predicted by Thales. 225 
when the last portion of the sun was covered by the moon, 
ec la clarte a diminue tout d’un coup ; de sorte qu’on a eu be- 
<4 soin de lumiere pour compter a la pendule : on voyoit les 
44 personnes au grand air, mais on lie distinguoit pas bien les 
44 visages a quelques pas de loin.” In another account, in the 
same volume, it is stated, that the darkness came on dans un 
instant; and that, after an interval of two minutes and sixteen 
seconds 44 le soleil commenga a reparoitre comme un eclair, 
c< qui dissipa sur le champ le-s tendbres dans lesquelles on dtoit 
44 plonge.” M. Desvignoles, likewise (in his Chronologic de 
VHistoire Sainte , Vol. II. p. 253), gives an extract of a letter 
from M. Abauzit of Geneva, who, at the close of his remarks 
on the calculation of Petavius respecting this very eclipse, 
observes 44 il ignoroit que le moindre raion, qui commence a. 
44 poindre, est assez fort pour dissiper les tendbres : comme je 
44 Vai observe deuxfois.” All which may serve to explain the 
remarkable expression of Herodotus, who says t^v 
wKTa yewz'a-Qca , 44 the day suddenly became night:” a 
passage which has been ignorantly censured by some of his 
commentators. 
It appears to me, that an inattention to these singular facts 
has been the principal cause of the various opinions that have 
arisen respecting the time when this eclipse happened. For 
each chronologist, having a system of his own to support, has 
satisfied himself merely with ascertaining that a solar eclipse 
did take place in the year that he had assigned for it ; and 
which eclipse he supposed might be visible in that part of the 
world bordering on the two hostile countries : but without 
taking into his account the ?nagnitude of the eclipse at the 
place where the battle is supposed to have been fought. Now 
mdcccxi. G g 
