Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1857-03-20
For the Standard.
Musings.

A cloudless night in mid-winter. The
stars are out in all their soul-subduing
loneliness and matchless glory. Orion,
Sirius, Gemini and Cassiopa are over
head, and from every nook and corner of
the heavens, showers of beauty come
floating earthward. The expectant ear
eagerly listens to catch the music of their
coming, for as the winds breathe forth
their notes as they fly, and the flowing
waters chant their brook music" we
readily infer that light also moves in
peerless majesty to the witching harmo-
ny of its own celestial music. (Who
will sing to US the music of starlight p
To the mind in meditative mood, there is
sort of inspiration in the aspect of the
starry heavens The stars look down
on US poor mortals with a glance SO kind
and genial, and withal they seem SO near.
Reed felt something of this when he
wrote:
"The stars bend DER me from the sky,
! could reach them where l lie
Let me see if I can comprehend the
] -, ata -I,---.-..--- ,--.----.-.L:--- r
I On the glowing pinions of imagination
mount upward like a winged Mercury
till earth, first shadowy and dim, in it:
outline of sea and land, has dwindled tc
a mere point-a star like the rest, bu
how minute and feeble its lustre, com
pared with those mighty orbs above ant
around me, revolving about each other
system upon system, and in their grant
and harmonious movements vitalising tn,
poets dream of the emusic of tn,
spheres" But as have foated onward
new and strange groupings of the star
e have taken the place of those old famil
: lar consultations I loved so much, witt
their richly colored robes of mythology
T drapery thrown around them by the elias
n sic imagination of the ancients, and l an
d in terra dncognita, and myriads of un
o known worlds; and as it were, frmamer
after armament bursts upon nv view
: Onward with the speed of thought an
If l am past them; they are fading an
+ fast disappearing; they are gone. u
n afar off in the distance before me CLEAN
is point of light-a solitary gem foatin
r in sea Of purple azure. Onward
.e am nearing it, and still it is only poin
l. sort of vagrant will-o'-the-wisp. [ ca
y almost reach it, and put out my hand |
IL grasp it, when, presto! it has gone gu
Of and l am alone. No object on which IL
IS eye can rest its weary gaze, no earth vii
lie changeful scenery, no sun, moon, or star
j. nothing but one illimitable expanse
5, clear blue ether. And this is space, u
ce relative, but absolute. Here is the on
be place wl,ere can appreciate the ponl
in clans Utopian dream of No North,
E. South, no East, no West" and he mig
1t, have added " No up, 10 down" for the
n. is neither. And what is this ether?
be seems that light traverses it freely, viii
We is not the case with regard to the me,
in UNI surrounding the earth, for atmt
ut pheric air exerts refractive force I'D
i'll the rays Of light passing through
n hence the enlarged appearance of t
on moon when seen near the horizon: hen
IN too, the rosy train of light that ling
int after the suns departure at eve, and b.
We aids his coming in the morning. I VIZ
it'll der if the ether is a material substanc
es. If it is not, how can it transmit Iigh
I'D And if it is, how can it be possible Il
en the theory of the astronomers is CORE
ell that the regions of space offer no res
an ance to the movements Of the planets
worlds and comets? In their explal
ted tons of the "trade winds" those cure
iu- that prevail so extensively in the eq
'm- iorial regions, philosophers tell US, Z
ing with apparent good reason, that they
Of owing to the fact that a portion of
ply @rial ocean enveloping the earth I
to depth Of fifty miles OF so, has tendeI