“Let there be light! said God; and forthwith light
Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure,
Sprung from the deep; and from her native east
To journey through the aery gloom began,
Spher’d in a radiant cloud; (for yet the sun
Was not;) she in a cloudy tabernacle
Sojourn’d the while.”
Light, after a short progression, concentrated in the sun, the common centre of our system; the various parts of this system, by his central light or fire, are balanced, and, by mutual attraction, move in the expanse, according to fixed laws, or determined distances.[38]
Light was once considered to be a property or quality of matter only; but more recently it has been discovered to be a body, a very subtile fluid, consisting of minute particles. We have no certain knowledge of its nature; though a collection of its rays make other things visible, yet its constituent parts themselves are most exquisitely small, and quite imperceptible; and therefore it approaches the nearest to the nature of spirit.[39]
Of all material bodies, light is the most simple. Most others are compounded of several parts, not only of different, but sometimes of contrary natures: but light is an unmixed body. It is also a most pure matter; It has no defilement in itself, neither is it capable of contracting pollution from other objects. When it shines upon a dunghill or sepulchre, which sends forth the most offensive effluvia, it still remains uncontaminated.