“O white and midnight sky, O starry bath,
Wash me in thy pure, heavenly crystal flood:
Cleanse me, ye stars, from earthly soil and scath—
Let not one taint remain in spirit or blood!”

—  Richard Watson Gilder

The Celestial Passion, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

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Richard Watson Gilder 5
editor 1844–1909

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