368 Dr. UerschtVs Retiewer reviewed. 



counteractions are to set aside Doctor Herschel's proofs de- 

 diued from facts. At the same time, could the reviewef 

 have made some stand on this ground, and had he conde- 

 scended to have iiUistrated intelligibly the sources of his 

 contradiction, we should have respected such an instance 

 i)f phifosophical scrutiny and such an invitation to candid 

 disquisition. But in place of that, this reviewer all of a 

 sudden chooses to envelop himself in that smoke he has 

 so. ready at command ; and so vanishes in a cloud of abor- 

 livc and fathondess opinions. 



To conclude : It is well known that the fits of easy re- 

 flection and easy transmission, imputed to tlie rays of light 

 bv Sir Isaac Newon, have long been considered as a part 

 of his philosophy 'in some measure doubtful. U\ liie essay at 

 present vuider consideration, the author has the merit of 

 j'urmalhj bringing this celebrated theory to the only test 

 which can finally determine its pretensions, and set so im- 

 portant a question for ever at rest. If, when thus sifted by 

 a more enlariied experience, and by so skilful a hand, it has 

 been reserved for Doctor Herschel to show its fallacy, yet 

 no generous mind will be disposed to grudge him that suc- 

 cess, or to venerate the less the name of Newton, though 

 one of his most earnest and most illustrious followers has 

 h,o improved his philosophy, even by clearing it of his owa 

 mistakes : anv advances of this kind, even at such a price, 

 we cannot doubt would have been hailed by Newton himself. 

 That truly great and excellent person had far more wisdom 

 as well as hunuhty than to harbour the weak and prepos- 

 terous ambition of being accounted infallible as a mortal. 

 Any lapses, however, that can be ascribed to him, figure 

 only as small spots do on the meridian sun, considering 

 that effulgence of science struck out of darkness by the 

 sublimity of his genius, and which he has bequeathed to 

 mankind. In the present instance, whatever new scion is 

 destined to adorn the philosophy of light and colours, in 

 consequence of the advances no\v maJe by Doctor Her- 

 schel, one thing is certain, that it must derive its vital 

 growth by being grafted on that tree of knowledge still 

 sound at the core, tirst planitd by the hand of Newton, and 

 which cannot but ever endure and flourish, to be beheld by 

 all eyes as one of the monuments of his glory 1 



LI. JLx- 



