The moon has her phases, lovely in every turn; the sun has but his daily journey from east to west; and when the moon, palely, ventures into the day in the course of her appointed rounds and should happen to interpose between sun and Earth, her light returns to the sun, from whence it came, and is hidden-- at which time her true, natural state is revealed, which is darkness.

But even the sun's eclipse by the moon brings her no shame; for the solar light breaks forth at all sides of the moon, not allowing that the day shoul be turned, completely, into dark of night. Thus, the darkness of moon in the sun's eclipse informs us of aspects of the sun's splendor that we should not, otherwise, know.

Is the moon, whose natural state is revealed to be darkness in the sun's eclipse, therefore a servant of darkness? Indeed not; for in every aspect of all her phases she participates in and partakes of the glory of the sun, whose light she drinks continuously. This, then, is her proper glory: that she, who is established from the beginning as a ruler of night, relieves her domain of great darkness by power of the ruler of the day.

Should her light falter in the night in the turnings of her timid countenance, or should it seem to fail when falling under the dark shadow of planet Earth, the stars of heaven shine forth in greater brilliance, testifying of the sure mercies of the Creator.

When the vapors of clouds interpose between Earth and the greater vault of heaven in dark of night, some of Earth are harried by a fear of darkness. But, because the clouds of the second heaven-- much like the thoughts carried upon the inward heavens of the mind-- because these clouds are known by all mankind to be but transient things, this momentary darkness is revealed as a manifestation of mercy; for in every darkness, the mind of man perceives its temporality and anticipates the return of greater light, unto a full illumination.

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