ASTRONOMICAL PANICS. 193 



lights the splendid coronal arch, the columns tinged with various 

 colors and moving in silent grandeur upon the midnight sky ca'n 

 wonder that in a superstitious age their appearance should have 

 excited the utmost consternation. Before the eighteenth century no 

 physical explanation of such displays had been suggested or even 

 thought of. The phenomena appeared suddenly and unexpectedly, 

 and could not be referred to natural causes then known. The excited 

 imagination saw armies mustering in the sky, brandishing their spears 

 and raising aloft in quick succession their bloody lances. A very brill- 

 iant aurora seen in England, in 1575, is described by a writer of that 

 period as a chasm formed in the northern sky, in which " were seen 

 a great many bright arches, out of which gradually issued spears, cit- 

 ies with towers, and men in battle array ; after that there were excur- 

 sions of rays in every direction, waves of clouds, and battles in which 

 some were fleeing, some pursuing, and others wheeling around in a 

 surprising manner." If panics of this nature have ceased, the fact is 

 due to the ever-advancing light of physical science. 



One of the most noted eclipses in history is that recorded by He- 

 rodotus, and which occurred in the year 585 b. c. The panic produced 

 by this eclipse put an end to the war between the Medes and the Lydi- 

 ans. A great battle was in progress, when, suddenly, day was turned 

 into night by a total eclipse. The contending armies, struck with 

 consternation, at once laid down their arms and hastened on both sides 

 to conclude a peace. 



The Eclipse of Laeissa. Xenophon, in his "Anabasis," Book 

 III, chapter iv, relates how the excitement and alarm produced by a 

 total eclipse led to the surrender of a city. When the Persians ob- 

 tained the empire from the Medes, their king besieged the ancient city 

 of Larissa, but failed to capture it till, finally, the inhabitants, terror- 

 stricken by the darkness of a solar eclipse, lost all courage, and so the 

 city was taken. 



A total eclipse of the sun was visible at many places in Europe on 

 May 12, 1706. Professor Grant relates, in his " History of Physical 

 Astronomy," that in many parts of the city of Geneva persons were 

 seen during the totality "prostrate on the ground and offering up 

 prayers, under the impression that the last day was come." 



An ancient writer, in describing the great meteoric shower of the 

 year 1202, says : " The stars flew against one another like a scattering 

 swarm of locusts, to the right and left ; this phenomenon lasted until 

 daybreak ; people were thrown into consternation and cried to God, 

 the Most High, with confused clamor." Similar consternation and 

 alarm were exhibited during the great meteoric display of 1366. An 

 historian of that time says, " Those who saw it were filled with such 

 great fear and dismay that they were astounded, imagining that they 

 were all dead men, and that the end of the world had come." 



The terror an# alarm produced among the colored people of the 

 tol. xxi. 13 



