The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1865-10-19
LOCAL INTELLIGENCE.

THE ECLIpsE.-If the astronomers
have not erred in their calculations, and
they are generally correct, we shall have
q rather dark morning. The sun will
be eclipsed in the usual way during the
forenoon. The exhibition will com
mence about eight o'clock and close at
noon; consequently, the greatest oh.
scuration will take place a: ten o'clock,
or thereabOut. If it does not rain, and
the probabilities are that it will, the
spectacle will be magnificent, as the
eclipse of the sun will be almost total
At Charleston, South Carolina, will be
the greatest observation in this country !;
but 1t will not be total anywhere, as it is
annular, leaving ring of light around
the body of the moon. We fear that
the thick clouds will eclipse both sun
and moon, as well as the sky and all its
pretty twinkling stars, and prevent our
people enjoying the beautiful phenome-
non. Darkness, in that case, will cover
the face of the earth, and chickens will
go home to roost, thinking that night has
come on in earnest, while little darkeys
will roll their great white eyes in Won
der, grow blacker with dread, and trem-
bic with apprehension, lest the end of
all things has come. The lights of
science have taught intelligent men to
view these oft-recurring changes in the
works of nature without either fear or
wonder but, still, they possess the
charm of novelty to all, from the
fact that they are not occurrences
of every day. In former ages, in the
infancy of civilization, when science
and learning were confined to the few,
men looked upon these changes with
dread, and viewed them as the harbin-
gers of coming disaster, oras exhibitions
of the anger of the gods-and the saw
age was wont to howl and tremble, and
popitiate his deity by religious rites, to
ward off the dire consequences from his
sinful head-and many and amusing are
the incidents related where learned
Travellers from Columbus to Capt. Smith,
have duped the untutored jewellers in
the forests into belief of their super
natural powers by foretelling the time
of eclipses. But learning isnow diffused
80 generally that few there are who do
not know the cause and the meaning of
these occasional phenomena-and were
they more frequent, the appearances of
comets, the falling of stars, and the
bursting of meteors, would excite no
more attention or alarm than thunder
and lightning, the daily rising of the
sun, the monthly changes of the moon,
or the falling of great white flakes of
pure snow. When darkness, therefore,
becomes visible to-day, the people will
know the reason, Eor dread the conse-
quences. To-day it happens, happily
enough for a most effectual working ofthe
heavenly machinery to give power and
force to the entertainment that the sun
is at its nearest approach to the earth,
and the moon at her greatest distance
from which it follows that the pale Di
ana will shut out from view less of
Apollo's bright and glorious counte-
nance than would be the case were they
in positions more remote from one anO-
ther.
Should we have fair day, however
despite our fears to the contrary-smoked
glass will be in demand, in order to be
able to get better view of the grand
spectacle and we learn that Marston d.
Meek have provided a full supply at the
Club House, where all the Swans and
astronomers of the city will assemble
during the forenoon to look through tel
escapes and other glasses and view the
meeting of the heavenly bodies, and en-
Joy their exchange of salutatiOns with
their earthly cousins in wonder and de-
light.