GREAT SOLAR ECLIPSES. 3 



lunar month ; and the sun and moon should be almost 

 immediately overhead, which can only happen at mid- 

 day in tropical countries. It will readily be conceived 

 how seldom these conditions can be fulfilled (in com- 

 bination with the other conditions which determine 

 the occurrence of an eclipse at all). In fact it has 

 never yet happened that any very close approach has 

 been made to the simultaneous fulfilment of all the 

 conditions. 



I proceed to discuss a few of the most remarkable 

 eofipses recorded by ancient historians. 



It is rather singular that no eclipses are recorded 

 in the Bible. There have been some astronomers who 

 have imagined that the ' going back of the shadow 

 upon the dial of Ahaz ' was caused by a partial eclipse 

 of the sun. But this supposition seems too fanciful to 

 be admitted, even if it were the case that a partial 

 eclipse could have caused the retrogression of the 

 shadow. We are told distinctly that the ' going ba,ck 

 of the shadow ' was a miraculous, not a natural event ; 

 and even if this were not so, or if we might infer that 

 it was the prophet's foreknowledge of an approaching 

 eclipse which constituted the miracle, yet it may 

 readily be shown that no partial or total eclipse could 

 produce the effects described. Such an eclipse un- 

 doubtedly causes an irregularity in the motion of the 

 shadow on a dial; the shadow at first moves more 

 slowly, afterwards more quickly, than it would other- 

 wise do, but it cannot possibly go back. 



The first important eclipse whose records have- 



B2 



