The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1878-07-28
The solar Eclipse-A Grand Opportu-
nifty for Scientific Imvs ig "a tiOn.

nifty for Scientific Imvsstigati on.
Science seizes on the immensely OF the
universe. and essays to anaiyze to the
minutest details all that enters into its
plan and structure. Distances which,
when expressed in miles, almost stagger the
Imagination by thoir range, are set down as
factors of a calculation that embraces
areas beyond the reach of the best
aided human vision. Even the con-
stituents of telescope stars are being de-
termined by the spectroscope. and the
minutest measures of heat impaired to
the earth by these distant points OF light
are being recorded by instruments which
are scarcely less marvellous than the result
they are employed to attain. When we con-
template what has been and what Is beng
done by science in unravelling the mysteries
of nature and making plain and compre-
hensible what the world has hitherto re-
garded as beyond human understanding
the questions naturally arise: Will mans
knowledge in time exhaust the wonders OF
the creation? Can the march Of discovery
reach a limit beyond which there is nothing
more to be known? Will the human mind
attain the perfection of omniscience? Ages
| to come may be able to offer an answer to
| these questions; in our time we are only
entering the twilight of discovery cropping.
perhaps, toward the daylight of the full
ness of human knowledge or toward the
brink Of the intellectual abyss into which
the material man may not pass until the
Creator wills the reunion OF the soul and
body.
Turning our attention to an event which
| occurs tomorrow afternoon we find in 1T
exemplifed the wonderful precision Of the
operation of natures machinery and the ac-
curacy with which science has comprised
it's intricate workings. Tomorrow, at a
certain hour long predicted and COM
mented on by astronomers. the monster
sphere Of the moon will pass between
certain zone of the earth's surface and the
sun, obscuring the latter wholly or par
TALLY, according to the observers position
with relation to arbitrary limits within
which the phenomenon is visible. Consid-
ering the nature of an eclipse one
cannot fail to be struck with establishment
that man can keep such an accurate
count and estimate Of the movements OF
the heavenly bodies involved, SO as to be
able to tell in advance the precise moment
the phenomenon will begin, the exact
point on the surface of the revolving and
rotating earth where it commences to be
observed and the course that will be taken
bv u circle of shadow thrown by NOV ng
sphere over the surface of another also in
motion Yet this wonderful prescience
is shown and proved correct by the occur
renee of eclipses mt the times, in the places
and along the lines predicted by astrono-
mers Although astronomy is as old MS
mankind and may be termed with
truth the parent science its very ma
ture has made it the one Of slow
est development In chemistry, botany,
zoology and geography We have the mate
rails. so to speak, under our hands and sub
ject to all the forces that human ingenuity
can apply to stripping the husk Of doubt
from the kernel of fact But in astronomy
it is different. The objects examined are
many millions of miles distant (; they are
undergoing constant changes of relative and
actual position influences to which they
are subject must be conjectured before they
can be recognized as existing, and the pro-
foundest depths of research must be
reached before deduction attains the least
practical value.
Regarding to-morrow's solar eclipse the
greatest interest prevails Total ob.cura-
tons of the solar disk, the plotting out as it
were for even a few minutes of the great
source of light itself, are events so uncom-
mon as to awaken in the most experienced
observer feeling OF awe which no other
phenomenon perhaps, except that OF the
earthquake, can cause. One cannot divest
himself of a profound sense of the mutabi!-
ity of created things when the wave of dark
ness sweeps over the face OF the earth, turn
ing broad day into night and spangling the
heavens with stars whose feeble light is no
longer lost in the brilliancy of the sun.
Then, again, the moon, the mirror Of the
heavens, whose soft, silver light is
emblematic of Natures repose, whose
gentle beams lend to the tamest
landscape an aspect of fantastic beauty
this beautiful moon is presented to us as a
black and ominous object, which moment
by moment devours the suns light and
effaces the glory of his presence. 1t cannot
be wondered at that even the brutes are in
fluenced by the unnatural change wrought
in the appearance of the fields, the noun
tains and valleys, the woods and the
meadows by the eclipse of the sun. The
cattle low with uneasiness at the approach
of On untimely darkness and seek their
nightly resting places, the birds are silenced
and hasten to their nests or to the
sheltering trees and evince by their in
stinctive movements their appreciation o!
II possible danger. Stranger yet the plants