But
he soon perceived the cause of the phenomenon, and that it
proceeded from the rays of the sun from a pure unclouded
morning sky striking upon this dense vapour which refracted
them. But, the better all the works of nature are understood, the
more they will be ever admired. That was a scene that would
have entranced the man of science with delight, but which the
uninitiated and sordid man would have regarded less than the
mole rearing up his hill in silence and in darkness.
George did admire this halo of glory, which still grew wider, and
less defined, as he approached the surface, of the cloud. But, to
his utter amazement and supreme delight, he found, on reaching
the top of Arthur's Seat, that this sublunary rainbow, this
terrestrial glory, was spread in its most vivid hues beneath his
feet. Still he could not perceive the body of the sun, although the
light behind him was dazzling; but the cloud of haze lying dense
in that deep dell that separates the hill from the rocks of
Salisbury, and the dull shadow of the hill mingling with that
cloud made the dell a pit of darkness. On that shadowy cloud was
the lovely rainbow formed, spreading itself on a horizontal plain,
and having a slight and brilliant shade of all the colours of the
heavenly bow, but all of them paler and less defined.
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