NATURE FOR ITS OWN SAKE 
The sunrise. 
Colors 
under 
sunlight. 
rock, splashing it with a pale golden hue. <At 
once the hue begins to creep down from the 
mountain-top, striking the oaks and cedars 
one by one with yellow shafts until the whole 
hill-side is mantled with its color. Swiftly the 
light spreads to the valley, and in a few mo- 
ments it falls upon the fields and meadows. Im- 
mediately begins the phenomenon of light being 
broken and obstructed by opaque bodies such 
as hills and trees, and we have the effect of 
light-and-shade. Immediately, too, the swift 
vibration of those points of light productive of 
color is increased, and we have the brilliant 
hues that mark the earth under sunshine. 
Every lake and stream and open sea warms in 
color and glances the image of the sun, and 
every hill-side and mountain-crag receives the 
stain of gold. Not the great objects alone, but 
the infinitely little, the pale wind-flower, the 
lowly buttercup, the yellow-centred daisy, the 
tiny violet, the leaf-whorl of the moss, all put 
on their brightest garments, each one lifting 
its head to the sun as the great glory of the 
universe. 
As the sun rises higher the splendor becomes 
more widely diffused. The color of the rose 
leaps to a high pitch, the top of the willow is a 
