But he lived in a time when it was
believed that our earth was the centre of the universe, and that to say
that it was only one of many planets moving round the sun was to deny the
word of God; so to save his life, he pretended to give up what he knew to
be true, and promised that he would never teach it again.
You remember that our earth has an atmosphere, a globe of air which wraps
it round. We are told that the sun, too, has an atmosphere--a colour-globe,
as it is called, because it is believed to be not air, but fiery gas. Then,
outside this colour-globe, is something very lovely; that corona, or crown,
of silvery light, which can be seen only during an eclipse of the sun. But
what is an eclipse?
When the moon, which has no light of her own, passes directly between the
earth and the sun, so as to hide his face from us, we say there is a solar
eclipse, or obscuring of the sun's light. When the earth comes directly
between the moon and the sun, instead of the sun's light falling upon the
moon, _she_ is eclipsed by the dark shadow of the earth passing over her
face. I think you may have watched an eclipse of the moon: a solar eclipse
is a much rarer sight, and there is something awful about it: as the
darkness deepens, the stars begin to shine out, and it seems so much like
night that the cocks and hens have been known to go to roost at midday.
It is then, when the bright, dazzling face of the sun is hidden, that his
lovely crown is seen, as a ring of soft light appearing all round the dark
face of the moon.
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