332 The Natural History of Se I borne 



summer solstice : and the two erections might be constructed 

 with very little expense ; for two pieces of timber frame- work, 

 about ten or twelve feet high, and four feet broad at the base, 

 and close lined with plank, would answer the purpose. 



The erection for the former should, if possible, be placed 

 within sight of some window in the common sitting-parlour ; 

 because men, at that dead season of the year, are usually 

 within doors at the close of the day ; while that for the latter 

 might be fixed for any given spot in the garden or outlet : 

 whence the owner might contemplate, in a fine summer's 

 evening, the utmost extent that the sun makes to the north- 

 ward at the season of the longest days. Now nothing would 

 be necessary but to place these two objects with so much 

 exactness, that the westerly limb of the sun, at setting, might 

 but just clear the winter heliotrope to the west of it on the 

 shortest day, and that the whole disc of the sun, at the 

 longest day, might exactly at setting also clear the summer 

 heliotrope to the north of it. 



By this simple expedient it would soon appear that there is 

 no such thing, strictly speaking, as a solstice ; for, from the 

 shortest day, the owner would, every clear evening, see the 

 disc advancing, at its setting, to the westward of the object ; 

 and, from the longest day observe the sun retiring backwards 

 every evening at its setting, towards the object westward, till, 

 in a few nights, it would set quite behind it and so by degrees, 

 to the west of it : for when the sun comes near the summer 

 solstice, the whole disc of it would at first set behind the 

 object; after a time the northern limb would first appear, 

 and so every night gradually more, till at length the whole 

 diameter would set northward of it for about three nights ; 

 but on the middle night of the three, sensibly more remote 

 than the former or following. When beginning its recess 

 from the summer tropic, it would continue more and more 

 to be hidden every night, till at length it would descend quite 

 behind the object again ; and so nightly more and more to 

 the westward. 



