Sighted through the

Telescope of dreams

Looms larger,

So much larger,

So it seems,

Than truth can be.

But turn the telescope around,

Look through the larger end-

And wonder why

What was so large

Becomes so small

Again.

-Langston Hughes

**The metaphor is powerful, if vexing. Look through the opposite end of a telescope. Look back at history and not forward, and wonder why what was such a dream, what was so large, can become so small again, ( HIST-119: THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION ERA, 1845-1877 Lecture 25 – The “End” of Reconstruction: Disputed Election of 1876, and the “Compromise of 1877” [April 22, 2008] – Yale Open Courses).