Without light, however, there is no color. Agriculturists and chemists
understand this. Plants without light retain their oxygen, which
bleaches them.

The theory of color has never been fully agreed upon. Some writers
maintain that the character of its hues depends on the number of
undulations of a ray. Goethe's theory is substantially, that colors
are produced by the thinning or thickening and obstructing of light.
Brewster contends that there are but three primary colors,--red,
yellow, and blue. Wollaston finds four,--red, yellowish green, blue,
and violet. But this, as well as the consideration of the solar
spectrum of Newton, is more the specialty of Optics. The atmospheric
relations of color are more apposite to our purpose.

The color of the clouds, which may be occasionally affected by
electricity, is owing to the state of the atmosphere and its
reflecting and refracting properties.

The color of snow is white because it is composed of an infinite
variety of crystals, which reflect all the colors of light, absorbing
none, and these, uniting before they reach the eye, appear white,
which is the combination of all the colors.

Wind, the atmosphere in action, though not picturesque, is always
wonderful, often terrible and sublime. The origin of wind, its
direction and its force, its influence on the health of man, his
business, his dwelling-place, and the climate where he perpetuates his
race, have attracted the profound attention of the greatest
philosophers.