REVEALING NIGHT 



THERE is light behind us as we leave the house for a 

 tramp on the hillside. It streams beyond us, and 

 shows us in the faintly silvered grass a stroke of 

 blackest charcoal that we know stands for a trench. 

 We feel for the other side with a stick, and, never- 

 theless, the foot comes down with a jar, because, in 

 so dim a light, it is impossible to judge distance 

 correctly. How will it be when the light is with- 

 drawn and the black velvet of night is all round us ? 

 Black as it seemed it proves sight-yielding. It tricks 

 us into seeing many things that we know cannot be 

 there converting outlines of trees into haystacks, 

 bushes into men, desperate footpads ready to commit 

 murder for our purse, a newly broken log into a 

 prone body with staring white face, a cattle-byre into 

 a ruined church of unusual beauty yet revealing our 

 whereabouts somewhat as through a guide speaking 

 Greek. These outlines and broad meanings of light 

 and shade we cannot see by day, for detail eclipses 

 outline, and colour confuses all estimate of shade. 

 Day darkens as well as night. Night enlightens. 



The things seen now, and not seen in the daytime, 

 may seem a small thing. Not so the sharpening or 

 extra gratification of the other senses. Is it because 

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