Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 21.djvu/203

Rh lights—the splendid coronal arch, the columns tinged with various colors and moving in silent grandeur upon the midnight sky can wonder that in a superstitious age their appearance should have excited the utmost consternation. Before the eighteenth century no physical explanation of such displays had been suggested or even thought of. The phenomena appeared suddenly and unexpectedly, and could not be referred to natural causes then known. The excited imagination saw armies mustering in the sky, brandishing their spears and raising aloft in quick succession their bloody lances. A very brilliant aurora seen in England, in 1575, is described by a writer of that period as a chasm formed in the northern sky, in which "were seen a great many bright arches, out of which gradually issued spears, cities with towers, and men in battle array; after that there were excursions of rays in every direction, waves of clouds, and battles in which some were fleeing, some pursuing, and others wheeling around in a surprising manner." If panics of this nature have ceased, the fact is due to the ever-advancing light of physical science.

One of the most noted eclipses in history is that recorded by Herodotus, and which occurred in the year 585 The panic produced by this eclipse put an end to the war between the Medes and the Lydians. A great battle was in progress, when, suddenly, day was turned into night by a total eclipse. The contending armies, struck with consternation, at once laid down their arms and hastened on both sides to conclude a peace.

—Xenophon, in his "Anabasis," Book III, chapter iv, relates how the excitement and alarm produced by a total eclipse led to the surrender of a city. When the Persians obtained the empire from the Medes, their king besieged the ancient city of Larissa, but failed to capture it till, finally, the inhabitants, terror-stricken by the darkness of a solar eclipse, lost all courage, and so the city was taken.

A total eclipse of the sun was visible at many places in Europe on May 12, 1706. Professor Grant relates, in his "History of Physical Astronomy," that in many parts of the city of Geneva persons were seen during the totality "prostrate on the ground and offering up prayers, under the impression that the last day was come."

An ancient writer, in describing the great meteoric shower of the year 1202, says: "The stars flew against one another like a scattering swarm of locusts, to the right and left; this phenomenon lasted until daybreak; people were thrown into consternation and cried to God, the Most High, with confused clamor." Similar consternation and alarm were exhibited during the great meteoric display of 1366. An historian of that time says, "Those who saw it were filled with such great fear and dismay that they were astounded, imagining that they were all dead men, and that the end of the world had come."

The terror and alarm produced among the colored people of the