50 THE CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 



duces so glorious an object. To understand this phe- 

 nomenon perfectly, would require an acquaintance with 

 one of the most intricate of modern sciences ; for it is 

 only since the laws of the reflection and refraction of 

 light were explained by Sir Isaac Newton, that the science 

 of optics, which alone can illustrate this subject in a satis- 

 factory manner, has been fully understood. Suffice 

 it, therefore, to observe here, that each ray of light 

 consists really of the three, or, to speak more correctly, 

 of the seven colours seen in the bow : and that these 

 colours become visible to the eye by being reflected upon, 

 and through the innumerable drops of a dense cloud de- 

 scending opposite to the sun. Each of these drops thus 

 serves as a cut crystal or prism, to reduce the rays of 

 light falling upon them, to their most simple or coloured 

 state, and hence they present the eye with an arch of 

 coloured drops, corresponding with the arch of the 

 heavens. The same law of light which colours the 

 Rainbow, is that to which we are indebted for the vivid 

 green which decks the face of the earth, the azure vault 

 of the heavens, and all the various hues and tints which 

 bodies assume. A stream of light is to be considered 

 as a cluster of seven rays, whose mixture forms white, 

 and the division of which produces seven principal and 



