216 AURORA. 



capricious, alternating, if I might be allowed the fig- 

 ure, the burst of flame from a conflagration with the 

 soft glow of the early morn. The light grew by 

 degrees more and more intense, and from irregular 

 bursts it settled into an almost steady sheet of bright- 

 ness. This sheet was, however, far from uniform, for 

 it was but a flood of mingling and variously-tinted 

 streaks. The exhibition, at first tame and quiet, be- 

 came in the end startHng in its brilliancy. The 

 broad dome above me is all ablaze. Ghastly fires, 

 more fierce than those which lit the heavens from 

 burning Troy, flash angrily athwart the sky. The 

 stars pale before the marvellous glare, and seem to 

 recede further and further from the earth, — as when 

 the chariot of the Sun, driven by Phaaton, and carried 

 from its beaten track by the ungovernable steeds, 

 rushed madly through the skies, parching the world 

 and withering the constellations. The gentle An- 

 dromeda flies trembling from the flame ; Perseus, 

 with his flashing sword and Gorgon shield, retreats 

 in fear ; the Pole Star is chased from the night, and 

 the Great Bear, faithful sentinel of the North, quits 

 his guardian watch, following the feeble trail. The 

 color of the light was chiefly red, but this was not 

 constant, and every hue mingled in the fierce dis- 

 play. Blue and yellow streamers were playing in the 

 lurid fire ; and, sometimes starting side by side from 

 the wide expanse of the illumined arch, they melt into 

 each other, and throw a ghostly glare of green into 

 the face and over the landscape. Again this green 

 overrides the red ; blue and orange clasp each other 

 in their rapid flight ; violet darts tear through a broad 

 flush of yellow, and countless tongues of white flame, 

 formed of these uniting streams, rush aloft and lick 



