THE BLUE SKY 



55 



flame shot through, earth reflection shot back, 

 cloud light scattered between, all make their 

 momentary impression ; and even at night, 

 though the splendor is diminished, it is not 

 extinguished. The moon lends a pallor to the 

 blue, the Milky Way stretches its nebulous 

 scarf across it, the Belt of Orion blazes out 

 from it, the planets gleam on its dark ground, 

 and through the long dusk of night the shift- 

 ing splendor falls, the eternal round of beauty 

 moves on. 



And by day or by night, seen from mountains 

 or from valleys, what infinite tenderness in the 

 blue ! Was ever depth and transparency of 

 color so beautifully revealed, and by such subtle, 

 elusive means ? Drifts upon drifts of air super- 

 imposed one upon another, rings upon rings 

 of illuminated atmosphere, rising higher and 

 higher, and all of them deepening the tone, but 

 never clouding its transparency. How far we 

 seem to see into that blue, but there is no place 

 where the eye reaches a background no place 

 where a basic color appears. It is always a 

 spectral abyss a blue dream resting above us, 

 which the mind of the human has never been 

 able to grasp as a reality. 



It is not to be wondered at that the tender- 



