Without whose vesting beauty all were wrapt
In unessential gloom.”
We know from experience, that the influence of light and atmospheric temperature upon living bodies is very similar, being manifested by the strongest stimulating effects; in fact, light is known to be an important agent in varying the phenomena of the atmosphere, its stimulating effects being more or less modified by light, according to the permanence and intensity of such light. The sun being the principal source of light and heat, their influences may be considered as inseparable, and acting in concert; if a thermometer were to be removed from the dark into the light, the mercury would be seen to rise, and, on the other hand, if it were to be conveyed from the light to the dark, it would fall.
“In tubes of glass mercurial columns rise,
Or sink obedient to the incumbent skies;
Or as they touch the figured scale, repeat
The nice gradations of circumfluent heat.”
Milton beautifully apostrophizes the great luminary, Light, thus:
“Hail, Holy Light! offering of Heaven’s first-born,
Or of the eternal co-eternal beam,