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LXIX. An Essay on the Reflection, Hefraclion, and Inflection 

 of ' Light ; on the Colotirs of thin transparent Plates, and a 

 new Theory of Fision. By Captain Furman, R.N. 



A RUTH is the only legitimate object of philosopiiical research; 

 and whoever beHeves his own opinions to be true, and fancies 

 that he can add to the general stock of knowledge by imparting 

 some new discovery, has not only the right, but is bound in duty, 

 to make his opinrons known. If, among a number of erroneous 

 opinions, he has afforded but one hint which in the hands of a 

 wiser man mav lead to important results, he has conferred a real 

 benefit on society; wliilst his errors, though thev may outlive his 

 own time, will finally be dispelled by the light of true philosophy, 

 to which his own hint has so materially contributed. 



My design in writing this eSsay is to show the true cause of 

 the reflection and refraction of light; and as Sir Isaac Newton 

 has already accounted for these phsenomena by his hypothesis of 

 alternate fits of easy refraction and reflection in the medium, it 

 follows of course that I intend to oppose his opinion; for, if both 

 our opinions coincided, there could be no motive for my writing 

 concerning the cause of these phaenomena, and thisessav, in that 

 case, "ould be wholly unnecessary. For this opposition however 

 I shall offer no apology, because I am only exercising a right 

 which lie exercised before me ; and if all men in all ages had been 

 bound to withhold their opinions whenever they happened to 

 differ from those of great men who had preceded them, we 

 should in a great measure have lost the benefit of Sir Isaac New- 

 ton's own discoveries, philosophy would still be in its inf£.ncy, and 

 there could be no hope that the mists of ignorance would ever 

 be dispersed. 



For a great many ages the history of natural pliilosopby was 

 little more than a record of errors, every one vicing with an- 

 other in absurdity and extravagance. Her* and there we meet 

 with a transient gleam of tine pbilosopliy, like the sun shooting 

 forth his beams tlirongh the gloom of a winter's fog, which ju^-.t 

 served to guide the traveller a few steps further on his way, and 

 then left him to grojjc in the dark, perhaps for another genera- 

 tion, before any further advance was made in the progress of 

 science. It is chicflv to Lord Bacon that we are indebted for the 

 principle of making experiment the basis of philosophy ; and all 

 that he wrote ijesides, excellent as all his writings are, will bear 

 no comparison to the oldigation he has conferred upon scient«c 

 by the estai)lishment of this law. Before his time, the ipse dixit 

 of an acknowledged philosopher was sufficient to establish an 

 oj)inion however absur<l : but with this test, like another Hercule*, 



Vol. .',5. No. 260. June 1820. P p he 



