O Night, mysterious, sublime, and infinite! withdrawing from our eyes the veil spread above us by the light of day, giving back transparency to the Heavens, showing us the prodigious reality, the shining casket of the celestial diamonds, the innumerable stars that succeed each other interminably in immeasurable space!

Translated by Frances Alice Welby, Astronomy for Amateurs, Introduction (p. 26), D. Appleton & Co. 1915