But one thing _I_ know.

Thy dazzling glare so sore my eyes hath made that longer on thy light to gaze I do not dare.

Captain, have you any smoked glass ?" In spite of this anti-climax, Ardan's companions could hardly consider his utterings either as ridiculous or over enthusiastic.

They could easily excuse his excitement on the subject.

And so could we, if we only remember that _Tycho_, though nearly a quarter of a million miles distant, is such a luminous point on the lunar disc, that almost any moonlit night it can be easily perceived by the unaided terrestrial eye.
What then must have been its splendor in the eyes of our travellers whose telescopes brought it actually four thousand times nearer! No wonder that with smoked glasses, they endeavored to soften off its effulgent glare! Then in hushed silence, or at most uttering at intervals a few interjections expressive of their intense admiration, they remained for some time completely engrossed in the overwhelming spectacle.