Such are some of the striking effects produced by the refraction of light. It enables us to see objects in a direction where they are not; it raises, apparently, the bottoms of lakes and rivers: it magnifies objects when their light passes through dense mediums: it makes the sun appear above the horizon, when he is actually below it, and thus increases the length of our day: it produces the Aurora and the evening twilight, which forms, in many instances, the most delightful part of a summer day: it prevents us from being involved in total darkness, the moment after the sun has descended beneath the horizon: it modifies the appearances of the celestial bodies, and the directions in which they are beheld: it tinges the sun, moon, and stars, as well as the clouds, with a ruddy hue, when near the horizon: it elevates the appearance of terrestrial objects, and, in certain extraordinary cases, brings them nearer to our view, and enables us to behold them when beyond the line of our visible horizon. In combination with the power of reflection, it creates visionary landscapes, and a variety of grotesque and extraordinary appearances, which delight and astonish, and sometimes appal the beholders. In short,--as we shall afterwards see more particularly--the refraction of light through glasses of different figures, forms the principle on which telescopes and microscopes are constructed, by which both the remote and the minute wonders of creation have been disclosed to view. So that had there been no bodies capable of refracting the rays of light, we should have remained for ever ignorant of many sublime and august objects in the remote regions of the universe, and of the admirable mechanism and the countless variety of minute objects which lie beyond the range of the unassisted eye in our lower creation, all of which are calculated to direct our views, and to enlarge our conceptions of the Almighty Creator.