“We saw the lines”
“When the light of the sun is spread out by a prism into a spectrum, the bands of color are striped also by some narrow, dark lines, which we now understand to mark the specific wavelengths at which light is absorbed by various elements in the sun—iron, magnesium, calcium, and others. Isaac Newton experimented with prisms and lenses in the years 1668–72, and based an entire theory of the nature of color and of light on the solar spectrum. He did not report the absorption lines. Was his equipment too primitive to reveal them? In 1961, William Bisson at M.I.T. built an apparatus like Newton’s, reconstructed the original experiments, and showed that the absorption lines would have been plainly visible. Bisson and a colleage reported this in a note in Science in 1962, concluding, ‘‘We saw the lines,’ and wonder why Sir Isaac Newton failed to achieve the distinction of being the founder of the science of spectroanalysis.’ The question provoked Edwin Boring to argue, later that year, that Newton?s theory, not his apparatus, had no place for the lines; Newton’s theoretical expectations blinded him to the evidence. Boring added, ‘To the observing scientist, hypothesis is both friend and enemy.’”
—Horace Freeland Judson, from The Search for Solutions, 1980.
The Eyes Of The Council
“And we looked straight into the eyes of the Council, but their eyes were as cold blue glass buttons.”
—Ayn Rand, from Anthem, 1946.
“You are beautiful, Liberty 5-3000”
“So we looked straight upon the Golden One, and we saw the shadows of their lashes on their white cheeks and the sparks of sun on their lips. And we said:
‘You are beautiful, Liberty 5-3000.’”
—Ayn Rand, from Anthem, 1946.
a river of green and fire
“We lay on our back, we threw our arms out, and we looked up at the sky. The leaves had edges of silver that trembled and rippled like a river of green and fire flowing high above us.”
—Ayn Rand, from Anthem, 1946.
colors, colors, more colors than we thought possible
“Never had we seen rooms so full of light. The sunrays danced upon colors, colors, more colors than we thought possible, we who had seen no houses save the white ones, the brown ones and the grey. There were great pieces of glass on the walls, but it was not glass, for when we looked upon it we saw our own bodies and all the things behind us, as on the face of a lake.”
—Ayn Rand, from Anthem, 1946.
it is good to behold green, red, yellow, and white
“Of colours it is good to behold green, red, yellow, and white, and by all means to have light enough, with windows in the day, wax candles in the night, neat chambers, good fires in winter, merry companions; for though melancholy persons love to be dark and alone, yet darkness is a great increaser of the humour.”
—Robert Burton, from The Anatomy of Melancholy, first published in 1621; reprinted in 2001.
now we see through a glass, darkly
“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
—Paul, 1 Corinthians, 13: 12, King James Version of the Holy Bible, 1611.
in aenigmate
“There is a surprising sentence about enigma in St. Augustine’s treatise, De trinitate. Nobody, says Augustine, can really understand the word “darkly” (for him, in aenigmate) in Paul’s text, “For now we see through a glass, darkly,” unless they have learned about tropes. For, Augustine adds, aenigma is a trope, a species of the genus allegory. He says this as a matter of course, not as some specialized or esoteric knowledge.”
—Eleanor Cook, Enigmas and Riddles in Literature, 2006.
not through a glass, but “as He is”
“The good master [Paul] teaches us . . . that ‘with face unveiled’ from the veil of the law, which is the shadow of things to come, ‘beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord,’ i.e., gazing at it through a glass, ‘we may be transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the spirit of the Lord’ . . . we shall see Him, not through a glass, but ‘as He is’; which the Apostle Paul expresses by ‘face to face.’”
—Augustine, as quoted in Enigmas and Riddles in Literature by Eleanor Cook, 2006.
the arch-angel Gabriel
“I was one day reading Young’s Night Thoughts, and when I came to that passage which asks ‘who can paint an angel,’ I closed the book and cried, ‘Aye! who can paint an angel?’ A voice in the room answered, ‘Michael Angelo could.’ ‘And how do you know,’ I said, looking round me, but I saw nothing save a greater light than usual. ‘I know,’ said the voice, ‘for I sat to him; I am the arch-angel Gabriel.’ ‘Oho!’ I answered, ‘you are, are you; I must have better assurance than that of a wandering voice; you may be an evil spirit—there are such in the land.’ ‘You shall have good assurance,’ said the voice, ‘can an evil spirit do this?’ I looked whence the voice came, and was then aware of a shining shape, with bright wings, who diffused much light. As I looked, the shape dilated more and more: he waved his hands; the roof of my study opened; he ascended into heaven; he stood in the sun, and beckoning to me, moved the universe. An angel of evil could not have done that—It was the arch-angel Gabriel.”
—William Blake, as quoted in Major’s Cabinet Gallery of Pictures: with Historical and Critical Descriptions and Dissertations, by Allan Cunningham, 1833. From William Blake: The Critical Heritage, edited by G.E. Bentley, Jr, 1975.