If Seeing the Stars was a Rarity
Subject
If the Stars Only Came Out One Night in 1,000 Years
If the Stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.
Similarity
Object
If We Only Saw the Stars One Night Every 100 Years
We lay and looked up at the sky and the millions of stars that blazed in darkness. The night was so still that we could hear the buoy on the ledges out beyond the mouth of the bay. Once or twice a word spoken by someone on the far shore was carried across the clear air. A few lights burned in the cottages. Otherwise, there was no reminder of other human life.... It occurred to me that if this were a sight that could…
Why they relate
Emerson and Carson both imagine a world where the stars are not something perpetually overhead, where humanity would not take them so easily for granted.