14 THE RING OF NATURE 



JANUARY 

 II 



THE SUN BEHIND 



WE have already seen the sun many times 

 since Christmas, that is, we have been able 

 to look without blinding ourselves through clear air 

 at a ball of watery fire. In fact, it is only now, if 

 at all, that we do see the sun, for, as Meredith truly 

 says, he can only be seen in his effects : 



' Visions of her shower before me ; but from eyesight, 

 Guarded she would be, like the sun, were she seen.' 



If we see the sun through smoked glass, then we 

 see him in January through the fog. When he 

 breaks through and becomes so bright that we 

 cannot see him, our gratitude is as great as that of 

 the Irishman for the moon, which, unlike the sun, 

 shines when it is dark. 



Under a thick mist stained with town smoke 

 the world and every article in it has an entirely 

 new aspect. At one degree of the darkness the 

 ground seems actually brighter than in sunshine. 

 The stones of the gravel path, the frozen clods 



