Corruscations and flickerings have also been noticed in the zodial light, and as usual, the learned have suggested atmospheric conditions as the cause, instead of trusting to the evidence of their own senses. How prone is philosophy to cling to that which is enveloped in the mist of uncertainty, rather than embrace the _too simple_ indications of nature. As if God had only intended her glories to be revealed to a favored few, and not to mankind at large. Blessed will be the day when _all_ will appreciate their own powers and privileges, and no longer regard the oracles which emanate from a professional priesthood, whose dicta have so often tended to darken the simple counsels of truth! To set the question of pulsations in the zodial light, as well as in the tails of comets, at rest, only requires previously concerted observations, in places not very widely apart; for it is scarcely possible, that atmospheric conditions should produce simultaneous pulsations in two distant places. If the pulsations are found to be simultaneous, they are real; if not simultaneous, they may depend on such conditions; but from the nature of the cause, we should look for them as much in the zodial light, as in the aurora borealis, regarding the different intensities.
There is also reason to suspect that the northern side is always the brightest, both in spring and autumn. On the morning of October 4th, 1853, the light was very vivid and well defined, its northern margin grazing Regulus and terminating at Mars, which was also to the north of it. Now, although the _northern side_ was the brightest, the great mass of light was to the south of the ecliptic, as far down as the cone shape was preserved; but at 10° from the horizon, a still brighter mass protruded from the cone towards the north, which was all _north_ of the ecliptic, and of an irregular form, extending along the horizon. The time was 4 A.M., and consequently was not due to any crepuscular light. An explanation of the general fact of the brightest light being _always_ on the north side, is given in the present section, in connection with another phenomenon. If, as some suppose, the light does not reach to the sun, the annulus must at least fill all the space between Venus and the earth, but it is far more in accordance with facts as well as with our theory, to suppose it increases in density to the body of the sun.