New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-08-06
solidation of the Public Debt at lower rate OF
interest. Who can devise better ana surer
THE Eclipse.

THE ECLIPSE.
When the human race was young an echpse
vas the source of great tribulation. Our an
cestors were Mortified and perpexed' and 1t
was long before they discovered that the de-
ranRement of the natural order OF day and
night was owing to the insOent familiarity OF
the moon. But education has wonderful power,
and mankind having now been present at sew
eral score Of eclipses, have at last been brought
to view them with equanimity. A few indl-
yiduals here and there, who do not take the
papers NAV shudder and look for something to
crack but they have no power to produce a
panic.
We have learned somewhat about the sun and
moon and their devious courses, but some mat
ters still remain in uncertainty, which savants
think NAV be satisfactorily settled. Certain
luminous protuberances in the circumsolar re-
eions still perplex the astronomers. It's settled
that these protuberances, which, on account OF
the dazzling brilliancy Of the sun itself, can be
observed only at the time of total eclipse. are
several hundred times as large ms this earth, and
that they completely change their form
and position in the course of few minutes,
and, further, that they are mainly or entire
" composed of hydrogen gas. Now
il remains to be learned how these protuber-
ances may be accounted for Do they belong
TO the sun, or to ring circulating about the
sum- Various thories are endangered by the
inexplicable presence of these flaming protu-
berances of incandescent hydrogen. A very
high authority, who observed the eclipse of
1868 in India, maintains that the sun has no
considerable atmosphere surrounding It, In
fact, We suppose that nothing was ever pre-
sented to the attention of the human race about
which innumerable questions might not be asked.
Only once more this century, namely, IN the
wear 1900, will the sun retire from Its busl-
ness of raising vegetables and ripening corn to
be catechized by the savants of the United
States and even then it is not certain that
any decisive replies will be obtained.
The chief interest of an eclipse, especially
of a total eclipse, is its sublimity as natural
phenomenon. Thunder is tame, and lightning
pales before it. Darkness succeeds suddenly
to light. and we tremble lest the sun forever
turn into darkness and the moon into blood.
Arago SAYS, in his splendid description of the
total eclipse which he witnessed in the South
of France in 1912, in the presence OF DOOO
lmproylSed Astronomers: when Ihe SUM-
narrowed to mere line, began to throw over
the horizon but faint light, an anxiety
spread through the whole crowd. Each man
" felt impelled to communicate his impressions
TO his neighbOr. Then began dull roar. like
that of a distant sea after tempest. The
&" noise became louder in proportion to the thin
"ning of the slender solar crescent. Finally the
crescent vanished. Darkness succeeded sud
denly to the light and an absolute silence
marked this phase of the eclipse as sharply as
" did the pendulum of our astronomical clock.
" The phenomenon, in its magnitcence, had
"triumphed over the restlessness of youth, over
"the frivolity which certain men take for sign
"of superiority, and over the noisy indifference
" of which the soldiers ordinarily make their
"boast. A profound calm reigned, too, in the
L" air; even the birds ceased their song. After o
solemn waiting of about two minutes dura-
"tion, transports of JOY frantic applause saluted,
with the same accord, the same spontaneity
"the temperance of the first solar rays"