The rays of dead stars | Villiers de L’Isle-Adam (1886)
The starry sky above Paris, June 21, 1875
“There are even some stars so remote that their light will reach the Earth only when Earth
itself is a dead planet, as they themselves are dead, so that the living Earth will never be
visited by that forlorn ray of light, without a living source, without a living destination.
Often on fine nights when the park of this establishment is vacant, I amuse myself with
this marvelous instrument (telescope). I go upstairs, walk across the grass, sit on a bench
in the Avenue of Oaks – and there, in my solitude, I enjoy the pleasure of weighing the
rays of dead stars.”
Villiers de L’Isle-Adam, Tomorrow’s Eve, 1886
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