THE MOON AND STARS.

A Fable.

On the fourth day of Creation, when the sun, after a glorious but solitary course, went down in the evening, and darkness began to gather over the face of the uninhabited globe, already arrayed in exuberance of vegetation, and prepared, by the diversity of land and water, for the abode of uncreated animals and man, a star, single and beautiful, stepped forth into the firmament. Trembling with wonder and delight in new-found existence, she looked abroad, and beheld nothing in heaven or on earth resembling herself. But she was not long alone; now one, then another, here a third, and there a fourth, resplendent companion had joined her, till, light after light stealing through the gloom, in the lapse of an hour, the whole hemisphere was brilliantly bespangled.

The planets and stars, with a superb comet flaming in the zenith, for a while contemplated themselves and each other; and every one, from the largest to the least, was so perfectly well pleased with himself, that she imagined the rest only partakers of his felicity, he being the central luminary of his own universe, and all the hosts of heaven beside displayed around him in graduated splendour. Nor were any undeceived with regard to themselves, though all saw their associates in their real situations and relative proportions, selfknowledge being the last knowledge acquired, either in the sky or below it; till, bending over the ocean in their turns, they discovered what they imagined, at first, to be a new heaven, peopled with beings of their own species; but, when they perceived, further, that no sooner had any one of

their company touched the horizon than he instantly disappeared, they then recognised themselves in their individual forms, reflected beneath according to their places and configurations above, from seeing others, whom they previously knew, reflected in like manner.

By an attentive but mournful self-examination in that mirror, they slowly learned humility; but every one learned it only for himself, none believing what others insinuated respecting their own inferiority, till they reached the western slope, from whence they could identify their true images in the nether element. Nor was this very surprising: stars being only visible points, without any distinction of limbs, each was all eye, and, though he could see others most correctly, he could neither see himself, nor any part of himself, till he came to reflection! The comet, however, having a long train of brightness streaming sunward, could review that, and did review it with ineffable selfcomplacency:-indeed, after all pretensions to precedence, he was at length acknowledged king of the hemisphere, if not by the universal assent, by the silent envy of all his rivals.

But the object which attracted most attention and astonishment, too, was a slender thread of light, that scarcely could be discerned through the blush of evening, and vanished soon after nightfall, as if ashamed to appear in so scanty a form, like an unfinished work of creation. It was the moon, the first new moon. Timidly she looked around upon the glittering multitude, that crowded through the dark serenity of space, and filled it with life and beauty. Minute, indeed, they seemed to her, but perfect in symmetry, and formed to shine for ever; while she was unshapen, incom

plete, and evanescent. In her humility she was glad to hide herself from their keen glances in the friendly bosom of the ocean, wishing for immediate extinction.

When she was gone, the stars looked one at another with inquisitive surprise, as much as to say, "What a figure!" It was so evident that they all thought alike, and thought contemptuously of the apparition, (though at first they almost doubted whether they should not be frightened,) that they soon began to talk freely concerning her; of course not with audible accents, but in the language of intelligent sparkles, in which stars are accustomed to converse, with telegraphic precision, from one end of heaven to the other, and which no dialect on earth so nearly resembles as the language of the eyes, the only one, probably, that has survived in its purity, not only the confusion of Babel, but the revolutions of all ages.-Her crooked form, which they deemed a violation of the order of nature, and her shyness, equally unlike the frank intercourse of stars, were ridiculed and censured from pole to pole; for what good purpose such a monster could have been created, not the wisest could conjecture; yet, to tell the truth, every one, though glad to be countenanced in the affectation of scorn by the rest, had secret misgivings concerning the stranger, and envied the delicate brilliancy of her light, while she seemed but the fragment of a sunbeam,-they, indeed, knew nothing about the sun,-detached from a long line, and exquisitely bended.

All the gay company, however, quickly returned to the admiration of themselves and the inspection of each other. What became of them, when they descended into the occan, they could not deter

mine; some imagined that they ceased to be; others that they transmigrated into new forms; while a third party thought it probable, as the earth was evidently convex, that their departed friends travelled through an under-arching sky, and might hereafter reascend from the opposite quarter. In this hypothesis they were confirmed by the testimony of the stars that came from the east, who unanimously asserted, that they had been pre-existent for several hours in a remote region of sky, over continents and seas now invisible to them; and, moreover, that, when they rose here, they 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 neighbours 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 the morning, sprang up to salute him, the eagle, at noon, looked undazzled on his splendour, 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 humour with themselves and one another. Tricked in all their beams, and darting their benignest influence, they exchanged smiles and endearments, and made vows of affec

tion 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 splendour, as they glided, with unfelt and invisible motion, through the pure blue field 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 cast,-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