This is his grief. Let him turn which way he
will, it falls opposite to the sun; short at noon, long at eve.
Did you never see it?--But, referred to the sun, it is widest at
its base, which is no greater than his own opacity. The divine
light is diffused almost entirely around us, and by means of the
refraction of light, or else by a certain self-luminousness, or,
as some will have it, transparency, if we preserve ourselves
untarnished, we are able to enlighten our shaded side. At any
rate, our darkest grief has that bronze color of the moon
eclipsed. There is no ill which may not be dissipated, like the
dark, if you let in a stronger light upon it. Shadows, referred
to the source of light, are pyramids whose bases are never
greater than those of the substances which cast them, but light
is a spherical congeries of pyramids, whose very apexes are the
sun itself, and hence the system shines with uninterrupted light.
But if the light we use is but a paltry and narrow taper, most
objects will cast a shadow wider than themselves.
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