156 ELEMENTARY PROPERTIES 



ter of light originates and proceeds ; appears, 

 I may be allowed to say, a self-evident truth. 

 It is proved, positively, by the illumination 

 which we enjoy, and by the facility which we, in 

 consequence, possess, of beholding surrounding 

 objects, when it is present to our view. It is 

 proved, negatively, by the total state of ob- 

 scurity and of darkness, in which we are in- 

 volved, when in the course of planetary revolu- 

 tion, we are deprived of the benefit of the sun's 

 rays ; with the exception, perhaps, of the light 

 which might flow from the planets, and from other 

 bodies, which have, either directly or indirectly, 

 received its influence, the world, at large, 

 would be involved in darkness the most impene- 

 trable and profound. It is an indelible truth, 

 that the region which we inhabit r-the world in 

 which we exist every particle of matter of 

 which it is composed with respect to light, 

 subsists in a state of total and absolute priva- 

 tion; there is no light originating in it, or 

 belonging to it ; no light, but rather darkness 

 visible ; and the light, in short, which we enjoy, 

 is not native, but exotic ; not inherent in any 

 part of the system to which we belong, but 

 altogether derived from the planetary system 

 in general, and the sun in particular. 



Splendid and brilliant as is this attribute, of 

 exciting the sensation of illumination on the 

 organs of vision, with which animated beings 



