The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1859-01-29
Mt. Vernon l.apers...No. v.

The contribution OF the Hon. Edward Ev-
erett 10 the New York Ledyer of this week
is on the late Comet. An account is given
of visit Of Mr. Everett to the Cambridge
Observatory. This is very beautiful:
1t was a serene October evening, admira.
bly adapted for observation. The sun Sc,
without q cloud, and the heavens, if less
magnificent than when hung with the gorge
Gus drapery which sometimes decks the eve
ming sky, were, Of course, far better pre-
pared for the Inspection Of the wonderful
visitant. Venus was the evening star. The
air was still, and free from that tremulous-
ness which SO often disturbs observations
near the horizon. The light Of the moon,
new that day, was too faint to interfere with
that Of the portentous stranger, which, in
his headong course towards the sun, had
left Arcturus five degrees behind, and was
rushing 10 his periheion at the rate Of q
hundred and thirty millions Of miles An
hour.
The appearance Of the heavens as the sun
went down, aud fainter twilight ditfuSed
itself over the sky, was most impressive
the gradual fading into obscurity Of the ter
restrial iandscape-at last the vanishing Of
all the details of village, field, and lake, un-
der the broad and shadowy wings of night,
leaving nothing visible but the larger dark
masses-spreadingt tree, church and distan,
line Of hills. Then came the a. partition, one
by one, of the heavenly iuminarics: the
thin, sharp edge of the new moon-Hespc-
rus dropping diamonds and pearls from his
imperial brow-the magnificent stars of the
higher magnitude in this region, whose un-
couth Arabic names, Mizcr, Alioth, Mirach,
give SO strange an aspect 10 the chart of the
heavens, emerging from the gloom-and
then, as the night advanced, in glittering
succession those of inferior size down to the
smallest that may be discerned by the naked
eye, till at length the whole conclave was
lighted up with its sparkling glories. /;
was an evening to make one feel the solemn
sgnifeance of tha; glorious sonnet OF Ban.
CO White:
Mysterious night when first parent knew
Thee from report divine, and heard ,hy name
Did he not treubie for this roodly frame,
This glorious canopy Of light and blue'
Yet. meath curtain Of translucent dew,
Bathea in the r.ys Of the great setting fame,
HoSp~rus with the host of Heaven cane,
And 10 creation wii-ned 10 mans view
Who could have thought such darkness day concealed
within thy beams, sun! or who could hnd,
Whilst fly and leaf, and insect stood revealed,
That to such countless orbs thou mad'st US blind!
Why do . then shun death with anxious strife:
II tight can thus decefrs, ttty may not life!
Mr.. Everett confesses his inability to de-
scribe the comet as it appeared through The
"comet seeker" and the great telescope it
self. The paper concludes with the fellow.
ing brilliant apostrophe to the wandering and
celestial stranger:
Return, then, mysterious traveller, to the
depths of the Heavens, never again to be
seen by the eyes Of men living! Thou has,
run thy race with glory; millions of eyes
have gaZed upon thee with wonder; bu,
they shall never look upon thee again
Since thy last appearance in the lower skies
empires, languages, and races OF men have
passed away-the Macedonian, the Alexan.
drian, the Augustan, the Parthian, the BY.
zantine, the Saracenic, the Ottoman dynas
ties sunk or are sinkins into the gulf OF
ages. Since thy last appearance, old CONT
Eents have re!apsed into ignorance, and new
worlds have come out from behind the veil
of waters. The Magian fires are quenched
on the hilltops Of Asia; the Chaldean seer
is blind; the Egyptian hierogrammatst has
lost his cunning; the oracies are dumb
w isdom now dwells in furthest Thule, or in
newly discovered worlds beyond the seas
Haply when, wheeling up again from the ce-
lestial abysses, thou art once more seen Iy
the dwellers on earth, the language We speak
shall also be forgotten, and science shall
have fled to the uttermost corners Of the
earth. But even there, His Hand, that now
marks out thy wondrous circuit, shall still
guide thy course: and then as now, Hesper
will smile at thy approach, and Arcturus,
with his sons, rejoice at thy coming.