Sol Musing

But the fuller nature desires to be an agent, to create, and not merely to look on: strong love hungers to bless, and not merely to behold blessing. And while there is warmth enough in the sun to feed an energetic life, there will still be men to feel, 'I am lord of this moment's change, and will charge it with my soul.'

There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast. Some men, like bats or owls, have better eyes for the darkness than for the light. We, who have no such optical powers, are better pleased to take our last parting look at the visionary companions of many solitary hours, when the brief sunshine of the world is blazing full upon them.

"In the nineteenth century, hospitals were built with large windows and even skylights. Although this was done for the sake of visibility, in the days before powerful electric-light sources had been perfected, it was also done to help patients heal. Clinics and hospitals were designed to take maximum advantage of available sunlight, with large windows facing south and a solarium at the end of each ward. Even the word ‘solarium,’ meaning a room where patients could sit and absorb the healthful rays of natural light, is derived from sol, the Latin word for ‘sun.’”

A star is said to rise heliacally when, after having been invisible by reason of the sun's beams, it goes at such a distance as to get into sight; and it is said to set heliacally when it becomes hidden under the sun's beams.

So much of our early gladness vanishes utterly from our memory: we can never recall the joy with which we laid our heads on our mother's bosom or rode on our father's back in childhood; doubtless that joy is wrought up into our nature, as the sunlight of long-past mornings is wrought up in the soft mellowness of the apricot; but it is gone forever from our imagination, and we can only believe in the joy of childhood.