And Cicero, for instance, said that the heavens were placed around the earth and man in order that he might admire the beauty of the starry firmament at night, and that animals and plants were created for his use and pleasure.

[DIVINE ODE] I The spacious firmament on high, With all the blue ethereal sky, And spangled heavens, a shining frame, Their great Original proclaim.

I look abroad on these stars of our literary firmament,some crowded together with their minute points of light in a galaxy, some standing apart in glorious constellations; I recognize Arcturus and Orion and Perseus and the glittering jewels of the Southern Crown, and the Pleiades shedding sweet influences; but the Evening Star, the soft and serene light that glowed in their van, the precursor of them all, has sunk below the horizon.

Fitz James O'Brien was "a bright, particular star" in the journalistic firmament; John MacGahan achieved fame as a war correspondent; Patrick Barry of Rochester, an extensive writer on horticultural and kindred subjects, was the recognized leader of his craft in the United States; and William Darby, son of Patrick and Mary Darby, and Michael Twomey were the ablest American geographers and writers on abstruse scientific subjects.

Nevertheless, the appearance of the firmament, all glorious as it was, betokened a coming storm; the wind whistled through the tall rushes, and darkness soon covered the earth like a veil.

But let us return to the kinetic skin of energy between Light and the Darknessthe firmament which God calls Heaventhe battle ground for gravity and apergy, or attraction and repulsion, or good and evil, or the powers of light and darkness.

Tarnished purities, forgotten ecstasies, burned-out inspirationsso the city shouted raucously to its faded firmament.

The stars are envious In their far firmaments, each of The other.

Even the gray firmament reveals more hopeful tints, and becomes significant of evolving glory.

And now she found herself at a distance from the great city, which shone in the light with its beautiful towers, and roofs, and all its monuments, softly fringed with trees, and set in a heavenly firmament.

Whether it ever evoked any warmer dream or vision during those calm, cold, virgin-like spring nights, when even the moon and the greater planets retreated into the icy blue, steel-like firmament, I cannot say.

One of the useful and grateful tasks of historians and biographers is to bring forward to the eye of every new generation of men and women those illustrious characters who made a great figure in the days of their grandfathers and grandmothers, yet who have nearly faded out of sight in the rush of new events and interests, and the rise of new stars in the intellectual firmament.

The land was an inverted firmament of flowers.

Moreover, there is in every constitution a certain solstice, when the stars stand still in our inward firmament, and when there is required some foreign force, some diversion or alternative, to prevent stagnation.

Here, likewise, there is a funeral monument, like that of the Temple of Dagoha, not however, in the building itself, but under the lofty firmament of heaven, and shaded by noble trees.

The sonne of Maia, soone as he receiv'd That word, streight with his azure wings he cleav'd The liquid clowdes and lucid firmament, Ne staid till that he came with steep descent 1260 Unto the place where his prescript did showe.

But even as he thus stood before her, almost frightening her now by the violence of his speech, by the latent passion in him, which no longer would bear to be held in check, the bank of clouds which up to now had obscured the brilliance of the summer sky, finally swept away eastwards, revealing the luminous firmament and the pale crescent moon which now glimmered coldly through the branches of the trees.

While Mrs. Glasse was still in the middle firmament of public favour, a little book without the writer's name was published as by "A Lady.

Nor was there any abatement of the storm without; the wind blowing among the trees of the cemetery in a sepulchral moan; the rain beating against the panes of glass with the impetuous loudness of hail; and lightning and thunder flashing and pealing at brief intervals through the murky firmament.

Quick, as when kindling trails of active fire Up to their native firmament ascend: There shrouded in the briers unseen I stood, And thro' the leaves survey'd the neighb'ring flood.

He cried over my story: that I suppose wins everybody's heart: and we went together, looking at the placid river and the pale blue firmament, very far into the paradise of faith.

"If that fail, The pillared firmament is rottenness, And earth's base built on stubble.

Wordsworth was destined to see one more orb of the first purity and brilliance rise to its place in the poetic firmament.

Du fond des cieux inaccessibles, Les vivants de l'éther, les êtres invisibles Confusément épars sous l'obscur firmament A cette heure, pensifs, regardent fixement Sa disparition dans la nuit redoutable.

Mr. Myers, also a poet, and the author of a volume on Wordsworth as much distinguished by insight as by admirable literary grace and power, talks of "a Plato, a Dante, a Wordsworth," all three in a breath, as stars of equal magnitude in the great spiritual firmament.