68 THE CREATION OF MATTER 



substances a portion of the rays is scattered, and a portion 

 absorbed, and the scattered rays are enabled not only to 

 make manifest all objects, but to reveal the variety which 

 distinguishes them. Thus is the earth flooded with light, 

 bathed in splendour, decked with loveliness. Every form 

 of matter of sufficient density affects the rays which fall 

 on it, and sends them from it with its own message, 

 compels them to speak of it, and show its characteristics 

 to the eye of every beholder. With what perfection is 

 this accomplished ! With what order do the countless 

 messages from an extended prospect pass through the air 

 along the ether, enter the eye and by the retina and nerve 

 fibres give in their report. From a mountain top we 

 may see a hundred hills, a thousand fields, out to sea, 

 many woods and streams, houses and roads, horses, cattle, 

 and sheep, men and women, while the sky looks down on 

 us a calm ethereal blue, or shows clouds of various tints. 

 From such a prospect how many waves spring, how many 

 beams flow, how many motions enter the eye ! They are 

 every instant numerous as the dust of a mighty mountain, 

 as the sand of all the seas. And yet, crowded as they 

 are, crowded and packed as nothing surely was ever 

 crowded and packed, they pass in all their mighty 

 multitude through the little opening of the eye without 

 the least approach to disorder. They keep their place, 

 dart straight to their goal, and deliver up their message. 

 And these messages have not only been borne from all 

 quarters to the one point from which we have supposed 

 them observed, but to all other points within their 

 range. What mingling are here ! What crossings in 

 every direction ! What billions of billions of waves 

 passing in the smallest space, passing without jostling 

 or interference ! What a sea of rapid, beautiful, and 

 orderly movement ! Every colour within view is re- 



