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The Book of the Damned
·
Charles Fort
169
Throughout
the
history
of
astronomy,
every
comet
that
has
come
back
upon
predicted
time--not
that,
essentially,
there
was
anything
more
abstruse
about
it
than
is
a
prediction
that
you
can
make
of
a
postman's
periodicities
tomorrow--was
advertised
for
all
it
was
worth.
It's
the
way
reputations
are
worked
up
for
fortune-tellers
by
the
faithful.
The
comets
that
didn't
come
back--omitted
or
explained.
Or
Encke's
comet.
It
came
back
slower
and
slower.
But
the
astronomers
explained.
Be
almost
absolutely
sure
of
that:
they
explained.
They
had
it
all
worked
out
and
formulated
and
"proved"
why
that
comet
was
coming
back
slower
and
slower--and
there
the
damn
thing
began
coming
faster
and
faster.
Halley's
comet.
Astronomy--"the
perfect
science,
as
we
astronomers
like
to
call
it."
(Jacoby.)
It's
my
own
notion
that
if,
in
a
real
existence,
an
astronomer
could
not
tell
one
longitude
from
another,
he'd
be
sent
back
to
this
purgatory
of
ours
until
he
could
meet
that
simple
requirement.
Halley
was
sent
to
the
Cape
of
Good
Hope
to
determine
its
longitude.
He
got
it
degrees
wrong.
He
gave
to
Africa's
noble
Roman
promontory
a
retrousse
twist
that
would
take
the
pride
out
of
any
Kaffir.
We
hear
everlastingly
of
Halley's
comet.
It
came
back--maybe.
But,
unless
we
look
the
matter
up
in
contemporaneous
records,
we
hear
nothing
of--the
Leonids,
for
instance.
By
the
same
methods
as
those
by
which
Halley's
comet
was
predicted,
the
Leonids
were
predicted.
November,
1898--no
Leonids.
It
was
explained.
They
had
been
perturbed.
They
would
appear
in
November,
1899.
November,
1899--November,
1900--no
Leonids.
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