g, many-shaped animal, inhale it; but before all, the glorious
stranger, with the speaking eyes, the uncertain gait, and the gently
closed, melodious lips. Like a king of earthly nature, it summons each
power to countless transformations, ratifies and dissolves treaties in
infinite number, and suspends its heavenly image on every earthly
being. Its presence alone reveals the wondrous splendor of creation's
realms.

"I turn aside to the holy, ineffable, mysterious Night. Far away lies
the world, sunk in a depth profound waste and lonely is its place. O'er
the chords of the bosom waveth deep sadness. I will dissolve into dew
drops, and mingle myself with the ashes. Distance of memory, wishes of
youth, dreams of childhood, the short joys and vain hopes of a whole
long life, flit by me in robes of gray, like evening clouds after
sunset. In other spaces Light has pitched its merry tents. Will it
never return to its children, who are waiting for it with the trusting
faith of innocence?

"What swells now so forebodingly beneath the heart, and swallows up the
soft air of sadness? Hast thou also a pleasure in us, sombre Night?
What bringest thou beneath thy mantle, that with viewless power winds
its way to my soul? A costly balsam is dripping from thy hand, from thy
bunch of poppy. The drooping pinions of the mind thou bearest upward.
Dimly and ineffably we feel ourselves moved; a solemn countenance do I
see, in pleasing terror, that gently and full of devotion bendeth
towards me, and showeth dear youth hid in the infinite locks of the
mother. How poor and childish Light now appears to me! How welcome and
blessed the farewell of day! Only for this, because Night alienates
from thee thy servants, didst thou sow in the regions of space the
luminous balls, to proclaim thy omnipotence, thy return, in the times
of thy absence. More heavenly than yonder twinkling stars appear the
infinite eyes that Night opens in us. Their sight extends farther than
the palest of that numberless host; unbeholden to Light, they gaze
through the depths of a loving spirit, which fills a loftier space with
unspeakable rapture. Praised be the Queen of the world, the high
announcer of holy spheres, the nurse of blessed love! She sends me
thee, O dearly beloved, lovely sun of the Night. Now I awake, for I am
Thine and Mine; thou hast announced to me Night as my life, thou hast
made me a man. Consume my body with a spirit-glow, that in ether I may
mingle mo