A description of the aurora borealis, on page 146 of “Willard’s Abridged History of the United States,” published in 1869, is as follows: “A phenomenon, singular at the time, and not yet satisfactorily explained, alarmed the people of New England in 1719. This was the ‘aurora borealis,’ first noticed in this country on the night of the 17th of December. Its appearance, according to the writings of the day, was more calculated to excite terror than later appearances of the same kind.” LDT 22.1
A writer in the New York Evening Post, about the year 1864, speaking of the effect of these wonderful sights in the heavens, on the people, says: “It prompts some to a more constant study of the heavens, others to a more reverent feeling of dependence upon Him by whose command all things were made that were made, and terrifying others by the threatening approach of those latter days-those times prophesied of by Joel-when wonders should be shown in the sky, and when, according to St. Luke, ‘fearful sights and great signs’ from heaven should appear.” LDT 22.2