Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1870-10-27
The Morning Stars.

The drought, after all, has its COM
pensalions. These are glorious days.
September has been n beautiful month,
as it always is, though perhaps in a
somewhat different way. 1t has not
only been clear and fine, throughout,
but has given us an extraordinary
number of days absolutely clear One
of the grandest sights it has presented
is the very one which has been least
seen. Few people are awake before
daylight, these cool mornings and the
few who happen to be, would not eX-
change their warm beds and their sleepy
comfort for any celestial view less daz
zing and coniounding than that OF the
great mctcoric display Of 1888, when
the skies literally rained fire. Yet
these autumnal mornings are splendid
beyond description. Clear, serene and
still, the morning stars, at the hour that
precedes the dawn, shine with extra
ordinary brittany and beauty. Venus,
the morning star, fairly blazes in the
intensity and splendor Of its pure and
: lustrous glow. Through glass its
crescent form, looking large and near,
is an object Of singular beauty. a
little north Of the zenith is the Sparkl-
ing group Of the Pleiades, with the
princely star AIcyone-that mysterious
central orb around which our solar
system is revolving, and toward which,
il is now found, our sun and its attend
ant planets are steadily moving. At
the right, u little southeast Of this group,
pephaps lO0 or II =, are the Hyades
crowned with the red d-glowing Aide
baran. a star of the first magnltude.-
, Between these Two groups passes the
ecliptic. A few degrees further to the
southeast is the splendid constellation
of Orion, tie most brilliant Of all, with
its Belatrix, Betclguesc and Rigel, s'a>s
OF the first magnitude, flaming like
diamonds-thc two latter lying one on
either side of the celestial EQUATOR
Further southeast, in his old place, is
the king of stars, the mighty Sirius, OF
strange and beautiful hue, flashing and
sciutillating in his pure mstre-thc star
which, ages before old Greece existed,
! the ancient Egyptians worshlped-in
size sixty-thrce times greater than our
, sun. 1t is Il royal STAR and the morn
i ing discloses its full splendor As the
eye sweeps up the back, high afd cen
q tral in the eastern heavens it meets
q Procyon, whose pure and lambent flame
e glows by itself in pure and lonely beau
= ty. Just north of the ecliptic, Castor
i and Pollok light their companion fires
IS and well up in the northern sky the be
i holder sees gorgeous Capella. AS seen
on the morning of the 10th, the heav-
ems, Just before dawn, pres sented In one
= section, and that circle including but
= a small part of the whole visible sky,
n u all the principal stars we have named,
u with countless others. There too,
ir blazed the ruddy sphere of ''moonless
= Mars" the great planet Jupiter with its
1t fou" moons, and the silvery crescent OF
Sc our own waning satellite,-,he latter
riding high above the flashing morning
20 star, and presenting in connection with
'c the glorous principal lights we have
5 named. spectacle Of beauty and sub
!, r Unity which, were it shown but once in
% thousand years, would draw forth the
y whole world to gaze and wonder. Be
&c sides such of these newly risen stars rs
e do not emerge into our field Of view un-
: til the midnight hour has past, the early
" morning possesses other advantages for
id the stal.gazer The skies are often
IS clearer then than at any other time.
y The morning is crisp and fresh, and
Il u the beauty of the sky is even
t. IN ore glorious before than after the
t. dawn 1t is the darkness that reveals
ly the existence of other and more glorious
AZ al worlds than ours. Blanco White re
W w fered to this fact in his remarkable SON
DO Do net where he argued for a future life, II
ds the line
VI 'If Light can thus deceive, wherefore moi
ut Lifc!"
The love between the President an(