JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 43 
he began to mark the lengthening of the shadow. Each day 
it advanced till at length it stopped, stood still for a few days, 
then began to grow shorter till six months later it stopped 
again, stood still for a time, then began again to lengthen. 
To one believing that the earth was flat and immovable, and 
that the sun’s orbit was an exact cirele, this must have been 
most puzzling. He began to doubt whether things were 
exactly as they had seemed to be. Either the sun had a zig- 
zag motion or the earth itself was moving. This last thought 
came like a flash of inspiration but was at once dismissed as he 
saw no way to prove so daring a speculation. If the mysteries 
involved in these motions could not then be solved, four fixed 
facts were recorded, viz., the summer and winter solstices, and 
the autumnal and vernal equinoxes. ‘This was an event of ro 
small importance, especially to the tiller of the soil, who saw 
here data to direct him in his sowing and his reaping. Eclipses 
of the sun had been witnessed by terror stricken millions. 
Superstition at such times reigned supreme and fiendishly 
laughed at the multitudes’ fears. To see the sun extinguished 
at midday was not only an awful sight to the ignorant but in 
addition to the darkness just fallen on them there were ten 
thousand forebodings of still greater evils just at hand, con- 
jured up in their terrified minds. There were a few thoughtful 
men who argued that these events were but the ordinary course 
of nature and that some day they would be easily explained. 
It was observed that an eclipse of the sun never took place 
when the moon was visible. Even when the sun’s light was 
extinguished and the stars shone out during the day, the moon 
could nowhere be seen, yet the very next day after an eclipse 
of the sun, the moon in crescent form was quite near the sun. 
It did not then take long to discover that an eclipse of the sun 
was caused by the moon crossing the sun’s path, in line with 
some portion of the earth, this led to the discovery that the 
moon shone only by reflecting the light of the sun. It did not 
take long after this event to explain the mystery of the phases 
of the moon. 
To predict successfully an eclipse of the sun was the next 
