And the beautiful planet, shining there so peacefully in the west, was
it any better? At a like distance the earth would seem still fairer, and
perhaps even now some wretch in Venus is asking himself a similar
question. Is it not probable that just as all the worlds are made of the
same materials, so the mixture of good and evil is much the same in all?
I turned to the stars, where in all ages man has sought an answer to his
riddles. The better land! Where is it? if not among the stars. I am now
in the old heaven above the clouds. Does it lie _within_ the visible
universe, as it lies within the heart when peace and happiness are
there?

In that pure ether the glory of the firmament was revealed to me as it
had never been on the earth, where it is often veiled with clouds and
mist, or marred by houses and surrounding objects--where the quietude of
the mind is also apt to be disturbed by sordid and perplexing cares. Its
awful sublimity overwhelmed my faculties, and its majesty inspired me
with a kind of dread. In presence of these countless orbs my own
nothingness came home to me, and a voice seemed to whisper in my ear,

"Hush! What art thou? Be humble and revere."

After a while, I perceived a pure celestial radiance of a marvellous
whiteness dawning in the east. By slow degrees it spread over the
starlit sky, lightening its blackness to a deep Prussian blue, and
lining the sable clouds on the horizon with silver. At length the round
disc of the sun, whiter than the full moon, and intolerably bright, rose
into view.

With the intention of rejoining Professor Gazen in the observatory, and
seeing it through his telescope, I flung away my cigar, and stepped