164 RAMBLES AND REVERIES. 



ing world, so fall of hardening and roughening 

 experiences, to have the sense of beauty in us 

 aroused now and again by the exquisite variety of 

 form and colour which the starry heavens display. 

 Life is felt to be better worth having for the power 

 to enjoy the wondrous spectacle of the starlit sky, 

 flecked with the ever-changing cloudlets that fly 

 before the moon, and glittering with the silvery 

 beams of Sirius and Vega, the orange hues of 

 Capella and Procyon, and the lustrous tints of 

 Arcturus. And when one of those rarer phenomena 

 which sometimes glorify our firmament is witnessed, 

 and the comet's spectral train sweeps into vision, 

 or the meteoric shower passes with rain of gold 

 before our eyes, then what depths of awe and joy 

 are opened within us ! 



But beyond all this the stars exercise a moral 

 and spiritual ministry for us, and help to bring us 

 to a bliss that commerce and wealth, intellectual 

 culture and aesthetic refinement, of themselves fail 

 to secure. The contemplation of their glories draws 

 the devout mind into closer sympathy with God ; 

 and, notwithstanding the sobering effect of exact 

 knowledge of Nature's wonders, tends to make us 

 heavenly-minded. It was a pleasing fancy of the 

 ancients that the stars in their courses emitted 

 mystic harmonies, and even in this unpoetical age 

 it may be said by those who are quick to hear their 

 Maker's praise : 



" There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st 

 But in his motion like an angel sings 

 Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubim." 



