What is the taper not endued with light?"

I can hardly refrain from quoting here a beautiful passage from Wordsworth:

"Our ancestors within the still domain

Of vast cathedral, or conventual gloom,

Their vigils kept: when tapers day and night

On the dim altar burn'd continually,

In token that the house was evermore

Watching to God. Religious men were they,

Nor would their reason, tutor'd to aspire

Above this transitory world, allow