x THE STARRY HEAVENS 405 



never to threaten or to destroy." 1 We are 

 free, therefore, to admire them in peace, and 

 beautiful, indeed, they are. 



"The most wonderful sight I remember," 

 says Hamerton, "as an effect of calm, was 

 the inversion of Donati's Comet, in the year 

 1858, during the nights when it was suffi- 

 ciently near the horizon to approach the rugged 

 outline of G-raiganunie, and be reflected 

 beneath it in Loch Awe. In the sky was an 

 enormous aigrette of diamond fire, in the 

 water a second aigrette, scarcely less splendid, 

 with its brilliant point directed upwards, and 

 its broad, shadowy extremity ending indefi- 

 nitely in the deep. To be out on the lake 

 alone, in a tiny boat, and let it rest motionless 

 on the glassy water, with that incomparable 

 spectacle before one, was an experience to be 

 remembered through a lifetime. I have seen 

 many a glorious sight since that now distant 

 year, but nothing to equal it in the association 

 of solemnity with splendour." 2 



1 Ball. 2 Hamerton, La ndscape. 



