COLOR1FICATION IN GENERAL. 32? 



the solar rays, although many bodies have not 

 the power of emitting them alike ; that is to 

 say, all bodies do not absorb, or reflect, all the 

 rays indiscriminately ; some bodies absorb one 

 colored ray, other bodies another, while they 

 reflect the rest; and that to the difference 

 of capacity in different bodies, of absorbing 

 particular rays, and of reflecting others, the 

 variety of colors in different bodies, is sup- 

 posed to be owing. A red body, for exam- 

 ple, reflects from its surface the red rays, 

 and absorbs the rest; a green body re- 

 flects the green rays, and absorbs the rest ; 

 a white body is supposed to reflect all the rays, 

 and to absorb none ; and a black body to 

 absorb all the rays, and to reflect none; or, in 

 other words, the different colors which differ- 

 ent bodies assume, are supposed to depend on 

 the want of affinity, which particular bodies 

 possess for particular rays, by means of which 

 those rays become reflected from the body on 

 which they fall; that while no individual ray, 

 but the whole of the primary colors, reflected 

 and emitted to our organs of sense, are abso- 

 lutely necessary in order to exhibit the color 

 of WHITE ; so, on the contrary, it is sup- 

 posed, that when the whole of the incident 

 rays are absorbed, and suffocated in the 

 body on which they fall, they are reflected. 



