PURE AND REFLECTED LIGHT 



11 



pearl, and the glow is infinitely more delicate 

 for its surrounding of translucent atmosphere. 

 Yet the great vault is illumined, and, as the 

 sun rises higher, far to the north and far to 

 the south, half-way around the circle, a tapes- 

 try of silver and gold is weaving on a blue-gray 

 ground, and the dark ultramarine of the west 

 turns a shade paler and seems to lift into 

 space as the light grows stronger. How like 

 the flooding of the tide this light drifts up, 

 and in this great aerial ocean bringing with it 

 warmth and color ! Soundless and surgeless, 

 rolling in waves too translucent to be seen, ris- 

 ing higher and higher, yet meeting with no 

 ultimate shore, how gloriously it sweeps up 

 and over the world ! How swiftly even the 

 " meagre cloddy earth " borrows a splendor 

 from above and reflects the flush of light and 

 color ! The mists stir, the trees tremble gently, 

 the dew slips from leaf to stem, and the whole 

 globe seems to awaken from slumber. 



There is nothing more beautiful in all nature 

 than this flooding of light across the sky, across 

 the earth ; yet even as we watch it a great 

 change takes place. The sun peers over the 

 horizon and the first beam of light strikes 

 full upon the mountain's highest minaret of 



