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Appearances from the Contemplation of Coloured Objects. 333 



itself from one side to the other of its original position of re- 

 pose, until its movement be completely annihilated. Besides 

 as 1 have said in the publications wherein I have made known 

 my theory, I consider this principle of oscillations as o-eneral; 

 that is to say, applicable to any organ whatever, and even to 

 moral phjenomena. 



With respect to the appearances of the second section, 

 they may be comi^ared to the alternations of the two opposite 

 electricities in an insulated conductor which is submitted to 

 the influence of an electrified body ; or likewise to the ph;e- 

 nomena which a circular plate presents whose centre is made 

 to vibrate, and in which opposite vibrations are separated bv 

 circular lines of repose, &c. 



Thus the phgenomena of the first section would be the ef- 

 fects of the same law of continuity and inertia that we see 

 manifested in a great many instances, when a body removed 

 from a state of stable equilibrium is afterwards suddenly left 

 to itself; and those of the second section would be equally 

 the effects of an analogous law of continuity, which is fre- 

 quently manifested when only a portion of a body is main- 

 tained, in one way or other, in a state differing from its nor- 

 mal state. 



The foregoing is a summary of my theory of visual appear- 

 ances. With regard to the series of proofs upon which I have 

 grounded it, I can only refer to the papers already quoted in 

 the note. The first article of the Annates de Chimie et de 

 Physique, as well as the note inserted in the Supplement to 

 the work ot Sir J. Herschel, are nothing more than summary 

 expositions of the ensemble of my work; but the memoir 

 contained in the collection of the Brussels Academy, and in 

 the number of April 1835 of the Amiales de Chimie et de 

 Physicjae, is a complete development of that part of my in- 

 quiries which relates to phgenomena of succession, or of the 

 first section. I am now occupied with the second part of this 

 memoir, that is to say, with that which embraces phaenomena 

 of simultaneousness, or of the second section. 



We shall now pass to the objections. The first which 

 came to my cognizance were advanced in an anonymous ar- 

 ticle of the Edinburgh Review (number for April 1834, pao-e 

 160, and following*.) Unluckily, the author had no know- 

 ledge of my theory but from the first of the two summnry 

 expositions of which I iiave just spoken, and he was conse- 

 quently not able to judge of it with thorough competence. 



• The reader may consider that my answer has been a long time de- 

 ferred, but it was only vfiy rerenfly that I knew of flic objections in 

 <jne'>ti()ii. 



