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THE BEAUTIFUL LADDER. 
been one of earthly leading; but we have now 
reached the end of terrestrial guidance. In any 
attempts at further ascent a new pilotage must 
be sought, one whose commission and capabil¬ 
ities are from a higher source. Looking up¬ 
ward from our highest earthly altitude, the eye 
is attracted by some brilliant wanderers of the 
skies, whose mysterious birthplace is beyond the 
ken of human observation, and who are known 
only by their flash and explosion when they 
touch the borders of our atmosphere. 
“ The gazer into the starry depths of night is 
also often startled by the fiery trail of the shoot- 
mg stars. More or less of these luminous vis¬ 
itors are seen during every still and cloudless 
night, being most numerous during the winter 
season, except on the return of special occa¬ 
sions, when, during the months of October and 
November, the earth passes through a region 
where they seem to exist in a perfect storm of 
blazing orbs. It wa’s my good fortune in 1833 to 
see at St. Marie’s, in Michigan, that extraordinary 
shower of shooting stars which so attracted the 
notice of astronomical observers. From about 
nine in the evening till past three o’clock in the 
morning the heavens were in one continual blaze. 
