28o STUDIES OF NATURE. 



along the fhore of the fea ; and the moft delightful 

 voyages thofe which are a coafling along the 

 land. You will obferve ihefe fame harmonies 

 refult from favours and founds the moft oppofite, 

 in the pleafures of the palate, and of the ear. 



Yf e fliall proceed to examine the uniformity of 

 this Law, in the very principles by which Nature 

 gives us the firft fenfations of her works, which 

 are colours, forms, and motions. 



Of Colours* 



I fhall be carefully on my guard not to give ^ 

 definition of colours, and ftill more, not to at- 

 tempt an explanation of their origin. Colours are, 

 as Naturalifts tell us, refradlions of the light on bo- 

 dies, as is demonftrated by the prifm, which, by 

 breaking a ray of the Sun, decompounds it into 

 feven coloured rays, which difplay themfelves in 

 the following orders red, orange, yellow, green, 

 blue, indigo, and violet. Thefe are, as they will 

 have it, the feven primitive colours. But, as has 

 been already obferved. We do not know what is 

 primitive in Nature. I might objeâ: to them^ 

 that if the colours of objeds are produced only 

 from the refraction of the light of the Sun, they 

 ought to difappear at the light of a taper, for the 



light 



