Albertus Magnus, who seems to have had a genius for mistaking his authorities, quotes Alfraganus as stating that shooting stars are most frequent in evening twilight, though nothing of the kind is said in the _Elementa._ Dante perhaps accepted the statement, though it is by no means necessarily implied in his “di prima notte:”[379] moreover there is some authority for the alternative reading of “mezza notte.”[380] Wherever the idea originated, its sole foundation must have been the circumstance that more persons are awake in the early than in the late hours of the night: the fact is that more meteorites are captured by the morning side of the earth, which is turned in the direction towards which she is moving in her orbit. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [379] “Early in the night.” [380] “Midnight.” _Purg._ v. 38. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shooting stars were necessarily familiar to a lover of starry skies, and Dante has given us an exquisite description of the suddenness with which they startle quiet eyes, while their brilliancy and swiftness of flight provides him with two beautiful similes. In the first he compares them, and also flashes of summer lightning, with messenger spirits in Purgatory hastening to bring their friends to him:— “Vapori accesi non vid’ io sì tosto Di prima notte mai fender sereno, Nè, sol calando, nuvole d’agosto, Che color non tornasser suso in meno, E giunti là, con gli altri a noi dier volta.”[381] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [381] “Vapours enkindled saw I ne’er so swiftly At early nightfall cleave the air serene, Nor, at the set of sun, the clouds of August, But upward they returned in briefer time, And on arriving with the others, wheeled Towards us.” _Purg._ v. 37-41. (_Longfellow_). (By “vapours that cleave the clouds of August,” flashes of lightning without thunder are meant. Aristotle believed both these and meteorites to be ignited vapours). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The second illustrates the brightness and beauty, as well as the movement, of the star-like spirits in Mars:— “Quale per li seren tranquilli e puri Discorre ad ora ad or subito foco, Movendo gli occhi che stavan sicuri, E pare stella che tramuti loco, Se non che dalla parte ond’ ei s’ accende Nulla sen perde, ed esso dura poco ...”[382]