On the other hand, the
illimitable is no less potent in mystery than the invisible, whence
the dramatic effect of Keats' ``stout Cortez'' staring at the
boundless Pacific while all his men look at each other with a wild
surmise, ``silent upon a peak in Darien.'' It is with similar feelings
that the astronomer regards certain places where from the peaks of the
universe his vision seems to range out into endless empty space. He
sees there the shore of his little isthmus, and, beyond, unexplored
immensity.
The name, ``coal-sacks,'' given to these strange voids is hardly
descriptive. Rather they produce upon the mind the effect of blank
windows in a lonely house on a pitch-dark night, which, when looked at
from the brilliant interior, become appalling in their rayless murk.
Infinity seems to acquire a new meaning in the presence of these black
openings in the sky, for as one continues to gaze it loses its purely
metaphysical quality and becomes a kind of entity, like the ocean. The
observer is conscious that he can actually see the beginning of its
ebon depths, in which the visible universe appears to float like an
enchanted island, resplendent within with lights and life and gorgeous
spectacles, and encircled with screens of crowded stars, but with its
dazzling vistas ending at the fathomless sea of pure darkness which
encloses all.
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