Sky and Telescope - December 2016 - 35

Poe almost certainly derived these passages from the
1834 Philadelphia edition of John Herschel's popular
book. Herschel describes an encounter between Lexell's
Comet and Jupiter thusly:
In the case of the remarkable comet of 1770, which was found
by Lexell to revolve in a moderate ellipse in the period of
about 5 years, and whose return was predicted by him accordingly, the prediction was disappointed by the comet actually
getting entangled among the satellites of Jupiter, and being
completely thrown out of its orbit by the attraction of that
planet, and forced into a much larger ellipse. By this extraordinary rencontre, the motions of the satellites suffered not
the least perceptible derangement - a sufficient proof of the
smallness of the comet's mass.

Elijah Burritt's 1838 edition cites Herschel's words
and summarizes this passage as "sufficient proof of the
aeriform nature of the comet's mass." So Poe's mention
of a comet "observed to pass among the satellites of Jupiter" was definitely inspired by Lexell's Comet.

Stars Visible Through Comets
Another passage from Poe's dialogue of the dead offers
reassurance about the low density of comets in a different way altogether:
The exceeding tenuity of the object of our dread was apparent;
for all heavenly objects were plainly visible through it.

Once again Poe was apparently influenced by Herschel:
Stars of the smallest magnitude remain distinctly visible,
though covered by what appears to be the densest portion of
their substance; although the same stars would be completely
obliterated by a moderate fog, extending only a few yards from
the surface of the earth. . . . It will then be evident that the most
unsubstantial clouds which float in the highest regions of our
atmosphere . . . must be looked upon as dense and massive
bodies compared with the filmy and all but spiritual texture of
a comet.

Herschel described his own observations of Biela's
Comet on September 23, 1832:
. . . it passed directly over a small cluster or knot of minute
stars of the 16th or 17th magnitude [sic] . . . the stars of the
cluster being visible through the comet.
A more striking proof could not have been offered of the extreme translucency of the matter of which this comet consists.
The most trifling fog would have entirely effaced this group of
stars; yet they continued visible. . . .

Conclusions
So we are confident that the mystery is settled. The
scientific passages in Poe's 1839 story were derived from
Thomas Dick's The Christian Philosopher, Elijah Burritt's

Eudosia & Neander
Our search of popular astronomy books available to
Poe turned up one more worth mentioning: James Ferguson's An Easy Introduction to Astronomy for Young
Gentlemen and Ladies, published in Philadelphia in 1819.
It takes the form of a dialogue between a brother and
sister named Neander and Eudosia, and their thoughtful
conversation includes the following reassurance about
the danger of comets:
Eudosia: But, as we were talking about the comets, pray,
are they not dangerous? We are always frightened when we
hear of their appearing, lest their fiery trains should burn
the world.
Neander: That is owing to People's not knowing better. . . .
And, as to those appearances, which are called the tails
of the comets, they are only thin vapours, which arise
from the comets, and which could not hurt any planet, if it
should happen to go through that vapour when the comet
is crossing the plane in which the planet's orbit lies. . . .
Eudosia: This is comfortable doctrine, indeed.

Poe's format for the dialogue of Eiros and Charmion,
and its remarks on academics who claimed that comets
are too tenuous to be harmful, may have been in part
inspired by Ferguson's book for young readers.
It appeared when Poe was ten. During the next few
years, while being educated under his stepfather John
Allan, Poe studied the heavens with a telescope (likely
the one pictured on the facing page). Did he possess this
book to go with it?

The Geography of the Heavens, and John Herschel's A
Treatise on Astronomy, all available to him in the 1830s.
The details about comets are based on the characteristics
of Biela's and Lexell's comets.
Then after we completed this work, we discovered
that we were not the first! In 1963, Elva Baer Kremenliev at UCLA submitted a Ph.D. thesis, "The Literary
Uses of Astronomy in the Writings of Edgar Allan Poe."
She used John Herschel's 1834 American edition as a
source and connected "The Conversation of Eiros and
Charmion" to both Biela's Comet and Lexell's Comet. ✦
Don Olson is author of Celestial Sleuth, which includes
many of his Sky & Telescope articles (Springer, 2014) and
the forthcoming Celestial Sleuth: Further Adventures
(Springer, 2017). He teaches physics and astronomy at
Texas State University, where Shaun Ford is a graduate
student in English and Philosophy. The authors are grateful
for research assistance from Margaret Vaverek at Texas
State University's Alkek Library.
Sk yandTelescope.com December 2016

35


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Sky and Telescope - December 2016

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Sky and Telescope - December 2016 - 1
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