376 THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE CHAP. 



conceptions of the Heavens for which we 

 are indebted to astronomical Science. The 

 mechanical contrivances by which it was 

 attempted to explain the movements of the 

 heavenly bodies were clumsy and prosaic 

 when compared with the great discovery of 

 Newton. Kuskin is unjust I think when he 

 says " Science teaches us that the clouds are 

 a sleety mist ; Art, that they are a golden 

 throne." I should be the last to disparage 

 the debt we owe to Art, but for our knowl- 

 edge, and even more, for bur appreciation, 

 feeble as even yet it is, of the overwhelming 

 grandeur of the Heavens, we are mainly in- 

 debted to Science. 



There is scarcely a form which the fancy of 

 Man has not sometimes detected in the clouds, 

 chains of mountains, splendid cities, storms 

 at sea, flights of birds, groups of animals, 

 monsters of all kinds, and our superstitious 

 ancestors often terrified themselves by fantas- 

 tic visions of arms and warriors and battles 

 which they regarded as portents of coming 

 calamities. There is hardly a day on which 

 Clouds do not delight and surprise us by their 



