The Irish standard., 1901-05-11
Night Thoughts.

starry armament is not an inspiration,
and who has not felt in the solitude of
night. the august presence of brighter
worlds lowering over their sister
Earth Surely the man who feels no
sentiment Of admiration before the
grandest panorama of nature is not
worthy of his crown of intelligence
Every jewclled lamp in that sapphire
dome suggests life and light in terms
so eloquent that their meaning is lost
in the subtlmity Of the language How
mysterious, how sublime is the Ian
guage of night! During those still
hours, we have intimate communities
ton with the entire universe. whose
wonderful proportions eclipse earthly
things, and as we gaze into the depths
of the starry vault, we feel the beauty
of the poets lines:
''When night, with wings of starry
gloom
O'erslMdows all the earth and skies,
Like some dark beautcous bird whose
plume
Is sparkling with unnumbercd eyes,
That sacred gloom, those fires divine,
So grand, so countless, Lord, are
Thine"
Night, while spreading veil over
our little planet, throws into bold re-
lief the splcndors Of the armament
which the orb of day has concealed.
Nowhere are the power and sublimity
Of the Creator more strongly exhibited
than in the number and the arrange
ment of those eternal fires Who but
an infinite God could conceive any
thing so vast, so sublime, SO infinite!
Thousands of sparkling gems, appar-
emily near together, return our aston
islmd gaze: but countless as they seem
not Il fourth of the real number is
visible to the naked eye, for the tclc-
scope reveals myriads scattered
through space. Why does the word
universe mean so much? Is 1t be-
cause it IS so far beyond our comprc-
hcnsion, so infinite? How like it is to
eternity, something which goes on for
ever, without limit or end Over this
vast universe the stars are scattered
thousands and thousands OF miles
away from us, SO far, that travelling
as fast as light, it would take centuries
to reach them.
My fnvorite time of day is the hour
that follows the sunset. Then the
purple dome of heaven seems like Il
sea dotted with isles of light. and con-
spicuous among them is n band of
stars so dense MS to become brilliantly
white. This semi-luminous train is one
of the most beautiful ornaments OF
the sky. 1t is composed of multitude
of stars irreguiarly connected. The
ancients called It the milky Way"
and there are several beautiful myths
connected with It's origin. A few
drops of milk fell from the cup Of
Juno, and flowed among the stars,
tracing on the azure heavens this belt
Of remarkable Wilderness, and 1t was
regarded MS a path leading to Olym-
pus. Other star groups, the Greeks
and Romans have named after their
heroes. We still search the celestial
fields for the sword and belt Of Orion,
for the great warrior Twins, and we
eagerly watch the Great Bear as he
steps into the eternal circle following
the royal path with n slow and steady
gait.
| The science OF the stars has interes-
ed and perplexed the minds Of men
from the earliest times, but in this en-
lightcncd age they have reduced those
great theories to comparatively sim
pie facts. The question which still
troubles us is the greatest and most
complex in astronomy, care the other
planets inhabited!" And we are told
that the four outer planets are too
highly heated for human beings to live
on, while on Venus and the others the
atmosphere is too dense and too heav-
| lly charged WITH moisture. LII respect
to Mars, which is very much like our
earth, having rivers, mountains and
seas, we are Told that it is pcopled
with a race like that Of man. If we
accept this theory, we wonder why
the other planets were created; for
the Great God does nothing in vain,
and we are too modest to think that
all these stars were created to beauti-
fly the night for our earth. Although
we think 1t the most important of the
heavenly bodies, it is in reality lost
among the myrlads Of worlds scat
tered through space. Even In our sys-
tenn, the earth is by no means the
greatest, and we therefore have no
reason to believe that 1t can lay claim
to the service Of the stars. On each
of the other planets, the generous rays
of the sun pour forth light and heat.
and on each, days, months and years
succeed one another as they do on
earth. It seems strange, indeed, that
a body 80 great and magnificent as the