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12. These phenomena are beautifully expressed by the lines of Moore:

"Thus when the lamp that lighted

The traveler, at first goes out,
He feels awhile benighted,

And lingers on in fear and doubt.

"But soon the prospect clearing,
In cloudless starlight on he treads,
And finds no lamp so cheering

As that light which heaven sheds."

13. Nevertheless, there is a point in this which demands. some explanation. It is implied in these lines that the source of nocturnal illumination is chiefly, if not exclusively, starlight. This has been in a great measure disproved by Arago, who shows that there must be some other source of nocturnal illumination than that of the stars. On nights, for example, which are thickly clouded there is sometimes a stronger light than on those in which the firmament is clear and serene. From this and other circumstances Arago argues that there must be some power of illumination in the clouds or in the atmosphere independently of the light which proceeds from the stars. This is a point, however, the full development of which would require more space and time than we can spare for it on the present occasion. 14. In another of Moore's poems we find the following beautiful lines:

'While gazing on the moon's light,
A moment from her smile I turn'd,
To look at orbs that, more bright,
In lone and distant glory burn'd,
But too far

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Thus, Mary, be but thou my own;
While brighter eyes unheeded play,
I'll love those moonlight looks alone,

That bless my home and guide my way."

15. This is not only beautiful poetry, but sound astronomy. The distances of the stars are many hundreds of millions of times greater than that of the moon, but their actual splendor is in many cases greater than that of the sun. Thus it has been shown by calculations made upon observations which appear to admit of no doubt, that the star Sirius, commonly called the Dog Star, is a sun one hundred and forty-six and a half times more splendid than that which illuminates our system. Its distance, however, is so enormous that, the actual light which it sheds upon our firmament is less than the five-thousand-millionth part of the sun's light.

16. Another star, which is the principal one in the constellation of the Centaur, has been ascertained to be a sun whose splendor is two and one-third times greater than that of ours, but, owing to its enormous distance, the light which it sheds in our firmament is twenty-two thousand million times less than that of the sun. Sir John Herschel found by exact photometric measurement that the light shed upon us by this star was twenty-seven thousand four hundred and eight times less than the light of the full

moon.

17. Shakspeare imputes to the cricket the sense of hearing:

“I will tell it softly; young crickets shall not hear me.” This was long considered as a scientific blunder on the part of the poet, the most eminent naturalists having maintained that insects in general have no sense of hearing. Brunelli, an Italian naturalist, however, has demonstrated that the cricket at least has that sense. Several of these insects, which he shut up in a chamber, continued their usual crinking or chirping the whole day, except at mo

ments when he alarmed them by suddenly knocking at the door. The noise always produced a temporary silence on their part. He contrived to imitate their sounds so well that the whole party responded in a chorus, but were instantly silenced on his knocking at the door.

18. The female glow-worm, which emits the phosphorescent light familiar to all who have dwelt in warm climates, remains comparatively stationary to await the approach of her mate, attracted to her by the light which she holds out to him—a circumstance of which Moore has availed himself with his usual felicity:

"Beautiful as is the light

The glow-worm hangs out to allure

Her mate to her green bower at night.”

19. The well-known economy of the bee was never more beautifully described than by Shakspeare, who puts the following comparison into the mouth of the Archbishop of Canterbury:

"True! Therefore doth Heaven divide
The state of man in divers functions,
Setting endeavor in continual motion;
To which is fixed, as an aim or butt,
Obedience: for so work the honey-bees;
Creatures that, by a rule in nature, teach
The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
They have a king, and officers of sorts;
Where some, like magistrates, correct at home;
Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad;

Others, like soldiers armëd in their stings,
Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds;
Which pillage they with merry march bring home
To the tent-royal of their emperor:

Who, busied in his majesties, surveys

The singing masons building roofs of gold;
The civil citizens kneading up the honey;
The poor mechanic porters crowding in
Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate;
The sad-ey'd justice, with his surly hum,
Delivering o'er to executors pale
The lazy yawning drone."

DR. LARDNER.

CXIV. "HERVÉ RIEL."

I.

N the sea and at the Hogue, sixteen hundred ninety-two,
Die sea

the

And, the thirty-first of May, helter-skelter through the blue, Like a crowd of frightened porpoises a shoal of sharks pursue, Came crowding ship on ship to St. Malo on the Rance, With the English fleet in view.

II.

'Twas the squadron that escaped, with the victor in full chase, First and foremost of the drove, in his great ship, Damfreville; Close on him fled, great and small,

Twenty-two good ships in all;

And they signaled to the place,

"Help the winners of a race!

Get us guidance, give us harbor, take us quick—or, quicker still, Here's the English can and will!"

III.

Then the pilots of the place put out brisk and leaped on board; 'Why, what hope or chance have ships like these to pass?"

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laughed they;

"Rocks to starboard, rocks to port, all the passage scarred and scored,

Shall the 'Formidable' here, with her twelve and eighty guns,
Think to make the river-mouth by the single narrow way,
Trust to enter where 't is ticklish for a craft of twenty tons,
And with flow at fall beside?

Now 't is slackest ebb of tide.
Reach the mooring! Rather say,
While rock stands or water runs,
Not a ship will leave the bay!"

IV.

Then was called a council straight;

Brief and bitter the debate;

"Here's the English at our heels; would you have them take

in tow

All that's left us of the fleet, linked together stern and bow,

For a prize to Plymouth Sound?-
Better run the ships aground!"
(Ended Damfreville his speech),
"Not a minute more to wait!

Let the captains all and each

Shove ashore, then blow up, burn the vessels on the beach! France must undergo her fate.

V.

"Give the word!"-But no such word

Was ever spoke or heard;

For up stood, for out stepped, for in struck amid all theseA captain? A lieutenant? A mate-first, second, third?

No such man of mark, and meet

With his betters to compete!

But a simple Breton sailor pressed by Tourville for the fleetA poor coasting pilot he, Hervé Riel the Croisickese.

VI.

And "What mockery or malice have we here?" cries Hervé

Riel;

"Are you mad, you Malouins? Are you cowards, fools or

rogues?

Talk to me of rocks and shoals, me who took the soundings, teli On my fingers every bank, every shallow, every swell,

"Twixt the offing here and Grève, where the river disembogues? Are you bought by English gold? Is it love the lying's for? Morn and eve, night and day,

Have I piloted your bay,

Entered free and anchored fast at the foot of Solidor.

Burn the fleet, and ruin France? That were worse than fifty Hogues!

Sirs, they know I speak the truth! Sirs, believe me there's a way!

VII.

"Only let me lead the line,

Have the biggest ship to steer,

Get this Formidable' clear,

Make the others follow mine,

And I lead them most and least by a passage I know well,

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