Violet, rose, or pearl-hued, or soft blue,
Golden, or green, the light now blended, now
Alternate.
—P. J. Bailey, Festus.
Our observation of the celestial phenomena may most easily be made in the winter-time. Then the nights are long, and the vault of heaven is crowded with stars, and, unilluminated by the moon, exhibits all its splendours. In the other seasons of the year, and particularly in summer, the twilight gleam encroaches, so to speak, upon a portion of the nights, which are otherwise so brief, and precludes our vision from any exact estimate of the stars. Those demitints, those soft subdued reflections of light, scarcely permit the eye to distinguish even stars of the first and second magnitude, which shine like spots of dull gold on a background of pale silver.
The Number of the Stars.
How many are the stars?
To such a question comes the immediate answer, They are infinite in number.