The Body and the Soul united then,
A gentle start convulsed Ianthe’s frame: 
Her veiny eyelids quietly unclosed;
Moveless awhile the dark blue orbs remained:  235
She looked around in wonder and beheld
Henry, who kneeled in silence by her couch,
Watching her sleep with looks of speechless love,
And the bright beaming stars
That through the casement shone. 240

***

NOTES ON QUEEN MAB.

SHELLEY’S NOTES.

1. 242, 243:—­

The sun’s unclouded orb
Rolled through the black concave.

Beyond our atmosphere the sun would appear a rayless orb of fire in the midst of a black concave.  The equal 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 minutes 7 seconds 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.

1. 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 synonym 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. (See Nicholson’s “Encyclopedia”, article Light.) 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.