OF COMMON MATTER. 155 



a consequent inversion of principle would en- 

 sue; instead of elementary and causal bodies 

 producing effects according to their own nature; 

 instead of the effects being secondarily, what 

 the cause is, primarily, no correspondence or de- 

 pendence would exist between the effect and 

 the cause. The eye, therefore, might as easily 

 become the organ of hearing, the ear the organ 

 of seeing, a* for light to possess any other at- 

 tributes than those I have already described. 

 It is far otherwise ; every effect that is produc- 

 ed, is not only the result of a power resident in 

 a cause, but in every case, and under every 

 possible circumstance, the power of the cause 

 transcends the power of the effect that flows 

 from it. The element of light, therefore, sub- 

 sisting in the sun, is as superior, in brilliancy, 

 to its rays, as the purest light of the brighest 

 day, is superior, in brilliancy, to light obtained 

 from those bodies by which it is exhibited and 

 evolved; the rays of the sun, therefore, conti- 

 nually lose part of their purity, as they descend 

 to the earth, 



SECTION II. 



Oti the Source and mechanical Power of Light. 



THAT the sun is the principal source, the 

 fountain and the reservoir, whence the mat- 



