The Garden in its Glory 



legendary, but fact ; and the Datura would seem 

 to be gifted with a feminine capacity for knowing 

 what becomes her, for she never shows her 

 beauties to greater advantage than by moonlight. 

 The rise of the full moon over the Desertas, 

 with a garden for foreground, and her broad 

 belt of silvery light upon the sea beyond, Is 

 indeed a glorious spectacle, perhaps hardly to 

 be matched elsewhere. And the splendid sky 

 of the northern hemisphere, " the mild assem- 

 blage of the starry heavens," is to be seen at its 

 best in this clear air. The heavenly bodies are 

 not merely points of light on a flat surface, they 

 appear almost in perspective ; you feel that 

 there is space behind them. And the brightness 

 of the planets is extraordinary. You may make 

 out Jupiter's moons quite easily with a race- 

 glass ; some persons of abnormal vision are said 

 to have seen them with the naked eye. Pro- 

 bably ordinary people are able to see far more 

 stars than in England. Moon or no moon, the 

 hours 



" From evensong to daytime 

 When April melts in Maytime,' 



are fairer than the day, however fair. And the 

 pleasant hour of nightfall lacks in this equable 



269 



