ECL 



ECL 



it not at all : the reason of it is this : the 

 elevation of ground I was upon gave me 

 an opportunity of seeing the light of the 

 heavens beyond the shadow ; neverthe- 

 less, this verge of light looked of a dead, 

 yellowish, and greenish colour; it was 

 broader to the north than south, but the 

 southern was of a tawny colour ; at this 

 time, behind us, oreastward toward Lon- 

 don, it was dark too, where otherwise I 

 could see the hills beyond Andover ; for 

 the foremost end of the shadow was past 

 thither ; so that the whole horizon was 

 now divided into four parts of unequal 

 bulk, and degrees of light and dark ; the 

 part to the north-west broadest and 

 blackest, to the south-west lightest and 

 longest. All the change I could per- 

 ceive during the totality was, that the 

 horizon by degrees drew into t\vo parts, 

 light and dark ; the northern hemisphere 

 growing still longer, lighter, and broad- 

 er ; and the two opposite dark parts 

 uniting into one, and swallowing up the 

 southern enlightened part. 



" As at the beginning the shade came 

 feelingly upon our right shoulders, so 

 now the light from the north, where it 

 opened as it were ; though I could dis- 

 cern no defined light or shade upon the 

 earth that way, which I earnestly watch- 

 ed for, yet it was manifestly by degrees, 

 and with oscillations, going back a little, 

 and quickly advancing further ; till at 

 length, upon the first lucid point appear- 

 ing in the heavens, where the sun was, I 

 could distinguish pretty plainly a rim of 

 Dght running along side of us a good 

 while together, or sweeping by at our 

 elbows from west to east; just then hav- 

 ing good reason to suppose the totality 

 ended with us, I looked on my watch, and 

 found it to be full three minutes and a 

 half more. Now the hill tops changed 

 their black into blue again, and I could 

 distinguish a horizon where the centre of 

 darkness was before ; the men cried out 

 they saw the copped hill again, which 

 they had eagerly looked for ; but still it 

 continued dark to the south-east, yet I 

 cannot say that ever the horizon that 

 way was undistinguishable ; immediately 

 we heard the larks chirping, and singing 

 very briskly, for joy of the restored lu- 

 minary, after all things had been hushed 

 into a most profound and universal 

 silence. The heavens and earth now 

 appeared exactly like morning before 

 sun-rise, of a greyish cast, but rather 

 more blue interspersed ; and the earth, 

 so far as the verge of the hill reached, 

 was of a dark green or russet colour. 



" As soon as the sun emerged, the 

 clouds grew thicker, and the light was 

 very little amended for a minute or more, 

 like a cloudy morning slowly advancing. 

 After about the middle of the totality, 

 and so after the immersion of the sun, 

 we saw Venus very plainly, but no other 

 star. Salisbury steeple now appeared. 

 The clouds never removed, so that we 

 could take no account of it afterward, 

 but in the evening it lightened very 

 much. 1 hasted home to write this let- 

 ter; and the impression was so vivid 

 upon my mind, that I am sure I could 

 for some days after have wrote the same 

 account of it, and very precisely. After 

 supper I made a drawing of it from my 

 imagination, upon the same paper I had 

 taken a prospect of the country before. 



" I must confess to you, that I was (I 

 believe) the only person in England that 

 regretted not the cloudiness of the day, 

 which added so much to the solemnity of 

 the sight, and which incomparably ex- 

 ceeded, in my apprehension, that of 

 1715, which I saw very perfectly from 

 the top of Boston steeple, in Lincoln- 

 shire, where the air was very clear ; but 

 the night of this was more complete and 

 dreadful : there, indeed, 1 saw both sides 

 of the shadow come from a great dis- 

 tance, and pass beyond us to a great dis- 

 tance ; but this eclipse had much more of 

 variety and majestic terror ; so that I 

 cannot but felicitate myself upon the op- 

 portunity of seeing these two rare acci- 

 dents of nature in so different a manner : 

 yet I should willingly have lost this 

 pleasure for your more valuable advan- 

 tage of perfecting the noble theory of 

 the celestial bodies, which last time you 

 gave the world so nice a calculation of ; 

 and wish the sky had now as much fa- 

 voured us for an addition to your honour 

 and great skill, which I doubt not to be 

 as exact in this as before." 



ECLIPTA, in botany, a genus of the 

 Syngenesia Polygamia Superflua class 

 and order. Natural order of Compound 

 Flowers. Corymbiferae, Jussieu. Essen- 

 tial character: receptacle chaffy ; down 

 none ; corollets of the disk four-cleft. 

 There are five species, natives of the 

 East and West Indies. 



ECLIPTIC, in astronomy, a great cir- 

 cle of the sphere, supposed to be drawn 

 through the middle of the zodiac, making 

 an angle with the equinoctial of about 

 23 30', which is the sun's greatest de- 

 clination : or, more strictly speaking, it 

 is that path or way among the fixed stars, 



