Noctilucae 



THE moon had not yet risen ; but the vast of 

 the night was all seething with stars, and 

 bridged by a Milky Way of extraordinary 

 brightness. There was no wind; but the sea, 

 far as sight could reach, was running in ripples 

 of fire, a vision of infernal beauty. Only the 

 ripplings were radiant (between them was black- 

 ness absolute) ; and the luminosity was amaz- 

 ing. Most of the undulations were yellow like 

 candle-flame; but there were crimson lampings 

 also, and azure, and orange, and emerald. 

 And the sinuous flickering of all seemed, not a 

 pulsing of many waters, but a laboring of many 

 wills, a fleeting conscious and monstrous, 

 a writhing and a swarming incalculable, as of 

 dragon-life in some depth of Erebus. 



And life indeed was making the sinister splen- 

 dor of that spectacle but life infinitesimal, 

 197 



