THE BEAUTIFUL LADDER. 2/5 
Chemistry never applied its searching tests to 
a more wonderful compound than that which 
makes up the air we inhale, nor were there ever 
such glories filling mortal vision as those which 
Jehovah spreads in living colors of light over 
the cloudy canvas of the skies. 
“ Let any mind possessed of less than infinite 
wisdom attempt the composition of an atmo¬ 
sphere that shall be so ethereal as to penetrate 
the hardest substances, and yet so substantial 
as to furnish the material for all vegetable life 
and the vital nourishment of the animal king¬ 
dom. It must be so clear that it will not ob¬ 
struct the vision; so attenuated that it will not 
baffle sound nor obstruct motion; and so pure 
that it can pass into the lungs and all parts of 
the animal system without pain or poison. 
Where would man find the elements for such 
a marvellous provision ? And if found, who 
could write out the wonderful recipe, fixing the 
exact equivalents, and tempering all with such 
certainty that they will be proof against all the 
influences of earth’s changes ? The least lack 
or disproportion, and how terribly fatal!—burned 
up or blown up, poisoned or dissolved, reduced 
to cinder and ashes or transformed into a pun- 
