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BRAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 
the cloud-formed bow of iris. - * We are often reminded 
that Lord Bacon uncovered his head to the rain. I will 
out-do the reverent lover of Nature by offering homage 
to the rainbow. I rejoice in the prismatic glitter of its 
million disjointed water drops, for the rain is a present 
harmony emblematic of the eternal harmony in which 
all created things are as component colours. How 
much more homage, and of another sort, shall we pay 
to Him who, having created all things in wisdom, now 
sitteth on the throne judging His creatures in righteous¬ 
ness, while holding the universe in the hollow of His 
hand? 
* Captain Scoresby was the first to use a telescope to view the 
prismatic hues of dew on a grass-plot, and the method is one of 
the prettiest ever devised in the study of natural philosophy. 
