154 ELEMENTARY PROPERTIES 



degree, free from atmospheric pollution ; and is 

 as incapable of opposing to them resistance, as 

 it is to bereave them of igneous power. If the 

 sun, therefore, were a globe of fire, instead of 

 the summit of these mountains being everlast- 

 ingly coated with ice and snow, neither the one 

 nor the other ought ever to be seen ; and, instead 

 of the temperature being higher at the bottom 

 of a mountain than at the top, it ought to be 

 higher at the top than at the bottom. 



We are, therefore, driven to the necessity of 

 concluding, that, notwithstanding the mixture 

 and opacity of the medium, in which we exist, 

 is involved ; that there subsist in it, rays of light, 

 that are neither hot nor cold fire nor ice 

 black nor white yellow nor green orange 

 nor red purple nor violet but that are trans- 

 parent and colorless only ; that are as colorless 

 as air is speechless as much as water is taste- 

 less, or, as solid matter is self-motive ; but 

 that are destitute of every essential and original 

 quality, extension and motion alone excepted. 

 Consequently, it may be presumed, that the 

 sun itself as the parent whence the rays of pure 

 light proceed, is a globe of light only. 



If the rays of the sun were, inherently, to 

 possess any other attributes than those of ex- 

 tension and motion, the effect would be different 

 from its cause ; one of the fundamental laws of 

 nature would be subverted arid destroyed ; and, 



