Those bright clusters that
we now behold have been the same through all generations, and they have
seen "all things that are done under the sun." Fixed as the everlasting
hills, their bounds and their habitation have been unchanged. The same
lights were in the heavens when Abraham looked up from the plains of
Mamre, as now when the Arab and the Ishmaelite are in the desert. The
bands of Orion are not loosed, nor the sweet influences of the Pleiades
unbound. The same glittering groups which the patriarch beheld beam
nightly on our tabernacles. They have shone upon the world's heroes and
the world's demigods--bright links in the oblivion of ages. And the
numerous hosts we gaze upon will present the same glowing and immutable
forms to cheer and gladden the eyes and hearts of coming generations.

Some feeling of this nature was probably rising in the Doctor's bosom as
they once more took the open path to Aldport, and he looked on the wide
hemisphere about him--the heavens, with their glowing constellations,
all spread out without an obscurity or an obstruction. He felt for one
moment the folly and futility of earthly things, and his heart seemed to
wither in the immensity into which it was plunged.

It was like a faint glimpse of eternity, and he shrunk back from the
abyss, all his own vast world of thought, feeling, and desire, lost in
that immeasurable space. But the dazzling dream of ambition again passed
before him. The portals of universal empire and immortality were thrown
open. He drove back the unwelcome intruder, but the phantom he pursued
again fluttered from his grasp.

They had marked the spot on their former visit, and Dee, with the fifty
gold pieces in his purse, Bartholomew Hickman acting as chief workman,
began his unholy proceedings: not, however, without some fear of the
demon whom these moneys were to propitiate. Bartholomew laboured with
great diligence, but the earth was much easier to remove than before,
and the old stump soon gave way, making but a slight resistance. This
was attributed to some charm wrought by the treasure they carried, and
was looked upon as a favourable omen--an unloosing of the fetters which
guarded the deposit. Every spadeful of earth was carefully examined, and
the probe thrust down anxiously and with great caution. About a yard in
depth had been taken away when the spade struck upon something hard. The
strokes were redoubled, and a narrow flag appeared. Raising this
obstacle