Book contents
- Frontmatter
- NOTICE
- Contents
- INTRODUCTION
- BOOK I TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS
- CHAP. I The Length of the Year
- CHAP. II The Length of the Day
- CHAP. III The Mass of the Earth
- CHAP. IV The Magnitude of the Ocean
- CHAP. V The Magnitude of the Atmosphere
- CHAP. VI The Constancy and Variety of Climates
- CHAP. VII The Variety of Organization corresponding to the Variety of climate
- CHAP. VIII The Constituents of Climate
- CHAP. IX The Laws of Heat with respect to Water
- CHAP. X The Laws of Heat with respect to Air
- CHAP. XI The Laws of Electricity
- CHAP. XII The Laws of Magnetism
- CHAP. XIII The Properties of Light with regard to Vegetation
- CHAP. XIV Sound
- CHAP. XV The Atmosphere
- CHAP. XVI Light
- CHAP. XVII The Ether
- CHAP. XVIII Recapitulation
- BOOK II COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS
- BOOK III RELIGIOUS VIEWS
CHAP. XVI - Light
from BOOK I - TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2011
- Frontmatter
- NOTICE
- Contents
- INTRODUCTION
- BOOK I TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS
- CHAP. I The Length of the Year
- CHAP. II The Length of the Day
- CHAP. III The Mass of the Earth
- CHAP. IV The Magnitude of the Ocean
- CHAP. V The Magnitude of the Atmosphere
- CHAP. VI The Constancy and Variety of Climates
- CHAP. VII The Variety of Organization corresponding to the Variety of climate
- CHAP. VIII The Constituents of Climate
- CHAP. IX The Laws of Heat with respect to Water
- CHAP. X The Laws of Heat with respect to Air
- CHAP. XI The Laws of Electricity
- CHAP. XII The Laws of Magnetism
- CHAP. XIII The Properties of Light with regard to Vegetation
- CHAP. XIV Sound
- CHAP. XV The Atmosphere
- CHAP. XVI Light
- CHAP. XVII The Ether
- CHAP. XVIII Recapitulation
- BOOK II COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS
- BOOK III RELIGIOUS VIEWS
Summary
Besides the hearing and sound there is another mode by which we become sensible of the impressions of external objects, namely, sight and light. This subject also offers some observations bearing on our present purpose.
It has been declared by writers on Natural Theology, that the human eye exhibits such evidence of design and skill in its construction, that no one, who considers it attentively, can resist this impression: nor does this appear to be saying too much. It must, at the same time, be obvious that this construction of the eye could not answer its purposes, except the constitution of light corresponded to it. Light is an element of the most peculiar kind and properties, and such an element can hardly be conceived to have been placed in the universe without a regard to its operation and functions. As the eye is made for light, so light must have been made, at least among other ends, for the eye.
1. We must expect to comprehend imperfectly only the mechanism of the elements. Still, we have endeavoured to shew that in some instances the arrangements by which their purposes are effected are, to a certain extent, intelligible. In order to explain, however, in what manner light answers those ends which appear to us its principal ones, we must know something of the nature of light. There have, hitherto, been, among men of science, two prevailing opinions upon this subject: some considering light as consisting in the emission of luminous particles; others accounting for its phenomena by the propagation of vibrations through a highly subtle and elastic ether.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1833