12 ESSAYS anno OBSERVATIONS 
ART? TY: 
Obfervations on Light and Colours ; by Tao- 
Mas M:itvii_t, M.A, * 
Salt CPE ink. 
On the, mutual Penetration of Light. 
1. ¢ \¥NEofthe firft and greateft difficul- 
’ ties thatoccurs in reflecting on this 
fubjec&, is, to conceive how itis pofliblethat 
light 
* ReadJanuary 3. and February 7. 1752. 
Had the ingenious author of this paper (who died De- 
cember 1753, atthe age of 27) lived to put the finifhing 
hand to it, he would, probably, have added many thinys, 
and perhaps retrenched fome others, by which it would 
have been rendered fill more deferving of the approbation 
of the public. Mr Melvill uled to oblerve, that as, of all 
Sir Ifaac Newton’s difcoveries, thofe relating to light and 
colours were perhaps the moft curious; it was fomewhat 
remarkable, that few, it any, ot his followers had gone 
one ftep beyond him on thefe fubjeéts, or attempted to com- 
pleat what de had left unfinifhed. Our author, therefore, 
prepofed to have applied himielf particularly to the fur- 
ther iilufration of the theory of light and colours. The 
following eflay is a {pecimen of what might have been ex- 
pected from him, and fufficiently fhews the uncommon ge; 
nius of its author, 
