y over many who were intoxicated with gaiety and
happiness. We dream, contemplating the magnificent spectacle, and in
dreaming forget the moments that are rapidly flying by. Yet the darkness
gradually increases, and twilight gives way to night.

The most indifferent spectator of the setting Sun as it descends beneath
the waves at the far horizon, could hardly be unmoved by the pageant of
Nature at such an impressive moment.

The light of the Crescent Moon, like some fairy boat suspended in the
sky, is bright enough to cast changing and dancing sparkles of silver
upon the ocean. The Evening Star declines slowly in its turn toward the
western horizon. Our gaze is held by a shining world that dominates the
whole of the occidental heavens. This is the "Shepherd's Star," Venus of
rays translucent.

Little by little, one by one, the more brilliant stars shine out. Here
are the white Vega of the Lyre, the burning Arcturus, the seven stars of
the Great Bear, a whole sidereal population catching fire, like
innumerable eyes that open on the Infinite. It is a new life that is
revealed to our imagination, inviting us to soar into these mysterious
regions.

O Night, diapered with fires innumerable! hast thou not written in
flaming letters on these Constellations the syllables of the great
enigma of Eternity? The contemplation of thee is a wonder and a charm.
How rapidly canst thou efface the regrets we suffered on the departure
of our beloved Sun! What wealth, what beauty hast thou not reserved for
our enraptured souls! Where is the man that can remain blind to such a
pageant and deaf to its language!

To whatever quarter of the Heavens we look, the splendors of the night
are revealed to our astonished gaze. These celestial eyes seem in their
turn to gaze at, and to question us. Thus indeed have they questioned
every thinking soul, so long as Humanity has existed on our Earth. Homer
saw and sung these self-same stars. They shone upon the slow succession
of civilizations that have disappeared, from Egypt of the period of the
Pyramids, Greece at the time of the Trojan War, Rome and Carthage,
Constantine and Charlemagne, down to the Twentieth Century. The
generations are buried with the dust of their ancient temples. The Stars
are still there, symbols of Eternity.

The silence of the vast and starry Heavens may terrify us; its immensity
may seem to overwhelm us. But our inquiring thought flies curiously on
the wings of dream, to