NOVUM OROANUM 161 



they have nothing in common with the fixed colors in 

 flowers and colored gems, metals, woods, etc., except the 

 color itself. Hence we easily deduce that color is nothing 

 but a modification of the image of the incident and absorbed 

 light, occasioned in the former case by the different degrees 

 of incidence, in the latter by the various textures and forms 

 of bodies. 89 These are solitary instances as regards simili 

 tude. 



Again, in the same inquiry the distinct veins of white 

 an^ black in marble, and the variegated colors of flowers of 

 the same species, are solitary instances; for the black and 

 white of marble, and the spots of white and purple in the 

 flowers of the stock, agree in every respect but that of color. 

 Thence we easily deduce that color has not much to do with 

 the intrinsic natures of any body, but depends only on the 

 coarser and as it were mechanical arrangement of the parts. 

 These are solitary instances as regards difference. We call 

 them both solitary or wild, to borrow a word from the 

 astronomers. 



XXIII. In the second rank of prerogative instances we 

 will consider migrating instances. In these the required 

 nature passes toward generation, having no previous exist 

 ence, or toward corruption, having first existed. In each 

 of these divisions, therefore, the instances are always two 

 fold, or rather it is one instance, first in motion or on its 

 passage, and then brought to the opposite conclusion. 

 These instances not only hasten and confirm exclusion, but 

 also reduce affirmation, or the form itself, to a narrow com 

 pass; for the form must be something conferred by this 



S9 This very nearly approaches to Sir I. Newton s discovery of the decom 

 position of light by the prism. 



