CHAPTER XXVIII.

Ox Light and Other High Frequency Phenomena . 1

INTRODUCTORY.-SOME THOUGHTS ON THE EYE.

When we look at the world around us, on .Nature, we are im-pressed with its beauty and grandeur. Each thing we perceive,though it may be vanishingly small, is in itself a world, that is,like the whole of the universe, matter and force governed bylaw,-^a world, the contemplation of which fills us with feelingsof wonder and irresistibly urges us to ceaseless thought and in-quiry. But in all this vast world, of all objects our senses re-veal to us, the most marvellous, the most appealing to ourimagination, appears no doubt a highly developed organism, athinking being. If there is anything fitted to make us admireNature’s handiwork, it is certainly this inconceivable structure,which performs its innumerable motions of obedience to externalinfluence. To understand its workings, to get a deeper insightinto this Nature’s masterpiece, has ever been for thinkers a fascin-ating aim, and after many centuries of arduous research men havearrived at a fair understanding of the functions of its organs andsenses. Again, in all the perfect harmony of its parts, of theparts which constitute the material or tangible of our being, of allits organs and senses, the eye is the most wonderful. It is themost precious, the most indispensable of our perceptive or direct-ive organs, it is the great gateway through which all knowledgeenters the mind. Of all our organs, it is the one, which is in the

1. A lecture delivered before the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, February,1893, and before the National Electric Light Association, St. Louis, March,1893.