"Yes," said Ellen; "we only have moonlight nights once in a while."
"But that is only one reason out of many, and not the greatest. It is a very refined pleasure, and to resolve it into its elements, is something like trying to divide one of these same white rays of light into the many various-coloured ones that go to form it; and not by any means so easy a task."
"Then it was no wonder I couldn't answer," said Ellen.
"No; you are hardly a full-grown philosopher yet, Ellie."
"The moonlight is so calm and quiet," Ellen observed, admiringly.
"And why is it calm and quiet? I must have an answer to that."
"Because we are generally calm and quiet at such times?" Ellen ventured, after a little thought.
"Precisely! we and the world. And association has given the moon herself the same character. Besides that, her mild, sober light is not fitted for the purposes of active employment, and therefore the more graciously invites us to the pleasures of thought and fancy."
"I am loving it more and more, the more you talk about it," said Ellen, laughing.
"And there you have touched another reason, Ellie, for the pleasure we have, not only in moonlight, but in most other things. When two things have been in the mind together, and made any impression, the mind associates them; and you cannot see or think of the one, without bringing back the remembrance of the feeling of the other. If we have enjoyed the moonlight in pleasant scenes, in happy hours, with friends that we loved though the sight of it may not always make us directly remember them, yet it brings with it a waft from the feeling of the old times sweet as long as life lasts!"