STUDY X. 2811 



iight of a taper is not decompounded by the 

 prifm : but I (hall confine myfelf to a few reflec- 

 tions refpeding the number, and the order of 

 thofe feven pretended primitive colours. 



Firft, it is evident that four of thefe are com- 

 pounded ; for orange is made up of yellow and 

 red ; green, of yellow and blue ; violet, of blue 

 and red ; and indigo is nothing more than a tint 

 of blue furcharged with black. This reduces the 

 folar colours to three primordial ; namely, yellow, 

 red, and blue; to which if we add white, which 

 is the colour of light, and black, which is the 

 privation of it, we (hall have five fimple colours 

 with which may be compounded all imaginable 

 ftiades of colour. 



I muft here obferve, that our philofophical ma- 

 chinery deceives us with it's afFedtation of fuperior 

 intelligence, not only becaufe it afcribes falfe ele- 

 ments to Nature, as when the prifm difplays com- 

 pound for primitive colours, but by ftripping her 

 of fuch as are true ; for how many white and black 

 bodies muft be reckoned colourlefs, confidering 

 that this fame prifm does not exhibit their tints in 

 the decompofition of the folar ray ! 



This inftrument leads us farther into an error 

 refpeding the natural order of thefe very colours, 



by 



