324 COLORIFICATION IN GENERAL. 



subject. When we, however, reflect on the 

 actual state of things, as they exist in this world, 

 in which animated beings are fed and nourish- 

 ed, not only by a large proportion of the com- 

 mon matter of which it is composed, but by the 

 materials which are produced from the -decom- 

 position and corruption of living matter also ; 

 and that a variety of new combinations are con- 

 stantly taking place between the different parts, 

 every allowance ought unquestionably to be 

 made, for the imperfection which exists. It is> 

 probably, owing to an ignorance of the proper- 

 ties which essentially belong to different species 

 of elementary matter, that attention has been 

 exclusively bestowed on those which are secon- 

 dary and accidental ; they are, in fact, those 

 which are most cognisable to our senses, and 

 which excite on them the sensations of hard- 

 ness, and of softness of figure, and of color 

 of flavor, and of sound of heat, and of cold. 

 It must not, however, be inferred, because 

 substances, various and extraneous, often alloy 

 gold, that the pure metal does not subsist in its 

 individual and virgin state ; or that light, water, 

 and earth, have not an elementary existence,, 

 because different bodies are generally found, 

 either chemically combined with them, or me- 

 chanically diffused in them. A contrary con- 

 clusion can only be formed from the false 



