BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 195 



indeed, the great fountain of light and heat, and it is 

 amazing to think with what rapidity of motion he 

 sends forth his rays to illumine and cherish the world; 

 for so great is the distance of this bright body from 

 us, that, were the motion of light no swifter than a 

 cannon ball, it would take, according to the compu- 

 tation of philosophers, thirty-two years in arriving 

 at the earth; and, were it no swifter than sound, it 

 would take upwards of seventeen years; but light 

 flies with such incredible velocity that it arrives at 

 the earth in about seven or eight minutes, being at the 

 rate of no less than 200,000 English miles in a second 

 of time. By this means the inconvenience that w r ould 

 result from a slower progress of light is obviated, 

 and the kindly effects of this inestimable and indis- 

 pensable blessing are conveyed to us in an instant. 



The rays of the sun are. not sparingly dispensed, 

 nor come to us as from a niggardly hand. The rays 

 of light are copiously diffused, and in sufficient abun- 

 dance to chase away the most minute vestige of the 

 shades of night. The extension of light is a most 

 valuable property of that great and invaluable bless- 

 ing; for it is by it that \ve are enabled to see bodies 

 at a distance during the day, and, by the same ope- 

 rating cause, the mariner, during the hours of dark- 

 ness, observes the fiery beacon glimmering from afar. 



The heat of the sun is also most potent in its ope- 

 rations. With ease it penetrates into the bowels of 

 the earth, and finds its way into the most secret re- 

 cesses of nature; so that, in the expressive language 

 of Scripture, " there is nothing hid from the heat 



