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Page 10
"Freedom mingles with its gorgeous dyes
The milky baldrick of the skies,
And stripes its pore celestial white
With streakings of the morning light."
Every little pansy, tender as fancy, pearled with evanescent dew,
fresh as a new creation of sunbeams, has power to suppress in one
part of its petals all vibrations we call red, in another those
we call yellow, and purple, and reflect each of these in other
parts of the same tender petal. "Pansies are for thoughts," even
more thoughts than poor Ophelia knew. An evening cloud that is
dense enough to absorb all the faster and weaker vibrations, leaving
only the stronger to come through, will be said to be red; because
the vibrations that produce the impression we have so named are
the only ones that have vigor enough to get through. It is like an
army charging upon a fortress. Under the deadly fire and fearful
obstructions six-sevenths go down, but one-seventh comes through
with the glory of victory upon its face.
Light comes in undulations to the eye, as tones of sound to the
ear. Must not light also sing? The lowest tone we can hear is made
by 16.5 vibrations of air per second; the highest, so shrill and
"fine that nothing lives 'twixt it and silence," is made by 38,000
vibrations per second. Between these extremes lie eleven octaves;
C of the G clef having 258-7/8 vibrations to the second, and its
octave above 517-1/2. Not that sound vibrations cease [Page 27] at
38,000, but our organs are not fitted to hear beyond those
limitations. If our ears were delicate enough, we could hear even up
to the almost infinite vibrations of light. In one of those
semi-inspirations we find in Shakspeare's works, he says--
"There's not the smallest orb which thou beholdest,
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubim.
Such harmony is in immortal souls;
But, whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it."
And that older poetry which is always highest truth says, "The
morning stars sing together." We misconstrued another passage which
we could not understand, and did not dare translate as it was written,
till science crept up to a perception of the truth that had been
standing there for ages, waiting a mind that could take it in.
Now we read as it is written--"Thou makest the out-goings of the
morning and evening to sing." Were our senses fine enough, we could
hear the separate keynote of every individual star. Stars differ
in glory and in power, and so in the volume and pitch of their
song. Were our hearing sensitive enough, we could hear not only
the separate key-notes but the infinite swelling harmony of these
myriad stars of the sky, as they pour their mighty tide of united
anthems in the ear of God:
"In reason's ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice.
Forever singing, as they shine,
The hand that made us is divine."
This music is not monotonous. Stars draw near each other, and make
a light that is unapproachable by mortals; [Page 28] then the music
swells beyond our ability to endure. They recede far away, making a
light so dim that the music dies away, so near to silence that only
spirits can perceive it. No wonder God rejoices in his works. They
pour into his ear one ceaseless tide of rapturous song.
Our senses are limited--we have only five, but there is room for
many more. Some time we shall be taken out of "this muddy vesture
of decay," no longer see the universe through crevices of our
prison-house, but shall range through wider fields, explore deeper
mysteries, and discover new worlds, hints of which have never yet
been blown across the wide Atlantic that rolls between them and
men abiding in the flesh.
_Chemistry of Suns revealed by Light._
When we examine the assemblage of colors spread from the white ray
of sunlight, we do not find red simple red, yellow yellow, etc.,
but there is a vast number of fine microscopic lines of various
lengths, parallel--here near together, there far apart, always the
same number and the same relative distance, when the same light
and prism are used. What new alphabets to new realms of knowledge
are these! Remember, that what we call colors are only various
numbers of vibrations of ether. Remember, that every little group in
the infinite variety of these vibrations may be affected differently
from every other group. One number of these is bent by the prism
to where we see what we call the violet, another number to the
place we call red. All of the vibrations are destroyed when they
strike a surface we call black. A part of them are destroyed when
[Page 29] they strike a substance we call colored. The rest are
reflected, and give the impression of color. In one place on the
flag of our nation all vibrations are destroyed except the red; in
another, all but the blue. Perhaps on that other gorgeous flag, not
of our country but of our sun, the flag we call the solar spectrum,
all vibrations are destroyed where these dark lines appear. Perhaps
this effect is not produced by the surface upon which the rays fall,
but by some specific substance in the sun. This is just the truth.
Light passing through vapor of sodium has the vibrations that would
fall on two narrow lines in the yellow utterly destroyed, leaving
two black spaces. Light passing through vapor of burning iron has
some four hundred numbers or kinds of vibrations destroyed, leaving
that number of black lines; but if the salt or iron be glowing gas,
in the source of the light itself the same lines are bright instead
of dark.
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