As the sun is replaced by the stars, so is the
hot, restless, eager spirit of the day replaced by the infinite calm
and peace of the night. The change does not come abruptly or with the
suddenness of violent movement; no dial is delicate enough to register
the moment when day gives place to night. With that amplitude of power
which accompanies every movement, with that sublime quietude of energy
which pervades every action, Nature calls the day across the hills and
summons the night that has been waiting at the eastern gates. No stir,
no strife, no noise of great activities, put forth on a vast scale,
break the spell of an hour which is the daily witness of a miracle, and
waits, hushed and silent, in a world-wide worship, while the altar
fires blaze on the western hills.
In that unspeakable splendour, earth and air and sea are for the moment
one, and through them all there flashes a divine radiance; time is not
left without the witness of its sanctity as it fades off the dials of
earth and slips like a shining rivulet into the shoreless sea of light
beyond. The day that was born with seas and suns at its cradle is
followed to its grave by the long procession of the stars. And now
that it has gone, with its numberless activities, and the heat and
stress of their contentions, how gently and irresistibly Nature summons
her children back to herself, and touches the brow, hot with the fever
of work, with the hand of peace! An infinite silence broods over the
fields and upon the restless bosom of the sea.
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