It has already enabled the astronomer to determine what
heavenly bodies do or do not shine with their own light. The subject
is still under investigation.
* * * * *
Color from light comes also under the notice of the meteorologist. The
received opinion is, that there is no inherent color in any object we
look at, but that it is in the light itself which falls upon and is
reflected from the object. Each object, having a particular reflecting
surface of its own, throws back light at its own angle, absorbing some
rays and dispersing others, while it preserves its own. In this sense
it may be said that the rose has no color,--its hues are only
borrowed. If the idea should be carried out, it would certainly
destroy much of the poetry of color. Thus, in praising the modest
blush which crimsons the cheek of beauty, we should destroy all its
charm, if we attributed it to a sudden change in the reflecting
surface of the epidermis,--a mere mechanical rushing of blood to the
skin, and a corresponding change in its angle of reflection!
Without light, however, there is no color. Agriculturists and chemists
understand this.
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