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ook, though I went on my knees to uninterested navigators, pro-
fessors, publishers and Uncle Sam himself, who wouldn't sell !
The
faithful "Heavens Above," by J. A. Gillet and W. J. Rolfe, published
in 1882 by Potter, Ainsworth and Company of New York and Chicago,
was the only portable thing I could find except an old-fashioned,
fine-print atlas which took the eyes out of my head. But
within the past few years various popular volumes have appeared.
Garrett P. Serviss' "Astronomy with the Naked Eyes," Harper
and Brothers, is perhaps the best, together with the Barritt-Serviss
movable "Star and Planet-Finder," 150 Nassau Street. Still, I have
an affection for my own little out-of-print book, with diagrams in
dotted lines from star to star, and drawings indicating why the
constellations are named as they are a good thing for the lone
beginner. r f
\
At sea one can appeal to the skipper for information, but if he
hands over for an hour his valuable charts, you may find yourself
instructing him so little do sailors care for any save a few conspicuous
stars to steer by.
Around the world I went to the Orient with its thrilling beauty
of sky and sea and shore. There the stars are so near you need
only stretch out your hand to touch them. Some of the loveliest
moments were at Kandy, in Ceylon, when simply to look out into
the night was pure joy. A thick mango shaded my window and
beyond along the lake were delicate taller trees in silhouette against
the sky. One evening the lightning played, while large glow-worms
rested on the air. As music drifted out from the hotel, a Cingalese
in white drapery paused and watched the gayety within. The stars,
the silence, the fireflies, the lightning, the gleaming water, the tropical
tree, the motionless figure under it with face upturned, the penetrating
fragrance of the sacred champak blossom, so much like our
tuberose cannot you see it all? That is Ceylon a thing not to
but to feel.
analyze
Here I was able to gratify an intense desire the Southern
Cross. After a lifetime of longing its beauty enchanted me for
nights together. Between midnight and dawn I had only to open
my eyes to make it mine this marvelous symbol of Christ's love
and renunciation describing its small arc around the Pole. Even
though it falls short of perfection, bereft of a central star to unite
its four arms, "Croce Maravigliosa," as Pigafetta called it, is a
thing of supreme loveliness and meaning. Besides its four sparkling
brilliants, Alpha at the base one of the largest in the skies,
there is within its diamond-shaped quadrilateral Herschel's "gorgeous
piece of fancy jewelry," that nebulous cluster of many-colored
gems about which astronomers wrangle.
Seven years later I again found myself in the East, a bit
ashamed of such a wanderlust until I found I couldn't help it
that on a certain heraldic device I have the right to use are the
terras." The ultima thule this time was
words: "Per mare, per
the island of Java, whose exotic charm Joseph Conrad expresses in
a few masterly words ;
"3