There is a very pretty opening for a paradox which has never found its
paradoxer in print. The philosophers teach that the rainbow is not
material: it comes from rain-drops, but those rain-drops do not _take_
color. They only _give_ it, as lenses and mirrors; and each one drop gives
_all_ the colors, but throws them in different directions. Accordingly, the
same drop which furnishes red light to one spectator will furnish violet to
another, properly placed. Enter the paradoxer whom I have to invent. The
philosopher has gulled you nicely. Look into the water, and you will see
the reflected rainbow: take a looking-glass held sideways, and you see
another reflection. How could this be, if there were nothing colored to
reflect? The paradoxer's facts are true: and what are called the reflected
rainbows are _other_ rainbows, caused by those _other_ drops which are
placed so as to give the colors to the eye after reflection, at the water
or the looking-glass. A few years ago an artist exhibited a picture with a
rainbow and its apparent reflection: he simply copied what he had seen.
When his picture was examined, some started the idea that there could be no
reflection of a rainbow; they were right: they inferred that the artist had
made a mistake; they were wrong. When it was explained, some agreed and
some dissented. Wanted, {335} immediately, an able paradoxer: testimonials
to be forwarded to either end of the rainbow, No. 1. No circle-squarer need
apply, His Variegatedness having been pleased to adopt 3.14159... from Noah
downwards.