the absence, privation, or want of natural light. "Darkness was upon the face of the deep" (Gen. i. 2); that is to say, the chaos was plunged in thick darkness, because hitherto the light was not created. One of the most terrible sorts of darkness was that which Moses brought upon Egypt as a plague to the inhabitants of it. The Septuagint, our translation of the Bible, and indeed most others, in explaining Moses's account of this darkness, render it, "a darkness which may be felt;" and the Vulgate has it, "a palpable darkness;" that is, a darkness consisting of black vapours and exhalations, so condensed that they might be perceived by the organs of feeling or seeing; but some commentators think that this is carrying the sense too far, since in such a medium as this mankind could not live an hour, much less for the space of three days; as the Egyptians are said to have done, during the time this darkness lasted; and therefore they imagine, that instead of a darkness that may be felt, the Hebrew phrase may signify a darkness wherein men went groping and feeling about for everything they wanted. Le Clerc is of this opinion, and thinks that Philo, in his life of Moses, understood the pallage in its right sense. "For in this darkness (says he), whoever were in bed, durst not get up; and such as their natural occasions compelled to get up, went feeling about by the walls, or any thing they could lay hold on, as if they had been blind." What it was that occasioned this darkness, whether it was in the air or in the eyes; whether it was a suspension of light from the sun in that country, or a black thick vapour which totally intercepted it, there is reason to think that the description which the author of the book of Wisdom (xvii. 1, 2, 3, &c.) gives us of their inward terrors and consternation, is not altogether conjectural, viz. that they were not only prisoners of darkness, and fettered with the bonds of a long night, but were horribly astonished likewise, and troubled with strange apparitions; for while over them was spread an heavy night, they were to themselves more grievous than darkness.

During the last three hours that our Saviour hanged upon the cross, a darkness covered the face of the earth, to the great terror and amazement of the people present at his execution. This extraordinary alteration in the face of nature (says Dr Macknight, in his Harmony of the Gospels), was peculiarly proper, whilst the Sun of righteousnes was withdrawing his beams from the land of Israel and from the world; not only because it was a miraculous testimony borne by God himself to his innocence; but also because it was a fit emblem of his departure and its effects, at least till his light shone out anew with additional splendor in the ministry of his apostles. The darkness which now covered Judea and the neighbouring countries, beginning about noon and continuing till Jesus expired, was not the effect of an ordinary eclipse of the sun: for that can never happen but at the new moon, whereas now it was full moon; not to mention, that the total darkness occasioned by eclipses of the sun never continues above twelve or fifteen minutes; therefore it must have been produced by the divine power, in a manner we are not able to explain. Accordingly, Luke (xxiii. 44, 45.), after relating that there was darkness over all the earth, adds, "and the sun was darkened;" which perhaps may imply, that the darkness of the sun did not occasion, but proceeded from, the darkness that was over all the land. Further, the Christian writers, in their most ancient apologies to the Heathens, affirm, that as it was full moon at the passover when Christ was crucified, no such eclipse could happen by the course of nature. They observe also, that it was taken notice of as a prodigy by the Heathens themselves.