LESSON XIV. 



ON ECLIPSES OF THE SUN AND MOON. 



Give me the ways of wandering stars to know, 

 The depths of heav'n above and earth below ; 

 Teach me the various labours of the Moon, 

 And whence proceed th' eclipses of the Sun. 



VIRG. GEORG. ir. 



1 DOUBT not but that several of you, my young 

 friends, will heartily join in Virgil's petition above 

 cited : and though you, perhaps, may never have 

 either leisure or opportunity enough to acquire a 

 very great astronomical knowledge; yet I can as- 

 sure you it is no difficult mailer to attain such an 

 acquaintance with the science, as to understand 

 the reason of Eclipses of the Sun and Moon. 



You will observe, then, that an Eclipse of the 

 Jfloon is a privation of the light of tht Moon, oc- 

 casioned by an interposition of the body of the 

 Earth (as she revolves in her orbit) directly be- 

 tween the Sun and Moon j by which mean, the 

 Sun's rays are so intercepted that they cannot 

 illuminate the Moon : then 



- The silver Moon is all o'er blood, 



A settling crimson stains her beauteous face. LEE. 



It is at the lime of full Moon that lunar eclipses 



happen 5 



