STUDIES IN NATURE 



by our eyes, blend into a sort of chord of light 

 and produce the sensation which we call white. 

 This explanation not only agrees with the facts 

 we have given, but will help us to understand 

 many others, which have been studied by men 

 of science, and it is universally accepted as the 

 truth. 



We may now follow further our inquiry into 

 the colours of the natural objects which we see 

 around us. If we put a red glass in front of a 

 lamp, the light which comes through is red, not 

 because anything new has been added to the 

 white, but because all the colours of the rain- 

 bow other than red have been taken away 

 and absorbed by the glass. The violet, blue, 

 green, yellow, and orange cannot get through, 

 and we are left with the red rays only, which 

 pass freely through the glass and reach the eye. 

 At first sight this does not seem to help us in 

 understanding the colours of certain things, such 

 as grass, which we see, not by the light passing 

 through them, but by receiving light in the eye 

 which has been reflected or sent back from them. 

 But if we take a very thin layer of any of the 

 coloured things we have mentioned, such as a 

 thin strip torn from the petal of a rose, or from 

 a green leaf, we shall find that some light is 

 able to get through them. Even a substance 

 a close and thick as gold lets through a little 

 light when beaten out very thin. When light 

 falls on a coloured object, let us say a leaf, we 



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