SECOND AUTUMN IN THE ICE 575 



"Sunday, November nth. I am pursuing my studies 

 as usual day after day ; and they lure me, too, deeper and 

 deeper into the insoluble mystery that lies behind all 

 these inquiries. Nay ! why keep revolving in this fruit- 

 less circuit of thought? Better go out into the winter 

 night. The moon is up, great and yellow and placid ; 

 the stars are twinkling overhead through the drifting 

 snow-dust. . . . Why not rock yourself into a winter 

 night's dream filled with memories of summer.'* 



" Ugh, no ! The wind is howling too shrilly over the 

 barren ice-plains; there are t^^^ degrees of cold, and 

 summer, with its flowers, is far, far away. I would give a 

 year of my life to hold them in my embrace ; they loom 

 so far off' in the distance, as if I should never come back 

 to them. 



" But the northern lights, with their eternally shifting 

 loveliness, flame over the heavens each day and each 

 night. Look at them; drink oblivion and drink hope 

 from them : they are even as the aspiring soul of man. 

 Restless as it, they will wreathe the whole vault of 

 heav^en with their glittering, fleeting light, surpassing 

 all else in their wild loveliness, fairer than even the 

 blush of dawn ; but, whirling idly through empty space, 

 they bear no message of a coming day. The sailor 

 steers his course by a star. Could you but concentrate 

 yourselves, you too, O northern lights, might lend your 

 aid to guide the wildered wanderer ! But dance on, and 

 let me enjoy you; stretch a bridge across the gulf 



