I flew to the village inn, and to my inexpressible joy, learned he was still there-then making the request, I was instantly admitted to his presence. If I was struck with the counterfeit presentment' of the man, I was still more so with the figure before me. A tall sinewy looking frame of six feet, and a high commanding countenance, told me I was in the presence of no vulgar fellow. Hardships were visible upon him-the sun had tanned almost brown the handsome features-and a scar over the left eye gave him a more striking face, without detracting from its original beauty.

I bowed respectfully-he stepped forward, and politely taking my band, said

'Well, my pretty master, what business with me?'

I started back, and seizing one of two rapiers which lay on the table, put myself in attitude, and called upon him to defend himself. 'Hoity toity, my little man,' replied he coolly, 'why you would'nt fight me!'

Draw! you villain,' said I, 'draw! and receive three thrusts through the bowels-or promise to sign a paper I'll give you.' 'Whew-whew'-whistled he.

'Promise, or I'll make a riddle of you in a moment'

He hesitated' Promise!' reiterated I, stamping fiercely-promise, or say your prayers and prepare to go up immediately—I'll give you just five minutes.'

I suppose he thought me crazy, or in fun-he replied-' I promise, show me the paper.'

I instantly drew up a contract of marriage, between Mr. Enoch Sheepshead, sea officer, and Miss Tabitha Tunk, school-mistress et cetera et cetera. I presented him the paper. He read it through. 'Do you know this lady?' said he

'Aye! sir, sign the contract, or prepare to go the way of your ancestors.'

He signed it.

'Now, sir, sea officer,' said I,- let me tell you that Miss Tabitha Tunk is a most virtuous lady-that she has loved you for ten years and is weeping for you now-that her uncle died this morning, and left her mistress of twenty thousand pounds-aye, twenty thousand pounds, you dog, think of that!'

A smile of pleasure passed over his countenance, like a sun beam over the dark edges of an angry summer cloud. 'I heard she loved another-pray, who was the gentleman ?-'

'I, sir, am he!' said I-stretching out my hand with a burst of laughter, I could no longer repress. He grasped it, and shook me heartily

'You have saved me'-was all he could mutter.

One week from that period they were wedded-and on the ensuing morning it was very currently reported through the village, that no young gentleman kiss'd the bride so often, as Master LC-.

It is not the design of the present article to enter into the theory of eclipses, or to discuss those scientific principles which belong more appropriately to the astronomical text-book and the professed instructor. We are aware that geometrical diagrams and algebraical formulæ would be out of place in the pages of a literary magazine. A few observations, however, on the history of eclipses, connected with the results, in a particular case, of those laborious computations which

are necessary to predict these phenomena, it is hoped may not prove uninteresting to at least a portion of our readers, while those who have no taste for speculations of this nature, will have the kindness to pass on to the succeeding article.

It is by no means surprising, that men ignorant of philosophy, and accustomed to look upon the great lights of the firmament only as the instruments of human happiness, should witness the extinction of their beams with feelings of wonder and apprehension. Curiosity would naturally be aroused, and the interest thus excited would, of necessity, be greatly enhanced, wherever man's natural proneness to confound cause with effect might have led him to lavish upon the celestial luminaries that meed of adoration which is due to none but the Creator. Accordingly, we find among the earliest records of profane history, some notice of astronomical observations. And these observations (at least, those transmitted to our times) were confined, almost exclusively, to eclipses. The stars, it is true, were early the objects of attentive study; and the antiquity of the constellations is sufficiently manifest from the names and figures by which they are known. Yet this is by no means a matter of history. Its record is found only in the firmament itself. Those events which men are the most careful to note, are such as, on account of their extraordinary character, have appealed most strongly to their natural curiosity or their superstitious fears. Consequently eclipses, the most prominent of celestial phenomena, have generally constituted the first chapter in the scientific history of the world. Some nations, indeed, have claimed for their arts and sciences an antiquity entirely at variance with all our ideas of historical truth. The pretensions of the Egyptians, Chinese and Indians are too extravagant to merit belief. That these nations were among the first to mark the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, is undoubtedly true. But when we are told that the Egyptians had recorded a series of observed eclipses extending through a period of forty eight thousand eight hundred and fifty three years, that the Chinese had not only observed, but even calculated and prefigured beforehand these phenomena, during a period of three thousand eight hundred and fifty eight years, and that the Indians, three thousand one hundred and two years before the Christian era, had arranged tables and precepts almost as accurate as those which have been produced by the refinements of modern science, we are compelled to conclude that Time has exerted his distorting influence upon the veracity of scientific, as well as upon that of political history, and that the mists of fable, which hang around the origin of almost every nation, have been equally effectual in obscuring the early history of philosophy.

Within the first of these periods, the Egyptians are said to have observed three hundred and seventy three eclipses of the sun, and eight hundred and thirty two of the moon-numbers which nearly represent the proportion of solar and lunar eclipses visible at any

one place. It is computed that, on an average, of two hundred and thirty eight solar eclipses in a century, forty three are visible at a particular place; and of one hundred and fifty two lunar, that seventy six are visible. Making suitable deductions for those not seen by reason of clouds, the average number of eclipses actually observable at any one place, during a century, will probably be not far from thirty for the sun, and perhaps sixty or sixty five for the moon; so that had the Egyptians kept an accurate record of their visible eclipses only, the numbers which they mention might all have been observed within the comparatively short period of twelve or thirteen centuries.

The earliest eclipse on record is one said to have been observed in China, about the year 2159 B. C. Another, however, is not mentioned till 776 B. C. and the earliest of which the account is sufficiently authentic to admit of its being recomputed by modern astronomers, happened 722 B. C. From that time down to 400 B. C. the Chinese recorded thirty six eclipses, of which thirty one have been verified by modern calculations.

That the Chinese, at a very early period, had made considerable advances in the study of astronomy, is beyond dispute. Their emperors appear to have held out to science the most munificent encouragement. The Mathematical Tribunal, an institution resembling somewhat the scientific associations of modern Europe, was established by them for the purpose of promoting the knowledge of astronomy, and securing the regular prediction of eclipses. Its organization, however, was on principles purely despotic. A law of the empire directed, that "whether the instant of the occurrence of any celestial phenomenon was erroneously assigned, or the phenomenon itself not foreseen and predicted, either negligence should be punished with death!" The situation of an astronomer under such regulations, and while science itself was so little advanced, must have been, of course, by no means enviable. Accordingly, it is related, that on the occurrence of an eclipse which had not been predicted, the two chief mathematicians of the empire were condemned to suffer capital punishment for their want of sagacity. The severity of this edict probably suggested the expedient adopted by subsequent astronomers for evading the penalty. Two eclipses having been formally announced to the empire, both of which were looked for in vain, their predictor had the address to secure his own safety, by turning the failure into a compliment to his sovereign, asserting that his calculations were perfectly correct, but that the heavenly bodies had deviated from their ordinary courses, out of respect for the virtues of the emperor.

These circumstances are sufficient to render it manifest that the Chinese were in possession of no very accurate method of predicting eclipses. The true theory of these phenomena was probably beyond their reach; and if they had it in their power to predict

them at all, it was probably by means of some empyrical cycle, similar to the period of eighteen years employed by the Chaldeans. What has sometimes been asserted of the perfection of their astronomy, and of their ability to determine not only the hour, but even the minute in which an eclipse should happen, must be regarded only as the testimony of ignorance, or of interest-of ignorance, in the native historians who credulously believed all that tradition taught them of the perfection of their ancestors, or of interest, in the Jesuits who were anxious to secure the favor of the Emperor, and who eventually acquired such an influence as to have almost the sole management of the Mathematical Tribunal during many years.

Even those tables from which the Brahmins of India compute their eclipses, and which have become so celebrated in the history of eastern science, are of too doubtful an antiquity to be made a corner stone for the scientific reputation of an unknown age. That China, and India, and, indeed, the whole of Asia was once inhabited by an highly cultivated and scientific people, of whom all traces have long since faded from the earth, except perhaps those few and ambiguous relics which have served to awaken curiosity and provoke speculation, is a theory too important in its bearings to be based on the disputed authority of astronomical tables. If ever there was such an age, in which science had attained the perfection to which we now allude, it must, of necessity, have been antecedent to the deluge; and this mighty convulsion must have been the very agent that swept from the earth these hypothetical accumulations of knowledge. According to Josephus, the antediluvians were, many of them, distinguished astronomers; and it would seem to have been solely for the purpose of affording facilities for extended observations, in order that science might be benefited, that the lives of these early observers were prolonged by the Creator to so venerable a length. This inference may seem plausible; and we can readily imagine that Methuselah would have had greatly the advantage over Newton in making deductions from long series of observed phenomena; yet we are hardly credulous enough to believe that the 'Surya Siddhanta,' the Principia of Indian astronomy, is a genuine relic of antediluvian science. Whatever affection men may have had for sines and tangents, it is highly probable that amid the terror and confusion of a general deluge, mathematical tables would have been among the last things they would have thought of preserving. Moreover, the epoch of 3102 B. C., which is that of the Indian tables, and that upon whose genuineness the claims of the Indian astronomy must stand or fall, notwithstanding the plausible arguments which have been advanced in favor of its having been actually observed, is now generally believed, in consequence of additional evidence, to have been obtained by calculations backward from a much more modern era. But be this as it may, the simple circumstance that the Indians are in possession of tables, the principles of which they