THE 11 AIN BOW. 
255 
secondary import. I cannot discover the presence of 
the number even analogically in the nature of things. I 
cannot resolve my body into seven parts; nor will the 
elements group themselves in sevens, and I cannot force 
by fancy a conclusion not based in fact. But so is the 
division of the rainbow into seven parts apparent and 
not real; it has but three. If the seven were 
secondary, the three are primary; there are but three 
primal colours. The orange of the rainbow is the result 
of the blending of the red and yellow; the green the 
result of the blending of the yellow and blue : the blue, 
the indigo, and the violet, are deepening shades of one 
primary colour—the red, the yellow, and the blue, are 
three distinct elements which by association make up 
the mysterious seven. Science tells me more than this. 
She says each of these distinct rays has distinct proper¬ 
ties. There is most light in the yellow ray, most heat 
in the red, most chemical power in the blue. Light has 
three properties, then, made specially known to me in the 
spectrum; and I can find no more than these three 
recorded in the books. 
Now I understand how that, by a lens of ice, gun¬ 
powder may be fired, and yet the ice through which the 
heating rays passed, remains unmelted. I can under¬ 
stand, also, that the rainbow is a reality to the eyesight 
only, a spectrum in truth, and that no two persons ever 
saw the same rainbow, or ever will, though they may 
proclaim their illusions to be identical; and for purposes 
of intelligible speech, the rainbow seen at the same time 
may be the same to all beholders. So, too, lenses trans¬ 
mitting light on objects do get heated, though but 
