58 



appear at first sight as a matter of chance the 

 mere cast of a die. But suppose any other had 

 been reflected a bright yellow or dazzling white 

 a glaring red a fearful copper colour ; or, sup- 

 pose no reflection had taken place at all, but a 

 black dome had surrounded the whole earth, and 

 light had only become manifest when the eye re- 

 ceived it directly from the sun how uncomfort- 

 able such arrangements would have been for the 

 vision of man ! Of all the hues we could ima- 

 gine, is there any to surpass that mild and soft 

 etherial tint, harmonizing with all around us, 

 and on which the eye, fatigued with more bril- 

 liant and dazzling objects, turns for relief and 

 repose ? 



It is the same with the green livery of the 

 earth. A single fiat of the Creator might have 

 made plants and herbs reflect any of the other 

 colours ; but what other colours could we sub- 

 stitute in preference ? It is remarkable, that 

 even in the art of the painter,, blue is a transpa- 

 rent colour, and green an opaque ; both are sub- 

 dued colours, but green would not have suited 

 the sky ; and blue, even if we could divest our- 

 selves of all previous associations, would have 

 been a cold and dismal garb for the groves and 

 plains. 



Next, with respect to the succession of the 

 seasons ; some theorists, fancying they could have 

 produced a better arrangement of things, have 

 objected to the obliquity of the earth's axis, in 

 relation to the plane of its orbit round the sun. 



