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A strange unearthly being; lonely, dwelling far apart from the thoughts and cares of the planet on which he lives, an enthusiast who gives his life to knowledge; a student of antiquity, to whom the records of the geologist are modern pages in the great volume of being, and the pyramids a memorandum of yesterday, as the eclipse or occultation that is to take place thousands of years hence is an event of to-morrow in the diary without beginning and without end where he enters the aspect of the passing moment as it is read on the celestial dial.
Gartney, the polite wishes of her visiting friends that "Mr. Gartney's health might allow them to return to the city in the winter," with the wonder, unexpressed, whether this were to be a final breakdown of the family, or not; and for Faith, the horror and extravagant lamentations of her young coterie, at her coming occultation or setting, rather, out of their sky.
To resume: "Beginning of eclipse, 1 A. M. Ecliptic opposition, in 4 y. 6 m. 12 d. 9 h. from beginning of eclipse. Middle, in 4 y. 9 m. 0 d. 7 h. 9 m. from beginning of eclipse. End of eclipse, 9 y. 11 m. 20 d. 3 h. 2 m. from beginning. Period of occultation, 9 y. 7 m. 26 d. 4 h. 16 m. 2 s." I gazed at the brigadier in admiration and awe.
To an anxious inquiry if he were not well, our worthy colleague answered plaintively, that he mourned over the misfortune of his country. "I have often witnessed the passage of the passions, and of the minor motives, across the disc of the great moral postulate, Principle; but an occultation of its light by a pecuniary Interest, and for so long a period, is fearful!
Legislation, during the occultation of the great moral postulate Principle by the passage of Pecuniary Interest, is, at the best, but a melancholy affair. It proved to be peculiarly so with us just at that moment, for the radiance of the divine property had been a good deal obscured in the houses, for a long time previously, by the interference of various minor satellites.
Though their number was seven, only six stars are visible, for Electra, one of them, it is said left her place that she might not behold the ruin of Troy, for that city was founded by her son Dardanus. The sight had such an effect on her sisters that they have looked pale ever since. Mr. Longfellow has a poem on the "Occultation of Orion."
But what earthly chance would the greatest philosopher that ever lived have with the woman he loved, if he depended for her favor on his ability to analyze her bouquet or tell her when she might look out for the next occultation of Orion? I can't talk bread and butter. I can't do anything that makes a man even tolerable to a woman!"
At this moment the occultation began. When we are thinking of worlds, and trying to exalt the imagination with them, it is well to turn to Jupiter, for there is a planet worth pondering upon!
Even when an occultation is visible from both places, the times at which the star disappears from view will, generally speaking, be different. Much calculation is therefore necessary to decide the circumstances under which the occultations of stars may be visible from any particular station.
To this opinion the brigadier very readily assented, remarking, at the same time, that a well-wrought theory had generally more effect on opinion than fifty facts; a result that he attributed to the circumstance of monikins having a besetting predisposition to save themselves the trouble of thinking. I was, in particular, struck with the effect of the occultation of Principle on motives.
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