The Inner Eclipse
on Guiding Our Desires Toward the Wonders of Man as Creature
I write these words on April 8, waiting for my plane to arrive at the airport. It’s the middle of an ordinary day, except for one particular. A total solar eclipse is about to occur, and we are near the path of totality. So the traffic going north toward some advertised ideal viewing place is crawling along, mile after mile.
Most of the people on their way to a special sort of darkness aren’t astronomers, and given the straitening of general knowledge in our time, I doubt very much that they have been watching Jupiter these last several months, quite bright and prominent in the southwestern sky at nightfall. A few days ago, I spotted Mercury about as high in the west as it ever gets, bright and almost as red as Mars. I enjoy these things. One of these days I’ll get around to looking at the greenish giant Uranus, faintly but clearly visible with binoculars.
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Anthony Esolen is Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Thales College and the author of over 30 books, including Real Music: A Guide to the Timeless Hymns of the Church (Tan, with a CD), Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture (Regnery), and The Hundredfold: Songs for the Lord (Ignatius). He has also translated Dante’s Divine Comedy (Random House) and, with his wife Debra, publishes the web magazine Word and Song (anthonyesolen.substack.com). He is a senior editor of Touchstone.
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