Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1858-04-07
The Equinox.

Some time when the reader was asleep De-
tween Saturday and Sunday, the sun passed the
Equinoctial Line. Yesterday, therefore, was
the Equinox,-as, in fact, if words meant much,
Saturday was also. That is to say, translat-
ing the language of NJ. Blot the sun illumined
the world from one pole to the other. The
white bear who lives on the north pole, walked
from night of six months duration, rubbed his
eyes, and, had he language, would have cried
like Persian "The sun the sun! !" The other
white bear, who, upon the southern pole, dream
eth of the northern,-as as Mines palm-boy
dreams of the pine-girl, looked upon the same
sun, saw it creep below his horizon after its
six months of splendor, and for himself, that
bear retired to his six months night, sleep, and
dreaming. And the world between, had every
where as much sunlight and as little sunlight in
one place as another. There was an equality OF
enjoyment which would have satisfied Jefferson.
Between tropic and tropic there was no distinc-
ton. North and south agreed in light and
darkness. Their days were equal and their
nights. For the equinox, which even as the
reader reads, has gone-had come.
Our lovely Saturday, therefore, was the be-
ginning of the "Equinoctial Storm" and yester-
day its continuance. Where the superstition of
the Equinoctial storm came from, it is hard to
say. The impression seems to be that the E
ouinoctial line is of the character of line OF
people passing buckets at q fire, and that the
sudden passage of the sun across disturbs their
equilibrium, and drenohes all who stand below.
We have sometimes supposed that the notion
connected originally with the entrance of the
sun into the constellation of "the Fishes" which
takes place just before the Equinox. This took
place on Saturday at twenty eight minutes af-
ter four. If it were the worlds going in among
the fishes, we could understand that wet time
might be apprehended But even this hating
Interpretation does not apply to the autumnal
equinox, when the sun enters the sphere OF the
radiant smiles of the Virgin" None but a
cynic would suggest that that was an occasion
for us to ''look out for squalls"
1t must, however, be confessed that whatever
the origin of the notion, if we estimate six great
storms in year-and this is an under estimate
-one of them will be found, on the average, to
come within month of the Equinox, before it
and after it, and sometimes two.
With the entrance of the sun into the Fishes,
the astronomers begin to count spring. Spring
began, therefore, on the northern half of the
world, on Saturday last, at twenty-eight minutes
after four, as we have said, in the afternoon
The sun will not enter the sign of the Virgin
until seventeen minutes after three on Thursday
afternoon, September %. 1t follows, therefore,
that the spring and summer of this year togeth-
er, for the northern hemisphere, will be one
hundred and eighty six days, ten hours and for
ty-nine minutes in length, while the autumn
and the winter are seven days and more shorter,
being but one hundred and seventy eight days,
nineteen hours and six minutes in length. We
have to day, therefore, not only the gratifying
feeling that the winter of our discomfort is made
glorious summer by this sun of the Fishes; but
that the amount of our spring and summer,
thanks to our living in northern hemisphere,
is palpably more than that of our autumn and
winter. 1t is sign of the passing time north
noted by the optimists that for that immense
majority of mankind who reside north of the
equator, there is more summer than winter; as,
thanks to the retracton of light, there is, for all
the world, more day than night. The cause Of
this superior length of the summer is to be found
IN the greater distance of the sun. His appa-
rent angular motion in his orbits all the slow
er, and from this lsggard movement, he gives us
q greater number of our long summer days than
we have of our short winter ones.-Boston Ado.