Lucifer s and the Poets. 255 



But, where the scattered stars are seen 



In hazy straits the clouds between, 



Each, in his station twinkling not, 



Seems changed into a pallid spot." Wordsworth. 



"Warm on her mossy couch the radiant worm, 

 Guards from cold dews her love-illumin'd form ; 

 From leaf to leaf conducts the virgin light, 

 Star of the earth, and diamond of the night." Darwin. 



Its transcience, in that melancholy tendency of the poets 

 to see vanity in everything, is constantly adverted to; its 

 light is "feeble," "fitful," a "soon-quenched" spark. In 

 the same vein, too, are the following : 



" The man who first upon the ground 

 A glow-worm spied, supposing he had found 

 A moving diamond, a breathing stone ; 

 For life it had, and like those jewels shone ; 

 He held it dear ; till by the springing day 

 Informed, he threw the worthless worm away." Waller. 



" If on some balmy breathing night of Spring 

 The happy child to whom the world is new 

 Pursues the evening moth of mealy wing, 

 Or from some heath-flower beats the sparkling dew, 

 He sees before his inexperienced eyes 

 The brilliant glow-worm like a meteor shine 

 On the turf bank 



Yet with the morning shudders to behold 



His lucid treasure, rayless as the dust. " Charlotte Smith. 



How the nightingale and the glow-worm made sad ac- 

 quaintance is a fable that is well known. So Marvel's opening 

 stanzas of " The Mower " are all the more delightful : 



"Ye living lamps, by whose dear light 

 The nightingale does sit so late, 

 And studying all the Summer night 

 Her matchless song does meditate. 



Ye country cornets, that portend 

 No war, nor prince's funeral, 

 Shining with no higher end 

 Than to presage the grass's fall. 



