ECL 



ECL 



it not at all : the reason ofit is this : the 

 elevation of ground I was upon gave me 

 an opportunity of seeing the light of the 

 heavens beyond the shadow : neverthe- 

 less, this verge of light looked of a dead, 

 yellowish, and greenish colour ; it jvas 

 broader to the north than south, but the 

 southern was of a tawny colour ; at this 

 time, behind us, or eastward toward Lon- 

 don, it was dark too, where otherwise I 

 could see the hills beyond Andover ; for 

 the foremost end of the shadow was past 

 thither ; so that the whole horizon was 

 now divided into four parts, of unequal 

 bulk and degrees of light and dark ; the 

 part to the north-west broadest and 

 blackest, to the south-west lightest and 

 longest. All the change I could per- 

 ceive during the totality was, that the 

 horizon by degrees drew into two parts, 

 light and dark ; the northern hemisphere 

 growing still longer, lighter, and broad- 

 er; and the two opposite dark parts 

 uniting into one, and swallowing up the 

 southern enlightened part. 



" As at the beginning the shade came 

 feelingly upon our right shoulders, so 

 now the light from the north, where it 

 opened as it were: though I could dis- 

 cern no defined light or shade upon the 

 earth that way, which I earnestly watch- 

 ed for, yet it was manifestly by degrees, 

 and with oscillations, going back a little 

 and quickly advancing further ; till at 

 length, upon the first lucid point appear- 

 ing in the heavens where the sun was, I 

 could distinguish pretty plainly a rim of 

 light running along side of us a good 

 while together, or sweeping by at our 

 elbows from west to east; just then hav- 

 ing good reason to suppose the totality 

 ended with us, I looked on my watch, and 

 found it to be full three minutes and a 

 half more. Now the hill tops changed 

 their black into blue again, and I could 

 distinguish a horizon where the centre of 

 darkness was before : the men cried out 

 they saw the copped hill again, which 

 they had eagerly looked for ; but still it 

 continued dark to the south-east, yet I 

 cannot say that ever the horizon that 

 way was undistinguishable ; immediately 

 we heard the larks chirping, and singing 

 very briskly, for joy of the restored lu- 

 minary, after all things had been hushed 

 into a most profound and universal 

 silence. The heavens and earth now 

 appeared exactly like morning before 

 sun-rise, of a greyish cast, but rather 

 more blue interspersed ; and the earth, 

 so far as the verge of the hill reached, 

 was of a dark green or russet colour. 



'* As soon as the sun emerged, the I 

 clouds grew thicker, and the light was } 

 very little amended for a minute or more, '. 

 like a cloudy morning slowly advancing. 

 After about the middle of the totality, j 

 and so after the immersion of the sun, 

 we saw Venus very plainly, but no other ! 

 star. Salisbury steeple now appeared. 

 The clouds never removed, so that we 

 could take no account of it afterward, 

 but in the evening it lightened very 

 much. I hasted home to write this let- 

 ter ; and the impression was so vivid 

 upon my mind, that I am sure I could 

 for some days after have wrote the same 

 account ofit, and rery precisely. After 

 supper I made a drawing of it from my 

 imagination, upon the same paper I had 

 taken a prospect of the country before. 



" I must confess to you, that I was (I 

 believe) the only person in England that 

 regretted not the cloudiness of the day, 

 which added so much to the solemnity of 

 the sight, and which incomparably ex- . 

 ceeded, in my apprehension, that of 

 1715, which 1 saw very perfectly from 

 the top of Boston steeple, in Lincoln- 

 shire, where the air was very clear ; but 

 the night of this was more complete and 

 dreadful: there, indeed, I saw both sides 

 of the shadow come from a great dis- 

 tance, and pass beyond us to a great dis- 

 tance; but this eclipse had much more of 

 variety and majestic terror ; so that I 

 cannot but felicitate myself upon the op- 

 portunity of seeing these two rare acci- 

 dents of nature in so different a manner : 

 yet I should willingly have lost this 

 pleasure for your more valuable advan- 

 tage of perfecting the noble theory of 

 the celestial bodies, which last time you 

 gave the world so nice a calculation of; 

 and wish the sky had now as much fa- 

 voured us for an addition to your honour 

 and great skill, which I doubt not to be 

 as exact in this as before.'* 



ECLIPTA, in botany, a genus of the 

 Syngenesia Polygamia Superflua class 

 and order. Natural order of Compound 

 Flowers. Corymbiferae, Jussieu. Essen- 

 tial character: receptacle chaffy ; down 

 none ; corollets of the disk four cleft. 

 There are five species, natives of the 

 East and West Indies. 



ECLIPTIC, in astronomy, a great cir- 

 cle of the sphere, supposed to be drawn 

 through the middle of the zodiac, making 

 an angle with the equinoctial of about 

 23* 30', which is the sun's greatest de- 

 clination : or, more strictly speaking, it 

 is that path or way among the fixed stars. 



