The light to which you come at length in the railway tunnel, and before you reach the end of the tunnel, is the very same light exactly, as far as its nature is concerned, as the light into which you come at the end of the tunnel; and the light which shines from the end into the tunnel increases more and more from its first shining until you reach the full light at the end. So the wise man says that the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. The light of the perfect day is the same as the light that shines in the path all along, and that began to shine even ere the sun was up. The lights are in nowise different except in degree.—Alexander Miller, “Heaven and Hell Here.”
(1847)
LIGHT, INJURY FROM
In a moral sense it is better to face the light than to have it shine on us indirectly.
Do not make the mistake of supposing that brilliant lights are harmless except when looked at directly. As a matter of fact they are even more dangerous when so placed as to shine into the eyes sidewise or from above, since the eye is less accustomed to receive bright light from such directions. In other words, light from such direction falls upon the outer parts of the surface of the retina, which, being less accustomed to receive bright light, are the more quickly injured by it. Cases are on record where persons working in the vicinity of bare lamps so placed have entirely lost the sight of one or both eyes.—The Illuminating Engineer.
(1848)
LIGHT OF THE WORLD
Among the Tsimshean Indians of Alaska the following legend is current: “At first it was entirely dark. There was no light in the world. The people could see nothing, but were groping around in a continual night. Then the son of the heavenly chief came down to earth, and the people complained to him that it was so dark. He said he would help them, and then light came.”
A faint reflection, all this, of the story of Him who is indeed the Light of the world. (Text.)
(1849)