eclipse; and insanity may exhibit paroxysms at the full moon, owing to the strong lights and shadows of the night affecting the imagination.

Turning from popular fallacies to scientific determinations, the connexion of the moon with the tides of the ocean requires notice, as strikingly illustrating the positive utility of the companion orb. The regular flow and ebb of the great world of waters, one of its most interesting features, was known in the remotest antiquity to be in some way or other related to the moon. Kepler first conjectured the dependence of the fluctuations upon the attraction of that body; and Newton demonstrated them to be legitimate consequences of the laws of gravitation, explaining how the same tides occur simultaneously on the two sides of the earth opposite to the moon. In passing round the globe, the moon attracts the entire mass, or draws it towards her. But as the attractive force varies with the distance of the attracted object, according to a certain ratio, all parts of the earth are not acted upon with the same energy. Those nearest the moon are more strongly attracted than those which are more remote. At the same time, while the oceanic waters freely obey different attractions, owing to their mobility, the earthy substance of the globe is prevented from yielding to different impressions of the attractive force by the cohesion of its parts, and only gravitates towards the moon as a whole. It follows, therefore, that the waters immediately under the moon are drawn up in a protuberance, or high wave; and that the same effect takes place with the waters on the opposite side of the earth, by the whole solid globe being drawn away from them, being nearer than they to the attracting body, and more powerfully acted

upon. Thus two tides are produced at once at opposite extremities of the earth. The sun exerts a far more potent attractive sway upon our planet than the moon. But owing to the immense distance of the luminary, the inequality of the solar attraction on different parts of the earth is comparatively small, and the effect less. When the two bodies act in concert, as at full moon and change, we have the highest, or spring tides. When the solar and lunar attractions are in opposition, as at the quadratures, we have the lowest, or neap tides. By these fluctuations of the ocean, with the currents they create, its waters are prevented from becoming stagnant, its temperature is rendered more uniform, while navigation is facilitated, harbours are cleansed, ships are transported on rivers which would be otherwise unnavigable, and shell-fish are left by the retreating waves upon the strand, for the benefit of many an impoverished population.

Owing to the daily progress of the moon in her orbit from west to east, she rises at the mean rate of fifty minutes later every day. But in our latitudes an important deviation from the rule occurs, and is observed in corresponding latitudes of the southern hemisphere, at an opposite season of the year. That part of the lunar orbit lying in the signs Pisces and Aries makes a much less angle with our horizon than any other, so that as much of this section of it rises in two hours as the moon travels through in six days. Consequently, when so situated, there is but about twenty minutes difference per day in the time of rising for that number of days. Although this must be the case every month, yet it is only in the autumnal months that it occurs with the peculiarity of the moon being at the same time full.

Hence we have the Harvest Moon, an important

benefaction to the husbandman, as the supplement of bright moonlight to the natural day gives him more available time to gather in the precious fruits of the earth, and to cheer him in the task. This fact was noted by persons engaged in agriculture long before it attracted the attention of astronomers; and was ascribed to the goodness of God, as having ordained it for their advantage.

Linked as is the satellite in the bonds of a close and enduring relationship to the earth-appointed to circulate round it while sharing its stately journey round the sun-it might fairly be inferred, that a useful ministry to the primary was contemplated in the provision, had we no express testimony to this effect. Yet while raising the tides of the ocean, relieving the gloom of night, facilitating the reckoning of time, and charming the senses with material beauty, it would be unwise to affirm confidently that these services are the highest purposes and final ends of Providence, in relation to the lunar world. We are not warranted in concluding it to be a mere manifestation of materiality, though, from its apparent physical constitution, and with limited understandings, it is utterly impossible for us to conceive with what kind of beings it can be occupied. The ways of God are higher than our ways, and his thoughts than our thoughts, as the heavens are high above the earth. Life exists in our own globe under the strangest conditions-conditions which are generally fatal to vitality. The Proteus Anguinus flourishes and propagates its kind in the dark waters of the Styrian caverns, which no ray of sunlight ever illumines. In unsunned abodes, and under enormous pressure, at immense depths in the ocean, marine animals are found. Fish can be frozen up with water into a solid

mass, and thawed into existence again, with their vital powers unimpaired; and toads survive through an unknown period, hermetically sealed up in the hollow of stones, deprived of all access to light, air, moisture, and food. But after all, there is nothing that ought to be startling to us in the idea, that the moon, or any other orb, is not at present fulfilling the high purposes which the earth is accomplishing. Our globe was once a desolate world as to organized existence, according both to sacred testimony and scientific observation. It was afterwards furnished with life in its lower forms, but was all the while advancing in a state of preparation to receive the higher, which were given when "God created man in his own image," and said to our first parents, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it."

CHAPTER VII.

THE LIGHTS OF HEAVEN DARKENED.

Grandeur of Occasional Phenomena-Eclipses-Consequences of the Plane tary Movements-Law of Shadows-LUNAR ECLIPSES-Chaldean Period -Ancient Observations-Moon's Acceleration-Copper Colour of Eclipsed Moon-Total Disappearance of the Moon-The Landers in Africa-Sir R. Schomburgh at St. Domingo-SOLAR ECLIPSES-Total, Annular, and Partial-Chronicles of the Middle Ages-Eclipse of 1715-Observed from Salisbury Plain-Eclipse of 1842, described by Arago-Observed at Vienna-Eclipse of 1851-General Aspects of a Total Eclipse-The Darkness -Effect on Animated Nature-Luminous Ring-Red ProminencesBaily's Beads-Sudden Return of Daylight-“ O Beautiful Sun."

WHILE We are constantly surrounded with grand and beautiful phenomena, impressing and delighting the reflective mind, there are natural events of occasional occurrence which are specially adapted to awaken feelings of awe and admiration. The blazing volcano belongs to this class, with the rush of the hurricane, and the peal and flash of the thunder-storm, the tempest-tossed ocean, auroral displays, and cometary apparitions. But perhaps there is no incident which so powerfully arrests attention as when the solar splendour is slowly impaired, and transiently blotted from the sky, by an interposing and previously invisible body, causing the earth to be darkened in the clear day. When not a cloud may be aloft, and no object is seen to account for the change, the magnificent orb, perhaps high in heaven, apparently loses part of its disk, gradually becomes more indented, and then totally disappears. But speedily a portion of the lustrous globe emerges from behind the dark interception, and the