422 Some Particulars respecting the present State of Persia, 
lined with black, should enable a person to see the different 
shades and angles; if the light were absorbed, the room 
should be invisible. The Newtonian doctrine does not ad- 
mit of a periect biack, It also appeared surprising that, 
on blowing out a candle, a room full'of fluid light, however 
attenuated or subtle, should vanish, or be absorbed into the 
pores oi the surrounding objects, and that without any 
change of chemical property. It likewise must appear sur- 
prising, if not impossible, to any thinking mind, that the 
sun, eternally emitting an amazing large quantity of fluid 
hight, should never be exhausted; and on the other hand, 
that those bodies receiving such a supply should never be 
increased in size, If my ideas of light should be adopted, 
they account in a satisfactory manner for these incongrui- 
ties. Let us suppose the earth constantly surrounded with a 
Jarge quantity of fluid light: the sun rises, and, commani- 
cating radiant caloric, modifies it into visible light: he sets, 
and condenses it into the blackness or darkness of night. — 
Tiaett Sir, I have the honour to remain 
Your obedient servant, 
Cork, Dec. 4, 1813. JOSEPH READER, M.D. 
LXX. Some Particulars respecting ihe present State of 
Persia. Communicated in a Letter to the Hon. Colonéd 
GreEVILLE Howarp. By Sir Gore Ousetey*. 
Gehran, Nov. 22, 1812. 
My DEAR Howarp,—L HAVE just been made happy by 
the receipt of your letter of the 4th of July last, and, with 
my wife, beg you will accept our thanks for giving us the 
pleasure of knowing that Mrs. Greyille Howard and your- 
self were well. Py tire Peay iets 
Just after the despatch of my last letter to you, my busi- 
ness with the Shah and his ministers commenced ; and al- 
though I have travelled over a good deal of Persia since, I 
have been too constantly occupied with Government affairs 
to have time to arrange what little research I have been able 
to make. ‘I have not, however, been idle entirely ; and I 
flatter myself that my journal and sketch-book will one of 
these evenings by the fire-side at Claramont afford you and 
Mrs. Greville Howard a few hours’ occupation, if not 
amusement. 
In March last I concluded a definitive treaty with the 
* Printed among intercepted correspondence in an American newspaper. 
Shah, 
