Light.

LIGHT .

"Lux e tenebris . "—This is a Masonic motto , meaning Lig ht out of Darkness ; but wliat is Li glit ? Ask the j ) easant or ask the child what is light and they will answer the sun , a candle , that which we see or something by the aid of which we see ; ask the philosopher and he will answer we do not know . Not know what

light is , I think I hear some one exclaim , why everyone knows that ; well then let some one explain what it is , for no one hitherto has done so ; many theories have been promulgated , but not one indisputable fact ( and facts are stubborn things ) , and unless a theory can be worked out so as to become " un fait accompli " it is useless . Sir Isaac Newton had one theory , and more recent astronomers have conceived others

concerning liglit , but these all remain only conjectures ; so that whether light is itself a distinct matter , proceeding from luminous bodies , or only some other matter put in vibratory motion , as some think , we know not . Light in the state in which it reaches the organ of vision is not a simple bodybut is capable oi being

, divided , by the prism , into seven primary rays or colors —red , orange , yellow , green , blue , indigo , and violet . These , says Dr . Henry , are refrangible in the above order , the red being least' refrangible and the violet most so . The image formed by the different rays , thus separated , constitutes the solar spectrum . If it

be divided into 300 parts , the red will occupy 45 of these parts , the orange 27 , the yellow 48 , the green 60 , the indigo 40 , the violet 80 . Dr . W ollaston found that when a beam of li ght only ^ th of an inch broad , is received by the eye , at a distance of 10 ft ., through a clear prism of flint lass

g , only four colors are seen , viz ., red , yellowish green , blue , and violet . The different colored rays , being re-collected by a lens into a focus , again produce uncolored light . There appears to be such an intimate connexion between light and heat , that many have supposed that one cannot exist without the

other , and that they are both but different effects of the same princi ple ; thus the rays of the sun contain light and heat combined in certain fixed proportions ; the li ght from a fire , or the flame of gas , or lamp , or a candle is accompanied by heat ; most of the properties of rays of light are shared by those of heat ; the degree in which bodies radiate and reflect heat depends

upon the quantity of light which their surfaces reflect ; the capability of bodies to absorb heat varies with their color . Thus , Dr . Herschell found that if the bulb of a very sensible air thermometer be moved in succession through the differently colored rays , it will be found to indicate the greatest heat in

the red rays , next in the green , and so on in a diminishing progression to the violet . Another quality of light is its incessant activity . When a ray of li ght arrives at the common " surface of two media , and instead of passing from the one into the other is turned backthis turning back is called

, " reflection . " The angles of incidence and reflection are , _ in this case , always equal , whatever may be the obhquity of the incident ray . The li ght of the sun , for instance , Avhich is constantly poured on the earth and moon , is as constantly returned from each ,

rebounding from globe to globe , and from every form , surface , and point upon them ; the light that shines on the face of one rock is reflected to another opposite it . " For of celestial bodies first the Sun , A mighty sphere He framed , nnh ' ghtsorne first , Tho' of ethereal mould : then formed the Moon ,

Globose , aud every magnitude of Stars , And sowed with stars the Heaven , thick as a field : Of light by far the greater part he took , Transplanted from her cloudy shrine , and placed In the sun's orb , made porous to receive , And drink the liquid light ; firm to retain Her gathered beamsgreat palace now of liht .

, g Hither , as to their fountain , other stars Repairing , iu their golden series draw light , And hence the morning planet gilds her horns ; By tincture or reflection they augment Their small peculiar , though from ' human sight So far remote with diminution seen . Eirst in his East the glorious lamp was seen

, Regent of day , and all the horizon round , Invested with bright rays . Less bright the moon , But opposite in levelled West was set , His mirror , with full face borrowing her light From him . " —Milton .

As to what are the component parts of light , and Avhat light is , we are ignorant ; we know that it is " that quality or action of the medium of si ght by which we see" ( Walker ' s Diet . ) . And we know that God said , "Let there be light , and there was light ; all else is darkness . " Sharon Turner , in his Sacred History of the Worldthinks that " Light is most probably an

, ethereal fluid , now universally diffused , and pervading all things , and not an emanation from the sun , which , however , has a direct and additional agency thereon . It was a distinct production , anterior to the sun . Light came to the earth in the state in which we now almost universally find it—as both light and heat ,

and that from the moment of its presence the phenomena and agency of light , heat , and fire began whereover it spread , and within the earth as well as upon it . " Granville Penn , quoted ~ b y H . Miller in his Mosaie Vision of Creation , does not scruple to avow his belief that both sun and moon were created on the first day of creation , though they did not become " optically visible" until the fourth ; in truth , that

the fourth day only rendered visible the sidereal creation of the first day is manifested by collating the transactions of the two days . On the first day we are told generally God divided the li g ht , or day , and the darkness , or night ; but the physical , agents which He employed for that division are not there declared . On the fourth day we are told referentially

, God commanded the light ( or luminaries ) for dividing day and night , to give their light upon earth . Here , then , it is evident from the retrospective implication of the latter description , that the lights , or luminaries , for - dividing clay and night , which were to give their light upon earth for the first time upon the

fourth clay , were ' the unexpressed physical agents by which God divided the day and night on the first clay . " In an ancient Purana , translated by Halked , the cosmogony of the Indian mysteries commenced . "Of all the objects in the created world , water existed first , when as yet there was neither Devatah , nor man , nor animal , nor vegetable , nor star , nor other heavenly body . The whole universe was dark , and water . In this primeval water did Bhagavat , ia