y4t Solar System. 



An eclipse of the swi is, when the 

 moon, being between the sun and the 

 earth, hinders the light of the sun from 

 coming to us. If the moon hides from, 

 us the whole body of the sun, it is a to- 

 tal eclipse, if not, a partial one. 



The eclipses of the sun and the moon, 

 though expressed by the same word, are 

 in nature very different ; the sun, in re- 

 ality, loses nothing of its native lustre in 

 the greatest eclipses, but is all the while 

 incessantly sending forth streams of light 

 every way around him, as copiously as 

 before. Some of these streams are, how- 

 ever, intercepted, in their way towards 

 our earth, by the moon coming between 

 the earth and the sun ; and the moon ha- 

 ving no light of her own, and receiving 

 none from the sun on that half of the 

 globe which is towards our eye, must 

 appear dark, and make so much of the 

 sun's disk appear so, as is hid from us by 

 her interposition. What is called an 

 eclipse of the sun, is therefore, in reality, 

 an eclipse of the earth, which is deprived 

 of the sun's light, by the moon's coming 

 between, and casting a shadow upon it. 

 The earth being a globe, only that half 



