Year: 1864

~ Is btTaHRe lOh utbo III kOueia ~ pVOpie
know about the sky. 1t is the part ol
creation IN which nature has done more
for the sake Of pleasing man, more for the
sole and evident purpose of talking to him
and teaching him, than in any other ol
her works, and it is just the part in which
we least attend to her. There are no!
many of her other works in which some
more material or essential purpose than
the mere pleasing Of man, is not answered
by every part of their organization. But
every essential purpose Of the sky might,
so far as we know, be answered, il once
in three days, or thereabouts, q great ugly
black rain cloud were brought up ov, r
the blue, and everything well watered, and
so all left blue again till next time, with
perhaps q film of morning and evening
mist for dew. And instead Of this, there
is not moment of any day of our lives
when nature is not producing scene after
scene, picture after picture, glory after
glory, and working still upon such e&qui-
site and constant principles Of the most
perfect beauty, that it is quite certain it is
all done for US, and intended for our per-


petual pleasure. And every man wherev.
er placed, however far from other sources
of interest or of beauty, has this doing
for him constantly. The noblest scenes
of the earth can be seen and known but
by few; it is not intended that man should
live always in the midst Of them he in
lures them by his presence /; he ceases to
feel them if he be always with them; but
the sky is for all bright as it is, it is not
"too bright, nor good, for human natures
daily food;" it is fitted in all its functions
for the perpetual comfort and exalting OF
the heart, for soothing it and purifying it
from its dross and dust. Sometimes gen
tie, sometimes capriciouS, sometimes awful
never the same for two moments to-
gethcr; almost human in its passions, al
most spiritual in its tenderness, almost
divine in its infinity, its appeal to what is
immortal in US is as distinct as its minis
! try of chastisement or of blessing to what
is moral is essential. And yet we never
attend to it; we never make it subject OF
thought but as it has TO do with our ami
NAL sensations; we look upon all by which
itspeaks to US more clearly than to brutes,
upon which all bears witness to the inten.
/ ton Of the Supreme that we are to receive
more from the covering result than the
light and the dew which we share with
the weed and the worm, only as a success
sion of meaningless and monotOnous &C
cident, too common and too vain to bt
worthy of a moment Of watchfulneSs or ;
glance of admiration. II, in our moments
of utter idleness and insipidity, we turr
to the sky as q last resource, which Of it.
phenomena Go We speak of? One says i


has been wet, and another it has beer
warm. Who among the whole chatterin(
crowd can tell me Of the forms and th'
precipices of the cham of tall white noun
tains that girded the horizon at noon yes
terdayP Who saw the narrow sunbeam
that came out of the south, and smot
upon their SUBMITS until they melted ant
mOuldered away in dust of blue rain


Who saw the dance of the dead clond


when the sunlight left them last night
and the west winds blew them before i
like Withered leaves? All is passed, un
regretted as unseen. Or if the apathy h
ever shaken off, even for an instant, it il


only by what is gross, or what is cXtraor
binary; and yet it is not in the broad anc
fierce manifestations of the elemental en-
ergies, not in the clash of the hail, nor tn


drift Of the whirlwind, that the highe,
characters Of the sublime are developed
God is not in the earthquake, nor in tn


fire. but in the still small voice. The,
are but the blunt and low faculties Of GU
nature, which can only be addressed thro
lampback and lightning. 1t is in thu
quiet and subdued passages of unobtru
sive majesty, the deep, and the calm, anc
the perpetual that which must be sough
ere it is seen, and loved ere it is under
things which the angels work ou
for us daily, and yet vary eternally, whici
are never wanting, and never repeated
which are to be found always, yet eacl
found but once; it is through these tina
the lesson Of devotion is chiefly taught
and the blessing of beauty given


Ruskin.