CO SCENERY OF THE HEAVENS. 



sun as seen from the earth, and the earth passes above or below her shadow. Owing to 

 the irregularity of the moon's motions, she does not cross the plane of the earth's orbit at 

 the same point in every revolution, but these points shift through a certain interval, after 

 which the same change is repeated, and the same cycle of eclipses occurs. This interval 

 is eighteen years and about eleven days, a period early discovered by the Chaldean 

 astronomers, and used for the purpose of foretelling eclipses. Thus, on the sixth of May 

 1845, there was a solar eclipse ; and if we add to this era the ecliptic period just named, 

 we are carried on to the seventeenth of May 1863, which will be the epoch of another. 

 The complete period is 6585 days, 7 hours, 42^ minutes nearly. But though the eclipses 

 of each cycle correspond, and may be regarded as identical wjth respect to the earth in 

 general, they vary in then- appearances, and as to the localities in which they are visible. 

 There was an eclipse of the sun visible at the north pole in the month of June 1295, but 

 ever since, it has been proceeding more southerly. It made its first appearance in the north 

 of Europe in August 1367. It was central in London in 1601, which was its nineteenth 

 return; and nearly so again on the 15th of May 1836, its thirty-second appearance. At 

 its thirty-ninth return, in August 1880, the lunar shadow will fall south of the equator, 

 and continue receding from it, until its seventy-eighth appearance will be at the south 

 pole, on the 30th September 2665. 



Though solar eclipses are of common occurrence, yet a total one depends upon a con 

 junction of so many circumstances, that the spectacle happens only on very rare occasions, 

 even anywhere on the surface of the earth. Especially at the same place, or within 

 convenient distance of it are the opportunities for observing the phenomenon few and far 

 between, so that entire astronomical lives have passed away without being gratified with 

 the sight. Halley, in a paper on the total eclipse of the sun which happened at London 

 on the 3d of May 1715 the reign of George I. remarked, that there had not previously 

 occurred a similar event, visible in that city, since the 20th of March 1140 the reign of 

 Stephen an interval of five hundred and seventy-five years. " I forbear," he observed, 

 addressing the Royal Society, "to mention the chill and damp which attended the 

 darkness of this eclipse, of which most spectators were sensible and equally judges. Nor 

 shall I trouble you with the concern that appeared in all sorts of animals, birds, beasts, 

 and fishes, upon the extinction of the sun, since ourselves could not behold it without 

 some sense of horror." One of his correspondents who was stationed on an eminence on 

 Salisbury Plain, wrote to him as follows : " It was the most awful sight that I had ever 

 beheld in my life. We looked in vain for the town of Amesburg, situated below us ; 

 scarcely could we see the ground under our feet. So deep an impression has this spectacle 

 made on my mind, that I shall long be able to recount all the circumstances of it with as 

 much precision as now." The total obscuration lasted 3 minutes, 22 seconds. The 

 planets, Jupiter, Mercury, and Venus, with the stars, Aldebaran and Capella, were visible 

 to the naked eye. 



A partial solar eclipse, however considerable, gives not the faintest idea of what a total 

 one is, as to the obscuration, the chill, and the altered physiognomy of heaven and earth. 

 The " Saxon Chronicle" records of the eclipse in the reign of Stephen : " In the Lent the 

 sun and the day darkened about the noontide of the day, when men were eating ; and 

 they lighted candles to eat by. Men were very much struck with wonder." Of the same 

 event, William of Malmsbury states, that " while persons were sitting at their meals, the 

 darkness became so great, that they feared the ancient chaos was about to return, and 

 upon going out immediately, they perceived several stars about the sun." An eclipse 

 visible in Scotland in 1433, was long remembered by the people of that country as the 

 Black Hour; another in 1598 was similarly commemorated by the inhabitants of the 

 border counties as the Black Saturday; and a third in 1652 gave rise to the expression 



