Page:Gods Glory in the Heavens.djvu/123

Rh under the great blank in the heavens. Beasts of burden lie down with their loads on the road, and refuse to move on. Swallows, in their bewilderment, dash against the walls of houses, and fall down dead. The dog drops its bone from its mouth, and does not venture to seize it again till the light returns. Chickens seek the shelter of the parent wing; and even ants halt in their tracks with their loads, and remain immovable till the shadow is past.

With such accessaries as the above, it cannot be wondered at that, in the case of man, however impassive his nature may be, a total eclipse never fails to produce feelings of mysterious awe. The most learned savant, as well as the most unsophisticated peasant, confesses to such feelings. It is, however, when men are massed together, that the finest opportunity is afforded for watching the psychical effects of an eclipse. Such an opportunity was enjoyed by the French astronomers, when observing the total eclipse of 1842 at Perpignan. The observers were stationed on the ramparts with their instruments; the soldiers were drawn up in a square on one hand, and, on the other, the inhabitants were grouped on the glacis, so that the station commanded the full view of twenty thousand upturned faces. The astronomers did not fail to watch the phases of feeling in the crowd, as well as those of the eclipse. The moment that the people, with smoked glasses to their eyes, marked the first indentation in the sun's disc, they raised a