"
Then, in the rather heavy language of the science of that period, this
writer told how the action of the sun's heat was continually projecting
into the atmosphere particles of earthy matter; and in his opinion it
was some "vast collection of such particles that caused the late
uncommon darkness." But as to the real accounting for the phenomenon he
wrote:
"The primary cause must be imputed to Him that walketh through
the circuit of heaven, who stretcheth out the heaven like a
curtain, who maketh the clouds His chariot, who walketh upon
the wings of the wind. It was He, at whose voice the stormy
winds are obedient, that commanded these exhalations to be
collected and condensed together, that with them He might
darken both the day and the night; which darkness was, perhaps,
not only a token of His indignation against the crying
iniquities and abominations of the people, but an omen of some
future destruction."
Thus men's minds were exercised by this sign "in the sun, and in the
moon."
The early records of New York City tell of the interest excited there,
though evidently the darkness was not so marked as it was farther north.
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