GREAT SOLAR ECLIPSE. 97 



Divine powers in all his undertakings, we have not seen quoted. It 

 is this : some person once calling on John Forster, took occasion to 

 remark that the Emperor Alexander (of Eussia) was a very pious 

 man. "Very pious, indeed," observed Forster, with tremendous 

 sarcasm, "Very pious, indeed; I am credibly informed that he 

 said grace ere he swallowed Poland ! " 



Preparations on a large scale are being made on the Continent 

 and in America for observing the great solar eclipse of the 22d 

 December, with a care and precision never known in the ex- 

 amination of a similar phenomenon. Never before, indeed, could 

 a solar eclipse be observed and analysed in its every phase as this 

 one will be. Aided by the spectroscope, polariscope, photometer, 

 and photograph, with the most powerful telescopes, and meteoro- 

 logical and magnetic instruments of the utmost delicacy and 

 exactness, it will be strange, indeed, if our knowledge of the 

 chemistry and constitution of the great central orb is not very 

 largely increased on this occasion. In our country the eclipse will 

 be a partial one only. At the moment of maximum obscuration, 

 supposing the sun to consist of twelve digits, about nine digits, or 

 three-fourths of the disc, will be occulted. According to Edinburgh 

 mean time the eclipse will begin at 10 h. 54 m. morning ; maximum 

 observation, h. 8 m. afternoon ; and of eclipse, 1 h. 22 m. after- 

 noon. A glass of very moderate powers is sufficient for observing 

 such partial eclipses. Partial though this eclipse is, however, no 

 phenomenon of the kind of equal magnitude will be seen again iii 

 our country tiU August 1887, when the eclipse will be very nearly, 

 though not quite, total. 



Hever, perhaps, has the solar disc been so constantly and 

 so largely crowded with maculae., or " spots," as during the present 

 year. Some of these spots have recently been very large. On the 

 9th of the present month, for instance, there was an immense 

 circular spot as nearly as possible on the centre of the solar disc, 



G 



