Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/127



and happiness  are  none  the  less  real,  none  the  less eternal By  clay  and  by  night,  waking  or  sleeping, gorgeous pictures  toward  the  west  were  spread  out before these  pilgrims — by  day,  phantasmagoria,  aerial plays of  fancy  as  manifested  in  these  terraqueous metamorphoses due  to  variations  from  ordinary  refrac- tions of luminous  rays  in  their  passage  through  atmos- pheric strata of  different  densities,  thus  pluralizing reflections, bringing  objects  nearer,  transporting  them to a  distance,  lifting  them  up  from  below  the  horizon, investing and  deforming  them — by  night,  pictures  of the  past  and  the  future,  the  unwelcome  present  for the moment  wrapped  in  oblivion;  pictures  of  home,  of opulence,  of  merry-makings,  and  heart-giaddenings.

Here, high  above  the  ocean,  between  the  two  great uplifted ranges,  where  hills  and  desert  flats  rise  well nigh into  the  clouds,  is  the  native  land  of  the  mirage, distinct in  its  unreality,  magnificent,  though  built  of air  and  sand. Now it  is  a  lonely  valley,  bearing  in its  bosom  a  glassy  lake,  girdled  with  waving  groves and parted  by  rushing  streams ;  and  now  the  gilded spires of  a  mighty  city  pierce  the  dull,  desiccated heavens, massive  masonry  pillars  the  firmament,  while long drawn  shadows  cross  and  re-cross  the  marble domes and  crenelled  turrets  of  a  thousand  palaces  em- balmed in pleasant  gardens  like  a  Babylon,  or  gleam- ing from settings  of  silver  as  where  the  lion  of  Saint Mark keeps  guard  over  the  bride  of  the  Adriatic;  at times,  ao-ain,  their  own  images  would  loom  out  dis- torted in figure  or  position,  like  the  ghost  of  Brocken, through the  gloomy  sultry  air  palpable  with  sand. As when,  blear-eyed  from  long  contentions  with  the sand and  sun,  exhausted  by  toilsome  travel  and  faint- ing with thirst. Fancy strips  the  earth  of  its  pallid  cov- erino; and  fills  the  rent  with  the  vaulted  firmament, sets up  images  motionless  in  the  air  and  sends  aerial animals of  divers  sorts  in  hot  chase  one  after  another, inundates sandy  plains  by  the  beating  of  the  upshoot- ing   sun   upon   the   surface,  and  places  before  them