Calm as a shade, the boat of that fair child
Securely fled that rapid stress before,

Amid the topmost spray and sunbows wild Wreathed in the silver mist; in joy and pride we smiled.

XL

The torrent of that wide and raging river
Is passed, and our aërial speed suspended.
We look behind; a golden mist did quiver
When its wild surges with the lake were
blended;

Our bark hung there, as on a line suspended
Between two heavens, that windless, waveless

lake,

Which four great cataracts from four vales, attended

By mists, aye feed; from rocks and clouds they break,

And of that azure sea a silent refuge make.

XLI

Motionless resting on the lake awhile,

I saw its marge of snow-bright mountains rear
Their peaks aloft; I saw each radiant isle ;
And in the midst, afar, even like a sphere
Hung in one hollow sky, did there appear
The Temple of the Spirit; on the sound

Which issued thence drawn nearer and more near, Like the swift moon this glorious earth around, The charmed boat approached, and there its haven found.

xl. 4 When | Where, Rossetti.

5 on a, Rossetti || one, Shelley, 18181,2. xli. 5 one the, Forman conj.

NOTES

SHELLEY'S NOTES TO QUEEN MAB

I. 242, 243:

The sun's unclouded orb

Rolled through the black concave.

The equal

Beyond our atmosphere the sun would appear a rayless orb of fire in the midst of a black concave. diffusion of its light on earth is owing to the refraction of the rays by the atmosphere and their reflection from other bodies. Light consists either of vibrations propagated through a subtle medium or of numerous minute particles repelled in all directions from the luminous body. Its velocity greatly exceeds that of any substance with which we are acquainted. Observations on the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites have demonstrated that light takes up no more than 8′ 7′′ in passing from the sun to the earth, a distance of 95,000,000 miles. Some idea may be gained of the immense distance of the fixed stars when it is computed that many years would elapse before light could reach this earth from the nearest of them; yet in one year light travels 5,422,400,000,000 miles, which is a distance 5,707,600 times greater than that of the sun from the earth.

I. 252, 253:

Whilst round the chariot's way
Innumerable systems rolled.

The plurality of worlds- - the indefinite immensity of the Universe is a most awful subject of contemplation. He who rightly feels its mystery and grandeur is in no danger of seduction from the falsehoods of religious systems, or of deifying the principle of the universe. It is impossible to believe that the Spirit that pervades this infinite machine begat a son upon the body of a Jewish woman; or is angered at the consequences of that necessity which is a syn

onym of itself. All that miserable tale of the Devil and Eve and an Intercessor, with the childish mummeries of the God of the Jews, is irreconcilable with the knowledge of the stars. The works of his fingers have borne witness against him.

The nearest of the fixed stars is inconceivably distant from the earth, and they are probably proportionably distant from each other. By a calculation of the velocity of light Sirius is supposed to be at least 54,224,000,000,000 miles from the earth.1 That which appears only like a thin and silvery cloud streaking the heaven is in effect composed of innumerable clusters of suns, each shining with its own light and illuminating numbers of planets that revolve around them. Millions and millions of suns are ranged around us, all attended by innumerable worlds, yet calm, regular and harmonious, all keeping the paths of immutable necessity.

IV. 178, 179:

These are the hired bravos who defend

The tyrant's throne.

To employ murder as a means of justice is an idea which a man of an enlightened mind will not dwell upon with pleasure. To march forth in rank and file, and all the pomp of streamers and trumpets, for the purpose of shooting at our fellowmen as a mark ; to inflict upon them all the variety of wound and anguish; to leave them weltering in their blood; to wander over the field of desolation, and count the number of the dying and the dead, are employments which in thesis we may maintain to be necessary, but which no good man will contemplate with gratulation and delight. A battle we suppose is won :— thus truth is established, thus the cause of justice is confirmed! It surely requires no common sagacity to discern the connection between this immense heap of calamities and the assertion of truth or the maintenance of justice.

"Kings and ministers of state, the real authors of the calamity, sit unmolested in their cabinet, while those against whom the fury of the storm is directed are, for the most

1 See Nicholson's Encyclopedia, art. "Light."