OF INFINITE SPACE. 61 



meek splendor, the quietude, the fidelity, of which the lu- 

 minary is a visible image, bewitch the senses, excite the 

 imagination, and have originated some of the most captiva- 

 ting strains of poetic description, among which the Trojan 

 bivouac scene in the Iliad still stands peerless. 



" The troops exulting sat in order round, 

 And beaming fires illumin'd all the ground. 

 As when the moon, refulgent -lamp of night, 

 O'er heaven's clear azure spreads her sacred light ; 

 When not a breath disturbs the deep serene, 

 And not a cloud o'ercasts the solemn scene, 

 Around her throne the vivid planets roll, 

 And stars uunumber'd gild the glowing pole ; 

 O'er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed, 

 And tip with silver every mountain's head ; 

 Then shine the vales, the rocks in prospect rise, 

 A flood of glory bursts from all the skies ; 

 The qonscious swains, rejoicing in the sight, 

 Eye the blue vault, and bless the useful light." 



An imaginary soliloquy, put into the mouth of Milton by 

 a living writer, strikingly expresses the emotions of such a 

 mind, upon first perceiving the curtains about to fall be- 

 tween him and the resplendence of day and night, through 

 the blindness that attended his declining years. " Beautiful 

 light! beautiful lamp of heaven! what marvel that the 

 blinded and benighted heathen should ignorantly worship 

 thee ? What marvel that a thousand altars, in a thou- 

 sand ages, should have sent up their fumes of adoration unto 

 thee, the mooned Ashtaroth unto thee, the Ephesian Diana 

 unto thee, the nightly visitant of the young-eyed Endy- 

 mion ? What marvel, that to those who knew not, neither 

 had they heard of the One, Uncreate, Invisible, Eternal, 

 thou shouldst have seemed meet Deity to whom to bend the 

 knee, thou first born offspring of his first created gift! 

 thou blessed emanation from his own ethereal glory ! What 

 wonder, when I, his humble follower, his ardent though un- 

 worthy worshipper when I, an honest though an erring 



