Still even then Ardan, as usual, formed
somewhat of an exception. Finding it impossible to see a particle of the
Lunar surface, he gave it up for good, and tried to console himself by
gazing at the stars, which now fairly blazed in the spangled heavens.
And certainly never before had astronomer enjoyed an opportunity for
gazing at the heavenly bodies under such peculiar advantages. How Fraye
of Paris, Chacornac of Lyons, and Father Secchi of Rome would have
envied him!
For, candidly and truly speaking, never before had mortal eye revelled
on such a scene of starry splendor. The black sky sparkled with lustrous
fires, like the ceiling of a vast hall of ebony encrusted with flashing
diamonds. Ardan's eye could take in the whole extent in an easy sweep
from the _Southern Cross_ to the _Little Bear_, thus embracing within
one glance not only the two polar stars of the present day, but also
_Campus_ and _Vega_, which, by reason of the _precession of the
Equinoxes_, are to be our polar stars 12,000 years hence. His
imagination, as if intoxicated, reeled wildly through these sublime
infinitudes and got lost in them. He forgot all about himself and all
about his companions.
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