ECLIPSES. 



the longest and brightest to the southwest. The only change I could perceive 

 during the whole time the phenomenon lasted, was that the horizon divided 

 into two parts one clear, the other obscure. The northern hemisphere then 

 acquired more length, brightness, and breadth, and the two opposite parts coa- 

 lesced. 



" Like the shadow in the beginning of the eclipse, the light approached from 

 the north, and fell on our right shoulders. I could not, indeed, distinguish on 

 that side either defined light or shadow upon the earth, which I watched atten- 

 tively ; but it was evident that the light returned but gradually, and with oscil- 

 lation : it receded a little, advanced rapidly, till at last, with the first brilliant 

 point that appeared in the sky, I saw plainly enough an edge of light that 

 grazed our sides for a considerable time, or brushed our elbows from west to 

 east. Having good reason, therefore, to suppose the eclipse ended for us, I I 

 looked at my watch, and found that the hand had traversed three minutes and 

 a half. The hill-tops then resumed their natural color, and I saw a horizon at 

 the point previously occupied by the centre of the shadow. My companions 

 cried out that, they again saw the steep hill toward which they had been look- 

 ing attentively. It still, indeed, remained black to the southeast, but I will not 

 say that the horizon was difficult to discover. Presently we heard the song of 

 the larks hailing the return of light, after the profound and universal silence in 

 which everything had been plunged. The earth and sky appeared then as 

 they do in the morning before sunrise. The latter was of a grayish tint, in- 

 clining to blue ; the former, as far as my eye could reach, was deep green or 

 russet. 



" As soon as the sun appeared, the clouds grew denser, and for several min- 

 utes the light did not increase, just as happens at a cloudy sunrise. The in- 

 stant the eclipse became total, till the emersion of the sun, we saw Venus, but 

 no other stars. We perceived at this moment the spire of Salisbury cathedral. 

 The clouds not dispersing, we could not push our observations further : they 

 cleared up, however, considerably toward evening. I have hastened home to 

 write this letter. So deep an impression has this spectacle made upon my 

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

 much precision as now. After supper, I made a sketch of it from memory, on 

 the same paper on which I had previously drawn a view of the country. 



" I will own to you I was, methinks, the only person '"1 Ei v ^nd who did 

 not regret the presence of clouds : they added much to the -oleua.iitv of the 

 spectacle incomparably superior, in my opinion, to that of 17ic which 1 saw 

 perfectly from the top of the belfrey of Boston, in Lincolnshire, where the sky 

 was very clear. There, indeed, I saw the two sides of the shadow coming 

 from afar, and passing to a great distance behind us ; but this eclipse exhibited 

 great variety, and was more awfully imposing ; so that I cannot but congratu- 

 late myself on having had opportunities of seeing, under such different circum- 

 stances, these two rare accidents of nature." 



The ECLIPTIC derives its name from the fact, that the shadow of the earth 

 always lying in it, no object can be eclipsed unless it be very near to it. If we 

 imagine a line drawn from the centre of the sun through the centre of the 

 earth, and continued beyond the earth, that line will be the axis of the earth's 

 shadow, and the diameter of the conical shadow must be everywhere less than 

 the diameter of the earth. The moon can not touch the shadow, if the distance 

 of its nearer limb from the ecliptic be greater than the diameter of the earth. 



The ecliptic limits, is a term expressing the greatest distances of the moon from 

 its node at which it is possible that an eclipse, either lunar or solar, can hap- 

 pen. This distance for eclipses of the moon is twelve degrees, and for eclip- 

 ses of the sun seventeen degrees. 



