n all?
I turned to the stars, where in all ages man has sought an answer to his
riddles. The better land! Where is it? if not among the stars. I am now
in the old heaven above the clouds. Does it lie _within_ the visible
universe, as it lies within the heart when peace and happiness are
there?

In that pure ether the glory of the firmament was revealed to me as it
had never been on the earth, where it is often veiled with clouds and
mist, or marred by houses and surrounding objects--where the quietude of
the mind is also apt to be disturbed by sordid and perplexing cares. Its
awful sublimity overwhelmed my faculties, and its majesty inspired me
with a kind of dread. In presence of these countless orbs my own
nothingness came home to me, and a voice seemed to whisper in my ear,

"Hush! What art thou? Be humble and revere."

After a while, I perceived a pure celestial radiance of a marvellous
whiteness dawning in the east. By slow degrees it spread over the
starlit sky, lightening its blackness to a deep Prussian blue, and
lining the sable clouds on the horizon with silver. At length the round
disc of the sun, whiter than the full moon, and intolerably bright, rose
into view.

With the intention of rejoining Professor Gazen in the observatory, and
seeing it through his telescope, I flung away my cigar, and stepped
towards the door of the cabin; but ere I had gone two paces, I suddenly
reeled and fell. At first I imagined that an accident had happened to
the car, but soon realised that I myself was at fault. Dizzy and faint,
with a bounding pulse, an aching head, and a panting chest, I raised
myself with great difficulty into a seat, and tried to collect my
thoughts. For the last quarter of an hour I had been aware of a growing
uneasiness, but the spectacle of sunrise had entranced me, and I forgot
it. Suspecting an attack of "mountain sickness" owing to the rarity of
the atmosphere, I attempted to rise and close the scuttles, but found
that I had lost all power in my lower limbs. The pain in my head
increased, the palpitation of my heart grew more violent, my ears rang
like a bell, and I literally gasped for breath. Moreover, I felt a
peculiar dryness in my throat, and a disagreeable taste of blood in my
mouth. What was to be done? I tried again to reach the door, but only to
find that I could not even move my arms, let alone my feet.
Nevertheless, I was singularly free from agitation or alarm, and my mind
was just a