I JO IN STARRY REALMS. 



On a more recent occasion I visited the Falls of Niagara. 

 When we reached the station in the middle of the night, 

 one of my fellow-passengers, who was not by any means a 

 child, remonstrated with the conductor, who came round to 

 tell us that we were at Niagara Falls. " That cannot be," 

 said the individual in question, " for I know two things 

 first, that the station is not two miles from the falls ; and 

 secondly, that the noise of the falls can be easily heard 

 twenty miles away, and as I hear nothing I know that 

 this cannot be the station." But it was nevertheless. 

 The conception of the thunders of Niagara in the mind of 

 the tourist bore no more relation to the actual fact than 

 did the Roc which the boy expected to the actual eagle 

 which was all I could show him. Nor did I fail to observe 

 the utterly disgusted and disappointed demeanour of my 

 unhappy fellow-traveller the next day, when he perceived 

 the contrast between the wretched trickle of the real Nia- 

 gara and the splendour of that ideal cataract which all this 

 journey had been taken in the hope of seeing. Had the 

 Atlantic Ocean been seen pouring down from the moon it 

 would not have done more than realise the expectations 

 of volume and altitude which so ruthlessly collapsed 

 before the fact. 



It is obvious that properly to appreciate natural scenery 

 persons must either be naturally gifted with intuitive 

 taste, or else they must wait until experience has taught 

 them what to see, and what it is reasonable to expect to 

 see. Let not any one, therefore, be disappointed if their first 

 glimpse of Saturn falls far short of what they anticipated, 

 the beauties of it are not so glaring that they can be dis- 

 cerned without nice and careful observation. Remember 



