The Sun.
London, England, 1851-07-29 00:00:00

THE SOLAR ECLIPSE.

A sad disappointment yesterday awaited the learned
and scientific, as well as the lovers of the marvellous,
who had anticipated the gratification of witnessing the
rare and interesting spectacle of an almost total eclipse
of the sun. It is a subject of no ordinary regret, that
the unpropitious and clouded state of the heavens
should have denied to the vast multitude of metropo-
litan observers who were preparing to profit by an
event so seldom occurring, and yet so replete with
matter for contemplation and instruction, the opportu-
nity for turning it to intellectual account. There is
no question that the celestial phenomenon which oc-
curred yesterday belongs to a class which, more than
any other, tends to realise to ordinary apprehensions
the great truths of astronomical science. An eclipse,
beyond all other marvels, serves the purpose, as it
were, of a popular demonstration of the accuracy of
those wonderful calculations by which the movements
of the heavenly bodies are ascertained for hundreds of
years beforehand, and laid down with unerring cer-
tainty and precision. Most persons must have experi-
enced the vague and misty effect occasionally produced
on the mind by reading or listening to astronomical
lectures, in which not only millions of miles, but distances
altogether immeasurable and indefinite, are talked of with
a familiarity that often amazes still more than it enlightens,
leaving the mind ultimately in a mere state of confusion
and bewilderment. We arc not sure, indeed, that a
doubt is not sometimes suggested, whether the grave-
looking gentleman wbo propounds such astounding reve-
lations touching the motions of the vast bodies in space—
" Cycle on epicycle, orb on orb"—
is not under a dreamy and mysterious delusion, and pre-
tending to tell us infinitely more than he really knows,
or, if put to the test, would be able to prove. Certainly,
to the popular mind, there is all the difference in the
world between giving perchance a listless ear to the re-
lation of such marvels, and the palpable evidence pre-
sented to their sight by the actual occurrence. The
maxim of Horace—

" Segnius irritant animum demissa per aurem,
Quam gum aunt oculis subjects fidelibus"—
will apply to the facts of astronomy at least as fell&
tously as to any others coming within the range of the
senses. The truthfulness of these profound. deductions is
by such evidence removed from the dim and distant re-
gion of theory to the sphere of undeniable fact, and the
mind is gradually prepared to grapple with and admit
the other truths of this sublime science. Instead of being
viewed, as formerly, by our ancestors as the forerunner
of plague, pestilence, and famine, may not an eclipse
rather be regarded as one of the grandest of astrono-
mical lectures, delivered by Nature herself, with the
human race for an auditory, the heavens for a theatre,
and the sun and moon as the philosophical apparatus by
which her operations are illustrated?
On the effect of such a phenomenon in ancient, and
even in more recent times, on the minds of men, nay of
whole nations—arising from the groundless, though per-
haps not altogether unnatural, superstition that con-
nected those purely physical effects with impending evil
and the wrath of heaven—we need not now dilate. With
the advance of science and the abundance of information
daily diffused at our public institutions, in a popular
though philosophical form, such unfounded alarms have
vanished like owls at the approach of daylight; and the
announcement of an eclipse, instead of driving our
worthy citizens to their collars for refuge against the an-
ticipated horrors attending it, serves rather to attract
them to every spot where it may be seen to the best ad-
vantage.
Tho dubious appearance in the early part of the day,
and the cloudy and more threatening aspect it after-
wards assumed, doubtless prevented many otherwise
eager sight-seers from availing themselves of those lo-
calities which are sufficiently convenient for the less
curious or less favoured mortals, who have neither the
desire nor the means of transporting themselves from
Marylebone or Cheapside to Christiana, Konigsberg, or
elsewhere, in the zone within whose range the luxury of
a total eclipse was doubtless enjoyed. On Nunhead-hill,
however, and other elevated spots in the vicinity of the
metropolis, a few stray observers were stationed, de-
sirous, like ourselves, of witnessing the effect of the pre-
dicted obscuration on the surrounding country; but as
far as the purpose of observation was concerned, we
might as well have confined our astronomic survey to
the precincts of our own dwelling. We confess to having
expected to see a liberal sprinkling of peripatetic
Galileos proffering their tubes for a moderate charge, or
troops of amateur astronomers-royal learnedly sweeping
the sky through the medium of pieces of smoked and co-
loured glass.
At Greenwich the gathering was at first considerable
but scarcely so great as might have been expected. The
Astronomer Royal at Froderichsvaem, Mr. Hind at
Gothenburg, most of our men of scientific eminence
abroad—the Observatory itself was deserted; whilst
many of the mere tight-seers who early in the day oc-
cupied the hill, being disheartened by the clouds, or
damped by the rain, left prematurely in despair of be-
holding the phenomenon which they had hoped to view.
And the result, it must be confessed, did not belie the
wisdom of the philosophers nor falsify the instincts of
their disciples ; for whatever may have been wit-
nessed by the professors who have gone to Sweden
and Norway, no important observations were made
by their deputies whom they left here. The un-
learned felt, therefore, some disappointment. In the
first place, the weather was most unfortunately hostile
to the wishes of the amateur watchers, clouds impeding
their view, and following each other in such rapid
succession as to forbid more than a glance, and to
refuse time for anything like a sufficient observation; in
the second, the coincident appearances were by no means
so extraordinary as had been predicted—in short, they
were not, to the unassisted vision, extraordinary at all.
The actual mathematical certainties of course came true.
The eclipse was duly noticed, and, as far as visible, veri-
fied to the letter the calculations on which it had been
announced. Between 2.20 P.M. and 2.25 it was first re-
marked; at 3 5 it might, for a moment or two, be well
seen; but at 3.10, the greatest phase, it was lost to sight
altogether. But the wonders of 1842 were not repeated;
tho " fairy tales of science," as Tennyson, borrowing
from Lord Brougham, has phrased it, proved themselves
mere fictions. Yet the English still love the marvellous,
though they have ceased to fear it. For upwards of two
hours the scrutiny continued, apparently with but little
result. To the naked eye, however, the clouds, which
were obstacles to those provided with the necessary op-
tical instruments, were occasionally an assistance, as the
lighter of them answered particularly well the purpose
to which smoked glasses are generally applied, and
helped to heighten the effect which, to some extent, they
had produced. Atmospheric changes worthy of note
there were none; the wind blew slightly till the rain
fell, and then moderated, as in the ordinary course of
things it naturally would. Such were all the observa-
tions which, outside, it was possible to make; unfortn-
tunately, in the absence of Professor Airey, there was
no information from within our national observatory to
be had—a circumstance which the professor might have
prevented, and which the public will regret.
Besides the naturally elevated positions of which we
have spoken, those which art has raised were generally
occupied for the occasion, On the Monument and from