_Furthermore. February 19, 1880_.--Just before 10 P.M. cold and
entirely clear again, the show overhead, bearing southwest, of
wonderful and crowded magnificence. The moon in her third quarter
--the clusters of the Hyades and Pleiades, with the planet Mars
between--in full crossing sprawl in the sky the great Egyptian X,
(Sirius, Procyon, and the main stars in the constellations of the
Ship, the Dove, and of Orion;) just north of east Bootes, and in his
knee Arcturus, an hour high, mounting the heaven, ambitiously large
and sparkling, as if he meant to challenge with Sirius the stellar
supremacy.
With the sentiment of the stars and moon such nights I get all
the free margins and indefiniteness of music or poetry, fused in
geometry's utmost exactness.
STRAW-COLOR'D AND OTHER PSYCHES
_Aug. 4_.--A pretty sight! Where I sit in the shade--a warm day, the
sun shining from cloudless skies, the forenoon well advanc'd--I look
over a ten-acre field of luxuriant clover-hay, (the second crop)--the
livid-ripe red blossoms and dabs of August brown thickly spotting
the prevailing dark-green. Over all flutter myriads of light-yellow
butterflies, mostly skimming along the surface, dipping and
oscillating, giving a curious animation to the scene. The beautiful,
spiritual insects! straw-color'd Psyches! Occasionally one of them
leaves his mates, and mounts, perhaps spirally, perhaps in a straight
line in the air, fluttering up, up, till literally out of sight.
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