reign of MarcusAntoninus , 140 Years after Christ, falsly taken by some for oneof the Kings of Egypt ; his Work was originally entituled2vi/Ta£i? Mtyipi, that is, Greatest Collection, it being a Col-lection of Problems in Geometry, Geography, &c. the Ara-bians translated it about the Time of Charlemagne, Anno 800,and adding the Particle al to the Word Mtyifti, called it in theirown Language Almagijli , since which it has bore that Name.

* Aristotle, Preceptor to Alexander the Great, born at Stagyra ,a Town in Macedonia, 384 Years before Christ ; his Worksare extant both in Greek, and translated into Latin ; he is re-ported to have said on his Death-bed, Fœde hunc mundum enlravi ,anxius vixi, perturbatus egredior causa causarum miserere mci:That is, I was conceived in Uncleanness, have lived in Anxiety,and die in greater: Supreme Cause of all Things have Mercyon me.

t Lucius Anneeus Seneca, called the Philosopher, to distinguishhim from his Father the Rhetorician, born at Corauba i n Spain,a little before the End of Augustus' s Death ; he was Preceptorto Nero, who, hearing that he was privy to a Conspiracy a-gainft him, ordered him to put himself to death, which hedid by letting himself Blood in the Year of Christ 65.

know-