CONTEMPLATION OF THE STARS. 415 



curlew, or some sea-fowl proceeding to her feed, 

 and the brown owl calls to his fellow from some far- 

 away oak. Obscurity and clearness is over all things, 

 and an indefinable serenity seems to take possession 

 of the mind ; we look up and are led to wonder 

 and contemplation, to the desire of obtaining a 

 knowledge of those things that are hidden from 

 us. The immortal mind that animates the body 

 cannot be at rest ; but those things which probably 

 first incited man's inquiry, still incites him, and 

 will be the objects of his conjecture until time shall 

 be no more. All superior minds have been directed 

 from the earliest ages to the consideration of the 

 nature and object of all that splendid host which 

 glittered in the concave of the sky above them ; 

 and yet what is the concentrated knowledge which 

 we have acquired by all this labour of so many 

 centuries? We may say almost nothing certain. No 

 portion of creation which is presented to our 

 vision creates more awful sensations than the con- 

 templation of the heavenly bodies, such incon- 

 ceivable immensity of space, and mysterious com- 

 binations. By aid of very fine instruments we can 

 perceive lights and shades alternating at intervals, 

 and other changes which we consider as similar to 

 what we experience on earth, and call diurnal or 

 annual mutations. Here we see an assemblage of 

 stars intermingling their rays, and forming a region 

 of light ; there, one or two faint scintillations in a 

 dense concavity of blackness ; masses of light, pro- 



