24 S 
BRAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 
of the Muses and the problems of philosophy, or ignorant 
of the very names and objects of either. My rainbow is 
vanishing away—in another minute it will be gone; and 
I may sink back into my favourite seat, darkened with 
the festoons of the elegant glycine, and revolve in my 
mind whatever thoughts arise out of this glorious vision 
of aerial colouring. 
I begin to wonder who was the first man to analyze 
the rainbow, and arrive at a clear idea of the causes which 
combine in its production. The falling shower and the 
direct light of the sun or moon must, from the first un¬ 
folding of this wondrous revelation, have been seen to 
be its primary elements. The allegory of the winds, 
m the twenty “third book of the Iliad, indicates more 
than a superficial knowledge of this grand phenomenon. 
Yirgil, in the iEneid, almost antedates the philosophy of 
Descartes and Newton,* ** and Martial+ was not far from 
a scientific definition. Aristotle believed himself to be 
the first who had seen a lunar rainbow, the loveliest of 
all aerial spectacles, except on those rare occasions when 
the aurora borealis displays its darting flashes, ruby and 
emerald and amethyst, in this climate. But Pliny knew 
almost as much as we do about it—certainly as to its 
primal causes—as he expresses it “ Quod ergo iris sit 
refractio aspectus est ad solem, manifestum est ” and 
* - 44 Ceil nubibus arcus 
Mille trahit varios adverse sole colores.” 
Lib. v. 1. 88. 
f 44 Caesuras alfce sic rapit Iris aquas.” 
Lib. xii. ep. 29, lb 
