had actually seemed to set there. Thus the first night passed away. But when the east began to dawn, consternation seized the whole army of celestials, each feeling himself fainting into invisibility, and, as he feared, into nothingness, while his neighbors were, one after another, totally disappearing. At length the sun arose, and filled the heavens, and clothed the earth with his glory. How he spent that day belongs not to this history; but it is elsewhere recorded that, for the first time from eternity, the lark on the wings of morning sprang up to salute him, the eagle at noon looked undazzled on his splendor, and when he went down beyond the deep, Leviathan was sporting amidst the multitude of waves.

Then, again, in the evening, the vanished constellations awoke gradually, and, on opening their eyes, were so rejoiced at meeting together, not one being wanting of last night's levee, that they were in the highest good-humor with themselves and one another. Tricked in all their beams, and darting their benignest influence, they exchanged smiles and endearments, and made vows of affection eternal and unchangeable; while from this nether orb, the song of the nightingale rose out of darkness, and charmed even the stars in their courses, being the first sound, except the roar of ocean, that they had ever heard. "The music of the spheres " may be traced to the rapture of that hour.

The little gleaming horn was again discerned, leaning backward over the western hills. This companionless luminary, they thought, but they must be mistaken, it could not be,and yet they were afraid that it was so, appeared somewhat stronger than on the former occasion. The moon herself, still only blinking at the scene of magnificence, early escaped beneath the horizon, leaving the comet in proud possession of the sky. About midnight, the whole congregation, shining in quiet and amicable splendor, as they glided with unfelt and invisible motion through the pure blue fields of ether, were suddenly startled by a phantom of fire, on the approach of

which the comet himself turned pale, the planets dwindled into dim specks, and the greater part of the stars swooned utterly away. Shooting upwards, like an arrow of flame, from the east, in the zenith it was condensed to a globe, with scintillating spires diverging on every side; it paused not a moment there, but rushing with accelerated velocity towards the west, burst into a thousand coruscations, that swept themselves into annihilation before it could be said that they were.

The blaze of this meteor was so refulgent, that passing blindness struck the constellations, and after they were conscious of its disappearance, it took many twinklings of their eyes before they could see distinctly again. Then, with one accord, they exclaimed, "How beautiful! how transient ! After gravely moralizing for a good while on its enviable glory but unenviable doom, they were all reconciled to their own milder but more permanent lustre. One pleasant effect was produced by the visit of the stranger - the comet thenceforward appeared less illustrious in their eyes by comparison with this more gorgeous phenomenon; which, though it came in an instant, and went as it came, never to return, ceased not to shine in their remembrance night after night.

On the third evening, the moon was so obviously increased in size and splendor, and stood so much higher in the firmament than at first, though she still hastened out of sight, that she was the sole subject of conversation on both sides of the galaxy, till the breeze that awakened newly-created man from his first slumber in Paradise, warned the stars to retire, and the sun, with a pomp never witnessed in our degenerate

days, ushered in the great Sabbath of creation, when "the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them."

The following night, the moon took her station still higher, and looked brighter than before, insomuch that it was remarked of the lesser stars in her vicinity, that many of them were paler, and some no longer visible. As their associates knew not how to account for this, they naturally enough presumed that her light was fed by the accession and absorption of theirs; and the alarm became general, that she would thus continue to thrive by consuming her neighbors, till she had incorporated them all with herself.

Still, however, she preserved her humility and shamefacedness, till her crescent had exceeded the first quarter. Hitherto she had only grown lovelier, but now she grew prouder at every step of her preferment. Her rays, too, became so intolerably dazzling, that fewer and fewer of the stars could endure their presence, but shrouded themselves in her light as behind a veil of darkness. When she verged to maturity, the heavens seemed too small for her ambition. She " rose in clouded majesty," but the clouds melted at her approach, or spread their garments in her path, of many a rich and rain bow tint.

She had crossed the comet in her course, and left him as wan as a vapor behind her. On the night of her fulness, she triumphed gloriously in mid-heaven, smiled on the earth, and arrayed it in a softer day, for she had repeatedly seen the sun, and though she could not rival him when he was above the horizon, she fondly hoped to make his absence forgotten. Over the ocean she hung enamored of her own beauty reflected in the abyss. The few stars that still could stand amidst her overpowering effulgence converged their rays, and shrunk into bluer depths of ether, to gaze at a safe distance upon her. "What more can she be?" thought these scattered survivors of myriads of extinguished sparklers, for the

"numbers without number" that thronged the milky way had altogether disappeared. Again thought these remnants of the host of heaven, "As hitherto she has increased every evening, to-morrow she will do the same, and we must be lost like our brethren in her all-conquering resplendence."

The moon herself was not a little puzzled to imagine what might become of her; but vanity readily suggested, that although she had reached her full form, she had not reached her full size; consequently, by a regular nightly expansion of her circumference, she would finally cover the whole convexity of sky, not only to the exclusion of stars, but the sun himself, since he occupied a superior region of space, and certainly could not shine through her: till man, and his beautiful companion, woman, looking upward from the bowers of Eden, would see all moon above them, and walk in the light of her countenance forever. In the midst of this self-pleasing illusion, a film crept upon her, which spread from her utmost verge athwart her centre, till it had completely eclipsed her visage, and made her a blot on the tablet of the heavens. In the progress of this disaster, the stars which were hid in her pomp stole forth to witness her humiliation; but their transport and her shame lasted not long: the shadow retired as gradually as it had advanced, leaving her fairer by contrast than before. Soon afterwards, the day broke, and she withdrew, marvelling what would next befall her.

Never had the stars been more impatient to resume their places, nor the moon more impatient to rise than on the following evening. With trembling hope and fear, the planets that came out first after sunset espied her disk, broad and dark red, emerging from a gulf of clouds in the east. At the first glance, their keen celestial sight discovered that her western limb was a little contracted, and her orb no longer perfect. She herself was too much elated to suspect any failing, and fondly imagined by that species of self-measurement whereby earthly as well as heavenly bodies are apt to

deem themselves greater than they are, that she must have continued to increase all round,- till she had got above the Atlantic; but even then she was only chagrined to perceive that her image was no larger than it had been last night. There was not a star in the horoscope, no, not the comet himself, — durst tell her she was less.

She rose, as

Another night went, and another night came. usual, a little later. Even while she travelled above the land, she was haunted with the idea that her lustre was rather feebler than it had been; but when she beheld her face in the sea, she could no longer overlook the unwelcome defect. The season was boisterous; the wind rose suddenly, and the waves burst into foam; perhaps the tide, for the first time, then was affected by sympathy with the moon; and what had never happened before, a universal tempest mingled heaven and earth in rain, and lightning, and darkness. She plunged among the thickest of the thunder clouds, and in the confusion that hid her disgrace, her exulting rivals were all likewise put out of countenance.

On the next evening, and every evening afterwards, the moon came forth later, and less, and dimmer, while, on each occasion, more and more of the minor stars, which had formerly vanished from her eye, reappeared to witness her fading honors and disfigured form. Prosperity had made her vain; adversity brought her to her right mind again, and humility soon compensated the loss of glaring distinction with softer charms, that won the regard which haughtiness had repelled; for when she had worn off her uncouth gibbous aspect, and through the last quarter her profile waned into a hollow shell, she appeared more graceful than ever in the eyes of all heaven. When she was originally seen among them, the stars contemned her; afterwards, as she grew in beauty, they envied, feared, hated, and finally fled from her. As she relapsed into insignificance, they first rejoiced in her decay, then endured her superiority because it could not 'ast long;