seien in London, September 25, 1827. 393 



may still be sufficiently remote and fanciful,) it was easy to 

 discern the origin of their having been resembled to weapons 

 of war ; that isi to the spears of an army, raised, lowered, laid 

 at angles, and gleaming, glittering, crossing, and clashing in 

 battle. And equally, too, from their quick, varied, and sepa- 

 rate, and, as it were, whimsical motions, might they reasonably 

 receive, in their milder displays, and in moments of more 

 peaceful and cheerful association, the' very i different name of 

 Tnerr^ dancers! - ' • 



iti «tH^il 'to 'i^vi 



^>'>iIIL Though, as will presently be found, it is the ruHng 

 Idea of the present writer, that the Aurora Borealis is a single 

 object,! its appearance, when unmodified byith^ accompani- 

 ments of clouds or fogs, being merely that of its own corusca- 

 tions, playing in the free expanse, yet for the purposes of 

 trijalytical description and contemplation, it is here thought 

 convenient to divide it into the three parts in which, through 

 the temporary and accidental intervention of the coloured arch 

 before-mentioned, it appeared in the night now in recollection. 

 These three supposititious parts, then, may be understood as 

 follows : first, the arch, belt, or band which was temporarily 

 llil^tt'tuirtDiSs the heavens; second, the main body of the 

 coruscations below the arch; and third, the coruscations above 

 itj and in or near the zenith. It is of these only that it remains 



{T It was not till about midnight that the zenith itsetf (which, 

 ft<dwever, formed the southern boundary to this part of the dis- 

 play) became the scene of a class of appearances, differing, 

 indeed, essentially, in their forms, from those in the horizon, 

 but closely connected, as it may be believed, with all the ma- 

 t^Hftls,' and all the movements, of these latter. The zenith, at 

 thii hour, was cloudless, and resplendent with stars, and 

 the air was freshened by a gentle breeze from the south. 

 B^tW^eh the earth and the stars above, there was no apparent 

 mte^venihg vapour, and nothing, therefore, save that atmo- 

 spherical fluid which eludes the sight. But, through that 

 m^ium^ "if such only it was, coruscations w-ere now con- 

 tinually shooting, of which the appearance was, that it over- 

 spread this portion of the vault of heaven with an ever-shaken 



