THE BEAUTIFUL LADDER. 3II 
passing each other from side to side with such 
bewildering rapidity that the eye was lost in the 
attempt to follow them. The whole concave of 
heaven seemed transformed into one great re¬ 
volving kaleidoscope of shattered rainbows. 
Never had I dreamed of such a rainbow as 
this, and I am not ashamed to confess that its 
magnificence at that moment overawed and 
frightened me. The whole sky, from zenith to 
horizon, was one molten, mantling sea of color 
and fire, crimson and purple, and scarlet and 
green, and colors for which there are no words 
in language and no ideas in the mind—things 
that can only be conceived while they are 
visible.’ 
“ Whatever other hidden purpose these aerial 
displays may have in the economy of Nature— 
whether to vitalize the atmosphere or to give 
cohesion and vigor to the earth—the divine 
benediction in these wonders of the heavens 
cannot be overlooked nor forgotten unless by 
the gross and insensible. It must, indeed, be 
an ' evil eye ’ that cannot see the ‘ beauty of 
the Lord ’ when it is blazoned all over the face 
of the sky. 
“The ascending scale thus far pursued has 
