828 COLORIFICATION IN GEKERA5L, 



and refracted within it, instead of being reflected 

 out of it; and that the color of black is thus pro- 

 duced. Great as the authority may be, from 

 whence these opinions are derived, they appear to 

 be contradicted by the different qualities of color, 

 which every individual substance seems to pos* 

 sess. If the assertion were true, that the color 

 of a body altogether depends on the reflection 

 of particular rays, and the absorption of the 

 rest , if a body be green, because it reflects the 

 green rays, but absorbs the rest, if a body 

 be red, because it reflects the red rays, but ab- 

 sorbs the rest; it must, evidently, follow from 

 these assumptions^ that the body which we 

 suppose to be red or green, is, ipso facto, in- 

 herently and absolutely of every other color, 

 but red and green. 



We must conclude from thence that the body 

 which we call WHITE, because it reflects all the 

 rays and absorbs none, is destitute of color alto- 

 gether; and, on the contrary, that thebody which 

 is knownby thename of BLACK, becauseit absorbs 

 all the rays and reflects none, is absolutely and 

 inherently of every color but a black one. Ab* 

 sorbing all the rays and reflecting none, as the 

 black body is supposed actually to do, it 

 is impossible that any knowledge could be 

 obtained by the eye, of the figure and color 

 of the body in which all the colors were im- 



