THE BEAUTIFUL LADDER. 303 
supposed to presage some wrathful visitation, 
instead of revealing in brighter rays new depths 
of infinite love. To science we must award 
the praise of divesting these brilliant illum¬ 
inators of the night of their robes of terror, 
by showing the causes of their appearance. 
These nocturnal diplays are among the most 
sublime manifestations of atmospheric electric¬ 
ity. This mysterious force is so commonly 
associated with thunderclouds and tornadoes 
and the sharp red bolts of lightning, that it is 
hard to throw off the dread impression, and 
contemplate the same agency working its harm¬ 
less glories in the still hours of night, silently 
and mildly draping the heavens with tongues 
of flame and coruscations of pink and rosy 
light. Entrancingly beautiful, what a spectacle 
is furnished to the beholder as the lambent 
glories move in gorgeous evolutions over the 
heavenly plains ! Now the sky is overspread 
with a draping of gold, rose-tints, and purple, 
and now with tongues of silvery flames, shoot¬ 
ing up from the horizon or hanging pendent 
from some cloudy convolution. The higher the 
northern point of observation, the richer are the 
auroral displays. 
