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A solar eclipse is a natural thing with no real effect on nature. There is no real difference between an eclipse and a cloudy day. However, the superstitious have always made false claims on the power of these phenomena to sway the naive or ill-informed.

One classic trope in fiction is the use of science to feign magical powers, and it is often used to show how the clever can rise to power. Mark Twain popularized this trope by having one of his characters use a solar eclipse to scare the ill-informed.

As Twain shows us, science and knowledge can give us power over others, but manipulating and deceiving our fellow man is antithetical to all that is good and right. He did not come up with the idea of someone using science to manipulate others, but he did hope to warn others against committing or being taken in by such practices.

In his A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Twain describes Hank, an “average” Connecticut man, being transported through time to the 6th century. Arriving in King Arthur’s kingdom, he is captured and sentenced to death for being a witch due to appearance.

Thinking quickly, he remembers that there was an eclipse that year, and he uses it to his advantage.

With a common impulse the multitude rose slowly up and stared into the sky. I followed their eyes, as sure as guns, there was my eclipse beginning! The life went boiling through my veins; I was a new man! The rim of black spread slowly into the sun’s disk, my heart beat higher and higher, and still the assemblage and the priest stared into the sky, motionless. I knew that this gaze would be turned upon me, next. When it was, I was ready. I was in one of the most grand attitudes I ever struck, with my arm stretched up pointing to the sun. It was a noble effect. You could see the shudder sweep the mass like a wave. Two shouts rang out, one close upon the heels of the other:

“Apply the torch!”

“I forbid it!”

The one was from Merlin, the other from the king. Merlin started from his place—to apply the torch himself, I judged. I said:

“Stay where you are. If any man moves—even the king—before I give him leave, I will blast him with thunder, I will consume him with lightnings!”

The multitude sank meekly into their seats, and I was just expecting they would. Merlin hesitated a moment or two, and I was on pins and needles during that little while. Then he sat down, and I took a good breath; for I knew I was master of the situation now. The king said:

“Be merciful, fair sir, and essay no further in this perilous matter, lest disaster follow. It was reported to us that your powers could not attain unto their full strength until the morrow; but—”

“Your Majesty thinks the report may have been a lie? It was a lie.”

That made an immense effect; up went appealing hands everywhere, and the king was assailed with a storm of supplications that I might be bought off at any price, and the calamity stayed. The king was eager to comply. He said:

“Name any terms, reverend sir, even to the halving of my kingdom; but banish this calamity, spare the sun!”

My fortune was made. I would have taken him up in a minute, but I couldn’t stop an eclipse; the thing was out of the question. So I asked time to consider. The king said:

“How long—ah, how long, good sir? Be merciful; look, it groweth darker, moment by moment. Prithee how long?”

“Not long. Half an hour—maybe an hour.”

There were a thousand pathetic protests, but I couldn’t shorten up any, for I couldn’t remember how long a total eclipse lasts. I was in a puzzled condition, anyway, and wanted to think.

Hank experiences a moment of uncertainty, because the eclipse was not exactly as he thought and it was possibly the wrong day. Yet the eclipse was there, and he had to make the best of it. So he pushed further:

The darkness was steadily growing, the people becoming more and more distressed. I now said:

“I have reflected, Sir King. For a lesson, I will let this darkness proceed, and spread night in the world; but whether I blot out the sun for good, or restore it, shall rest with you. These are the terms, to wit: You shall remain king over all your dominions, and receive all the glories and honors that belong to the kingship; but you shall appoint me your perpetual minister and executive, and give me for my services one per cent of such actual increase of revenue over and above its present amount as I may succeed in creating for the state. If I can’t live on that, I sha’n’t ask anybody to give me a lift. Is it satisfactory?”

There was a prodigious roar of applause, and out of the midst of it the king’s voice rose, saying:

“Away with his bonds, and set him free! and do him homage, high and low, rich and poor, for he is become the king’s right hand, is clothed with power and authority, and his seat is upon the highest step of the throne! Now sweep away this creeping night, and bring the light and cheer again, that all the world may bless thee.”

But I said:

“That a common man should be shamed before the world, is nothing; but it were dishonor to the king if any that saw his minister naked should not also see him delivered from his shame. If I might ask that my clothes be brought again—”

“They are not meet,” the king broke in. “Fetch raiment of another sort; clothe him like a prince!”

My idea worked. I wanted to keep things as they were till the eclipse was total, otherwise they would be trying again to get me to dismiss the darkness, and of course I couldn’t do it. Sending for the clothes gained some delay, but not enough. So I had to make another excuse. I said it would be but natural if the king should change his mind and repent to some extent of what he had done under excitement; therefore I would let the darkness grow a while, and if at the end of a reasonable time the king had kept his mind the same, the darkness should be dismissed. Neither the king nor anybody else was satisfied with that arrangement, but I had to stick to my point.

It grew darker and darker and blacker and blacker, while I struggled with those awkward sixth-century clothes. It got to be pitch dark, at last, and the multitude groaned with horror to feel the cold uncanny night breezes fan through the place and see the stars come out and twinkle in the sky. At last the eclipse was total, and I was very glad of it, but everybody else was in misery; which was quite natural.

Hank then declares that he agrees to the king’s terms, and the people are fooled. Soon, he was able to use it turn his fate around and become favored by the people:

One thing troubled me along at first—the immense interest which people took in me. Apparently the whole nation wanted a look at me. It soon transpired that the eclipse had scared the British world almost to death; that while it lasted the whole country, from one end to the other, was in a pitiable state of panic, and the churches, hermitages, and monkeries overflowed with praying and weeping poor creatures who thought the end of the world was come. Then had followed the news that the producer of this awful event was a stranger, a mighty magician at Arthur’s court; that he could have blown out the sun like a candle, and was just going to do it when his mercy was purchased, and he then dissolved his enchantments, and was now recognized and honored as the man who had by his unaided might saved the globe from destruction and its peoples from extinction. Now if you consider that everybody believed that, and not only believed it, but never even dreamed of doubting it, you will easily understand that there was not a person in all Britain that would not have walked fifty miles to get a sight of me.

The people went from fearstruck to awestruck in a very short time, showing how easy it is to manipulate crowds. Twain understood natural phenomena and science, and he also knew that people used science to trick others even during his own day. It is a constant of human nature to use a little bit of learning to take advantage of those without.

In Connecticut Yankee, Hank is our hero, but he is also used to satirize the arrogance of Twain’s contemporaries. Although Hank brings science and technology to the Middle Ages, he also destroys everything noble and honorable. His actions are self-serving, and he does not care to better others but to prove his own superiority over them.

We should be careful not to follow these same mistakes. We must never use science, or claims about science, to trick others, nor should we manipulate others for our own gain. We should also not be arrogant enough to assume that our knowledge alone makes us a better person, because the naive can embrace a nobility that is beyond us. We should also be aware that we are not taken in by those who abuse science to manipulate us, and we must always be careful that our “science” and “facts” are actually correct.