Lightness

“ This light does not resemble that vouchsafed to mortals upon earth, which is rather darkness visible; it is rather a celestial glory than a light—an emanation that penetrates the grossest body with more subtilety than the rays of the sun penetrate the purest crystal, which rather strengthens than dazzles the sight, and diffuses through the soul a serenity which no language can express. ”

“ Shouldst thou, however, turn thy gaze unto a Mirror, brilliant, stainless, and pure, wherein the divine Beauty is reflected, therein wilt thou find the Sun shining with Its rays, Its heat, Its disc, Its fair form all entire. For each separate entity possesseth its allotted portion of the solar light and telleth of the Sun, but that Universal Reality in all Its splendour, that stainless Mirror Whose qualities are appropriate to the qualities of the Sun revealed within It—expresseth in their entirety the attributes of the Source of Glory. ”

“ Sweet light shall couch by flowery sapphire and blue violets, and dance with jocund joys where the white daisies tesselate the mead; then memory shall illuminate itself—turn out its store of images bright as at their creation; then shall the soul arrange its myriad hues of by-gone time; dwell over the glory of the spiritual scene, until, in extasy and grateful joy, a voice shall shout,—"How beautiful is Light." ”

“ Light, my light, the world-filling light, the eye-kissing light, heart-sweetening light!
Ah, the light dances, my darling, at the centre of my life; the light strikes, my darling, the chords of my love; the sky opens, the wind runs wild, laughter passes over the earth. ”

“ Hear us, O never-failing Light, Lord our God, our only light, the fountain of light, the light of Thine angels, thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, and of all intelligent beings; who hast created the light of Thy saints. May our souls be lamps of Thine, kindled and illuminated by Thee. May they shine and burn with the truth, and never go out in darkness and ashes. ”

“ Every one knows the changed aspect of the whole material world, when one of the lights that radiated the inner self has merged into shadow, leaving us to grope our way in darkness, until the radiance of a new light, emerging from ourselves, shall penetrate the shadow and shine with the combined brightness of both. ”

“ The sun is the great lamp that illuminates the world, while the atmosphere, which is filled with particles of various substances, becomes the shade of the lamp which diffuses and softens the light and gives it its color tones, whether of warmth or coldness. We could not well do without the reflected light of the sky. The poetry of life would be sadly marred. The beautiful effects of color and purity of tone would be wanting. We need to bathe in light as much as in water, and the character of the light is almost as important as the character of the water. ”

“ Where light to shade descending, plays, not strives,
Dies by degrees, and by degrees revives.
When the mind is tranquil, and all the sweet sensibilities of our nature are awakened, we acknowledge the glory and indispensability of light: then we are followed by an enchantment, and the very spirit of loveliness seems to enfold us in its mystic charms. In how many paths does light in its greatness travel! it moves through spheres illimitable, attended by its wondrous train of radiances, shades, and colours. ”

“ The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is the darkness! ”

“ Only in the cruel serenity of the sky, under the merciless brilliance of the sun, the dazzled eye misses the delicate detail, sees only the strong outlines, while the colours, in the steady light, seem crude and-without shadow. ”

“ Would you be always in light? Here you need no Sun by Day, nor Moon by Night; the Lamb is the Lamp; and the Light of hi Countenance fills the Mansions of Eternity with dazling glory, and rays of brightness, transcending all the brightness this World is capable of, for beyond what the Sun affords when shining in its full lustre, compared with a glimmering taper. ”

“ Shine!' he cries, 'for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.... The People that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.... Then shall thy light break forth as the morning.... And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.... The Lord shall be to thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.... ”

“ The first word uttered by God created the nature of light; it made darkness vanish, dispelled gloom, illuminated the world, and gave to all being at the same time a sweet and gracious aspect. The heavens, until then enveloped in darkness, appeared with that beauty which they still present to our eyes. The air was lighted up, or rather made the light circulate mixed with its substance, and, distributing its splendor rapidly in every direction, so dispersed itself to its extreme limits. ”

“ Left a great path, and down the path there shone
The Light of all the world.
The Light from whose mysterious golden depths
The Sun rose in his might—
The light from whose white, hidden fires were lit
The torches of the night;
The Light that shining on a thing of clay
Giveth it Life and Will:
The Light that with an unknown power can blast
And bid all life be still;
The Light that calls a ray of its own light
A man's undying soul—
The Light that lifts the broken lives of earth,
Touches and makes them whole. ”

“ Light and darkness, like all other objects, have a two-fold signification—an outer and an inner, or a natural and a spiritual meaning. Light in its natural sense, is the light of the natural world, which affects our natural organs of vision. But spiritual light is of a different nature, though in perfect correspondence with the natural. It is the light of the spiritual world; and although in its essence it is divine truth, it appears before the eyes of the angels as light. They see by means of it. ”

“ He had never seen anything in his life so bright as that golden bough that hung over him, and when he gazed through it, he saw that the sky was bluer than he had ever imagined that it could be, and that everything at which he looked had not only this quality of intense, of penetrating brightness, but appeared transparent, with a luminous transparency which seemed a veil spread over something that was shining beyond it. ”

“ In the formation of light, and the beneficent effects it produces, the wisdom and goodness of the Almighty are conspicuously displayed. Without the beams of the sun and the influence of light, what were all the realms of this world, but an undistinguished chaos and so many dungeons of darkness? ”

“ The soft air is so full of light, downflowing
⁠From all the lamps above, that like a stream
Escaped of heaven's radiance, the glowing
⁠And sweetly blended rays together gleam.
A kind of listening presence, too, seems gliding
⁠Over and through the earth, that piercing pries
Into each quiet nook, and seeks the hiding
⁠Secrets of all men out, with curious eyes. ”

“ Thou Heaven and thou Earth, your present form is an image (as if a mother) of such a union; that world of light looking so consolingly into our freezing eyes--the Sun,--transforms the blue ether around it into a blue night, which casts a still deeper shadow of itself over the glittering sun-face of the snow-clad earth, and man sees with yearning eyes a night sweep across his heaven and one fissure of light, the deep opening and street stretching away toward brighter worlds.... ”

“ As into seven mild rays we view With softness break the glimmer white, As rainbow-beams of sevenfold hue Dissolve again in that soft light, In clearness thousandfold thus throw Your magic round the ravished gaze,— Into one stream of light thus flow,— One bond of truth that ne'er decays! ”

“ But let no [Pg 108] one be discouraged by the fact that the theory of light, as, indeed, of all the imponderable agents, is imperfectly understood. Rather let us rejoice that there are vast fields of discovery yet to be explored; and that light, the most glorious and inspiring element in nature, invites us from the sun, the moon, and the stars, and from the face of every green leaf and variegated flower, to search out the wonders of its nature, and further to exemplify the goodness and wisdom of God. ”

“ The light that lights the eye’s the light that’s in the heart.
Eye’s light is but derived from what illumes that part.
The light that lights the heart’s the light that comes of God,
Which lies beyond the reach of sense and reason, clod!
By night we have no light; no colour can we see.
Thus, light we learn by darkness, its converse. ”

“ Light, through the medium of the eye, not only unfolds to us the persons of others, in all their minute modifications and peculiarities, but exhibits us to ourselves. It presents to our own vision a faithful portrait of our peculiar features behind reflecting substances, without which property we should remain entirely ignorant of those traits of countenance which characterize us in the eyes of others.
But, what is the nature of this substance we call light, which thus unfolds to us the scenes of creation? ”

“ There must be light for the spiritual eye, sound for the spiritual ear, charming and beautiful objects of every kind. But, it may be inquired, whence is the light that illumines that world? it cannot surely be from our natural sun, for that cannot shine into the spiritual world. ”

“ Colour that speaks the tongue of the gods when thought falls dead and the sound of speech is mere hollowness.
When the colour faded big purple clouds began to drift up over the pale yellow sky until it was all a wonderful thick purple-blue darkness in which sounds were both clear and muffled; faraway sounds were clear, and sounds close at hand were muffled and eerie; pale milk-grey lights began to slide through the darkness. ”

“ There cannot be a more glorious theme for the poet, than the vast utility of light, or a more sublime spectacle, than the varied and beautiful phenomena that accompany it. Ever since the divine command went forth, has the sun continued to shine, and to remain, "till time shall be no more," the great source of light to the world, to be the means of disclosing to the eye of man all the beautiful and varied hues of the organic and inorganic world. ”

“ Light is, in reality, more awful than darkness—modesty more majestic than strength; and there is truer sublimity in the sweet joy of a child, or the sweet virtue of a maiden, than in the strength of Antæus, or thunder-clouds of Ætna. ”

“ Everywhere we have the mellow and advancing light that precedes the appearance of the sun--the shifting hues of the sky--that pearly softness that seems to have been invented to make us love the works of God's hand and the warm glow of the brilliant sun ”

“ The degrees of contemplation are like the degrees of light, which exist not at all in the darkness, slightly in shade, more in colours, according to their orders, from one opposite which is black to the other which is white; but more fully do they exist in the splendour diffused over pure transparent bodies, as in a looking-glass and in the moon, and still more brightly in the rays diffused by the sun, but principally and most brilliantly in the sun itself. ”

“ The use of the word light, in the Scriptures, must not be received in a purely symbolical sense. We shall dwell in light, or we shall dwell in darkness, in proportion as we have shaken off the bonds that chain us to the earth ”

“ Does it extend through eternal and measureless space? or is it only a creative property dependent upon the functions of the eye? Our darkness is to one part of creation light, and our light their darkness. ”

“ As for example; in the morning, when it begins to dawn and grow light, it appears clearly to our sight how light doth come forth, and darkness remove by degrees; and so at night, when it grows dark, how light removes, and darkness succeeds; nay, if there be any such sudden change of the motions of Light, I desire you to consider, Madam, that light is a very subtil, rare, piercing and active body, and therefore its motions are much quicker then those of grosser bodies, and cannot so well be perceived by our gross exterior senses. ”

“ The light which proceeds from the head of the figure--is that of the hope of salvation; it springs from the crown of thorns, and, though itself sad, subdued and full of softness, is yet so powerful, that it entirely melts into the glow of it the forms of the leaves and boughs which it crosses, showing that every earthly object must be hidden by this light, where its sphere extends. ”

“ With delight we reflect on the invaluable benefits which this lesser light confers on our globe. She sometimes appears visible in the presence of the sun; but how faint and pale is her shining! God has appointed her to rule the night, and give light to men. How cheerless and uncomfortable would our nights be, were we destitute of the light which this faithful and inseparable companion of our earth dispenses! ”

“ Light first was when the first red eye-point of an infusorial animal for the first time distinguished light from darkness. In the absence of the sense-substance of sight and hearing, this bright, glowing, resonant world around us would be dark and voiceless. ”