254 
BRAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 
gibility were otherwise than as they are, the spectrum 
would be differently proportioned. Severe mathematical 
laws, therefore, are requisite in this (as in other cases), 
to the production of a pictorial harmony unsurpassed 
among the wonders and mysteries of nature. 
But philosophy tells me I am only on the threshold 
yet of all that the rainbow might teach of things myste¬ 
rious in earth and heaven. The Scandinavians had a 
glimmer of deeper truths than are apparent in their 
wild mythology, when they made the rainbow the path¬ 
way for the gods, and assigned it to the guardianship of 
Heimdaller. It is a connecting link between the human 
and divine, much more definitely than the poets describe 
it; and an analysis of its constitution reveals harmonies 
far higher in import than those of its perfect form and 
exquisite blending of colours. It consists of seven 
colours. Seven, the sacred number. In the recon¬ 
struction of society after the Flood, it became the 
heavenly symbol of the creation of the earth in seven 
efforts of Divine power in seven periods of time. The 
resting of the ark in the seventh month, and the sending 
forth of the dove thrice , at intervals of seven days , has a 
meaning in connection with the sign given afterwards as 
an “ everlasting covenant between God and every living 
creature \” The clean beasts were taken into the ark 
in sevens; and the whole round of feasts and fasts 
prescribed in the Mosaic law were based on the number 
seven, as indicative of the final fulfilment of the Divine 
will regarding man according to a numerical law, more 
than shadow-ed in the seven golden candlesticks of 
the Apocalypse. But these mysterious sevens are of 
