X THE STARRY HEAVENS 405 



never to threaten or to destroy." ^ We are 

 free, therefore, to admire them in peace, and 

 beautiful, indeed, they are. 



"The most wonderful sight I remember," 

 says Hamerton, "as an effect of calm, was 

 the inversion of Donati's Comet, in the year 

 1858, during the nights when it was suffi- 

 ciently near the horizon to approach the rugged 

 outline of Graiganunie, and be reflected 

 beneath it in Loch Awe. In the sky was an 

 enormous aigrette of diamond fire, in the 

 water a second aigrette, scarcely less splendid, 

 with its brilliant point directed upwards, and 

 its broad, shadowy extremity ending indefi- 

 nitely in the deep. To be out on the lake 

 alone, in a tiny boat, and let it rest motionless 

 on the glassy water, with that incomparable 

 spectacle before one, was an experience to be 

 remembered through a lifetime. I have seen 

 many a glorious sight since that now distant 

 year, but nothing to equal it in the association 

 of solemnity with splendour." ^ 



1 Ball. ^ Hamerton, Landscape. 



