ms."
--_Paradise Lost_, Bk. ii. lines 663-6.

"So saying, he dismiss'd them; they with speed
Their course through thickest constellation held,
Spreading their bane; the blasted stars look'd wan,
And planets, planet-struck, real eclipse,
Then suffer'd."
--_Paradise Lost_, Bk. x. lines 410-14.

"O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of Noon,
Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse,
Without all hope of day!"
--_Samson Agonistes_, Lines 80-2.

"It was that fatal and perfidious bark,
Built in th' eclipse, and rigg'd with curses dark,
That sunk so low that sacred heart of thine."
--_Lycidas_, Lines 100-2.

Pope, in the following lines, may be presumed to mean that the covering
up of the Sun by the Moon, during a total eclipse, results in the Moon
becoming visible, at the cost of the Sun's disappearance:--

"For Envy'd wit, like Sol eclips'd, makes known
Th' opposing body's grossness, not its own."
--_Essay on Criticism_, Lines 469-70.

I have not attempted to pursue this matter through the pages of our
modern poets, but it is not unlikely that Scott and Tennyson
(especially) would have something on the subject of eclipses.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 166: _Paradise Lost_, Book i., lines 594-9.]

[Footnote 167: _The Astronomy of Milton_, p. 259.]

CHAPTER XX.

BRIEF HINTS TO OBSERVERS OF ECLIPSES OF THE SUN.

A few words (they must be few for lack of space) may usefully be added,
by way of advice, to persons proposing to choose a suitable locality at
which to station themselves for viewing a total eclipse of the Sun. To
begin with, of course they ought to get as close as possible to the
central line, say within 10 or 20 miles at the most; this matter
settled, the next important point is to find out where the duration of
the totality will be longest, coupled with the Sun at its maximum
elevation above the horizon (to escape the influence of mists and fogs).
No advice, properly so-called, can be given on these points, because
they depend on the special circumstances of every eclipse, and must be
ascertained _ad hoc_ from the _Nautical Almanac_.

In anticipation of a forthcoming eclipse, it is very important to know
beforehand the probabilities of weather. If the _locus in quo_ of an
expected eclipse is in a civilised country, there will generally not be