. In that heavenly circle which binds the statutes of color
upon the front of the sky, when it became the sign of the covenant of
peace, the pure hues of divided light were sanctified to the human heart
for ever; nor this, it would seem, by mere arbitrary appointment, but in
consequence of the fore-ordained and marvellous constitution of those
hues into a sevenfold, or, more strictly still, a threefold order,
typical of the Divine nature itself. Observe also, the name Shem, or
Splendor, given to that son of Noah in whom this covenant with mankind
was to be fulfilled, and see how that name was justified by every one of
the Asiatic races which descended from him. Not without meaning was the
love of Israel to his chosen son expressed by the coat "of many colors;"
not without deep sense of the sacredness of that symbol of purity, did
the lost daughter of David tear it from her breast:--"With such robes
were the king's daughters that were virgins apparelled."[55] We know it
to have been by Divine command that the Israelite, rescued from
servitude, veiled the tabernacle with its rain of purple and scarlet,
while the under sunshine flashed through the fall of the color from its
tenons of gold: but was it less by Divine guidance that the Mede, as he
struggled out of anarchy, encompassed his king with the sevenfold
burning of the battlements of Ecbatana?--of which one circle was golden
like the sun, and another silver like the moon; and then came the great
sacred chord of color, blue, purple, and scarlet; and then a circle
white like the day, and another dark, like night; so that the city rose
like a great mural rainbow, a sign of peace amidst the contending of
lawless races, and guarded, with color and shadow, that seemed to
symbolize the great order which rules over Day, and Night, and Time, the
first organization of the mighty statutes,--the law of the Medes and
Persians, that altereth not.

Sec. XXXIV. Let us not dream that it is owing to the accidents of
tradition or education that those races possess the supremacy over color
which has always been felt, though but lately acknowledged among men.
However their dominion might be broken, their virtue extinguished, or
their religion defiled, they retained alike the instinct and the power:
the instinct which made even their idolatry more glorious than that of
others, bursting forth in fire-worship from pyramid, cave, and mountain,
taking the stars for the rulers of its fortune, an