28/ 
THE BEAUTIFUL LADDER. 
/ 
* Triumphal arch, that fillest the sky 
When storms prepare to part, 
I ask not proud Philosophy . 
To tell me what thou art. 
* * * * 
For, faithful to its sacred page. 
Heaven still rebuilds thy span. 
Nor lets the type grow pale with age’ 
That first spoke peace to man.’ 
When the scientist has succeeded in analyz¬ 
ing a ray of the sun’s light, he finds spread on 
his screen the seven colors of the rainbow, and 
has discovered one of the wonderful laws of 
light; but his lesson too often ends just where 
it ought to begin. Reflection and refraction are 
but properties of light, and light-waves are the 
resultant of force; and these, acting together at 
a favorable juncture, produce the beautiful aerial 
phenomenon of the rainbow. But what are the 
laws of matter and the impact of force but the 
outworkings of a divine and benevolent intelli¬ 
gence ? To comprehend the measure of these 
heavenly gifts a more careful observation must 
be given to some of the conditions involved. 
Think, on the one hand, of the fierce red light- 
shafts that would shoot, with inconceivable 
speed, from the sun, like fiery arrows of death. 
