LAW OF DISPERSION BY REFRACTION. 387 



Newton's interpretation of them so simple and 

 evident, that we might have expected it to receive 

 general assent; indeed, as we have shown, Descartes 

 had already been led very near the same point. In 

 fact, Newton's opinions were not long in obtaining 

 general acceptance; but they met with enough of 

 cavil and misapprehension to annoy extremely the 

 discoverer, whose clear views and quiet temper 

 made him impatient alike of stupidity and of con- 

 tentiousness. 



We need not dwell long on the early objections 

 which were made to Newton's doctrine. A Jesuit, 

 of the name of Ignatius Pardies, professor at Cler- 

 mont, at first attempted to account for the elonga- 

 tion of the image, by the difference of the angles 

 made by the rays from the two edges of the sun, 

 which would produce a difference in the amount of 

 refraction of the two borders ; but when Newton 

 pointed out the calculations which showed the in- 

 sufficiency of this explanation, he withdrew his 

 opposition. Another more pertinacious opponent 

 appeared in Francis Linus, a physician of Liege ; 

 who maintained, that having tried the experiment, 

 he found the sun's image, when the sky was clear, 

 to be round and not oblong; and he ascribed the 

 elongation noticed by Newton, to the effect of clouds. 

 Newton for some time refused to reply to this con- 

 tradiction of his assertions, though obstinately per- 

 sisted in ; and his answer was at last sent, just 

 about the time of Linus's death, in 1675. But Gas- 



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