llite will dispense her ephemeral night. The above figure shows
the trajectory of the total phase of the 1900 eclipse in Portugal,
Spain, Algeria, and Tunis.

[Illustration: FIG. 77.--The path of the Eclipse of May 28, 1900.]

The immutable splendor of the celestial motions had never struck the
author so impressively as during the observation of this grandiose
phenomenon. With the absolute precision of astronomical calculations,
our satellite, gravitating round the Earth, arrived upon the theoretical
line drawn from the orb of day to our planet, and interposed itself
gradually, slowly, and exactly, in front of it. The eclipse was total,
and occurred at the moment predicted by calculation. Then the obscure
globe of the Moon pursued its regular course, discovered the radiant orb
behind, and gradually and slowly completed its transit in front of him.
Here, to all observers, was a double philosophical lesson, a twofold
impression: that of the greatness, the omnipotence of the inexorable
forces that govern the universe, and that of the inexorable valor of
man, of this thinking atom straying upon another atom, who by the
travail of his feeble intelligence has arrived at the knowledge of the
laws by which he, like the rest of the world, is borne away through
space, through time, and through eternity.

The line of centrality passed through Elche, a picturesque city of
30,000 inhabitants, not far from Alicante, and we had chosen this for
our station on account of the probability of fine weather.

From the terrace of the country house of the hospitable Mayor, a farm
transformed into an observatory by our learned friend, Count de la Baume
Pluvinel, there were no obstacles between ourselves and any part of the
sky or landscape. The whole horizon lay before us. In front was a town
of Arab aspect framed in a lovely oasis of palm-trees; a little farther
off, the blue sea beyond the shores of Alicante and Murcia: on the
other side a belt of low mountains, and near us fields and gardens. A
Company of the Civic Guard kept order, and prevented the entrance of too
many curious visitors, of whom over ten thousand had arrived.

At the moment when the first contact of the lunar disk with the solar
disk was observed in the telescope, we fired a gun, in order to announce
the precise commencement of the occultation to the 40,000 persons who
were awaiting the phenomenon, and to discover what difference would
exist between this telescopic obse