“Eighteen years more afforded us the Eclipse which fell on the 14th of July 1748.
“The next visible return will happen on July 25, 1766, in the evening, about four Digits eclipsed; and after two periods more, on August 16th, 1802, early in the morning, about five Digits, the center coming from the north frozen continent, by the capes of Norway, through Tartary, China, and Japan, to the Ladrone islands, where it goes off.
“Again, in 1820, August 26, betwixt one and two, there will be another great Eclipse at London, about 10 Digits; but happening so near the Equinox, the center will leave every part of Britain to the West, and enter Germany at Embden, passing by Venice, Naples, Grand Cairo, and set in the gulf of Bassora near that city.
“It will be no more visible till 1874, when five Digits will be obscured, the center being now about to leave the Earth on September 28. In 1892 the Sun will go down eclipsed at London, and again in 1928 the passage of the center will be in the expansum, though there will be two Digits eclipsed at London, October the 31st of that year; and about the year 2090 the whole Penumbra will be wore off; whence no more returns of this Eclipse can happen till after a revolution of 10 thousand years.
“From these remarks on the intire revolution of this Eclipse, we may gather, that a thousand years, more or less (for there are some irregularities that may protract or lengthen this period 100 years) complete the whole terrestrial Phenomena of any single Eclipse: and since 20 periods of 54 years each, and about 33 days, comprehend the intire extent of their revolution, ’tis evident that the times of the returns will pass through a circuit of one year and ten months, every Chaldean period being ten or eleven days later, and of the equable appearances about 32 or 33 days. Thus, though this Eclipse happens about the middle of July, no other subsequent Eclipse of this period will return to the middle of the same month again; but wear constantly each period 10 or 11 days forward, and at last appear in Winter, but then it begins to cease from affecting us.
“Another conclusion from this revolution may be drawn, that there will seldom be any more than two great Eclipses of the Sun in the interval of this period, and these follow sometimes next return, and often at greater distances. That of 1715 returned again in 1733 very great; but this present Eclipse will not be great till the arrival of 1820, which is a revolution of four Chaldean periods: so that the irregularities of their circuits must undergo new computations to assign them exactly.
“Nor do all Eclipses come in at the south Pole: that depends altogether on the position of the lunar Nodes, which will bring in as many from the expansum one way as the other; and such Eclipses will wear more southerly by degrees, contrary to what happens in the present case.
“The Eclipse, for example, of 1736, in September, had its center in the expansum, and set about the middle of its obscurity in Britain; it will wear in at the north Pole, and in the year 2600, or thereabouts, go off into the expansum on the south side of the Earth.
“The Eclipses therefore which happened about the Creation are little more than half way yet of their etherial circuit; and will be 4000 years before they enter the Earth any more. This grand revolution seems to have been entirely unknown to the antients.
Why our present Tables agree not with antient observations.