Page:Micrographia - or some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses with observations and inquiries thereupon.djvu/122

Rh in them. And here I shall endeavour to shew by what composition all kind of compound colours are made, and how there is no colour in the world but may be made from the various degrees of these two colours, together with the intermixtures of Black and White

And this being so, as I shall anon shew, it seems an evident argument to me, that all colours whatsoever, whether in fluid or solid, whether in very transparent or seemingly opacous, have the same efficient cause, to wit, some kind of refraction whereby the Rays that proceed from such bodies, have their pulse obliquated or confus'd in the manner I explicated in the former Section; that is, a Red is caus'd by a duplicated or confus'd pulse, whose strongest pulse precedes, and a weaker follows: and a Blue is caus'd by a confus'd pulse, where the weaker pulse precedes, and the stronger follows. And according as these are, more or less, or variously mixt and compounded, so are the sensations, and consequently the phantasms of colours diversified.

To proceed therefore; I suppose, that all transparent colour'd bodies, whether fluid or solid, do consist at least of two parts, or two kinds of substances, the one of a substance of a somewhat differing refraction from the other. That one of these substances which may be call'd the tinging substance, does consist of distinct parts, or particles of a determinate bigness which are disseminated, or dispers'd all over the other: That these particles, if the body be equally and uniformly colour'd, are evenly rang'd and dispers'd over the other contiguous body; That where the body is deepest ting'd, there these particles are rang'd thickest, and where 'tis but faintly ting'd, they are rang'd much thinner, but uniformly. That by the mixture of another body that unites with either of these, which has a differing refraction from either of the other, quite differing effects will be produc'd, that is, the consecutions of the confus'd pulses will be much of another kind, and consequently produce other sensations and phantasms of colours, and from a Red may turn to a Blue, or from a Blue to a Red, &c.

Now, that this may be the better understood, I shall endeavour to explain my meaning a little more sensible by a Scheme: Suppose we therefore in the seventh Figure of the sixth Scheme, that A B C D represents a Vessel holding a ting'd liquor, let I I I I I, &c. be the clear liquor, and let the tinging body that is mixt with it be E E, &c. F F, &c. G G, &c. H H, &c. whose particles (whether round, or some other determinate Figure is little to our purpose) are first of a determinate and equal bulk. Next, they are rang'd into the form of Quincunx, or Equilaterotriangular order, which that probably they are so, and why they are so, I shall elsewhere endeavour to shew. Thirdly, they are of such a nature, as does either more easily or more difficultly transmit the Rays of light then the liquor; if more easily, a Blue is generated, and if more difficultly, a Red or Scarlet.

And first, let us suppose the tinging particles to be of a substance that does more impede the Rays of light, we shall find that the pulse or wave of light mov'd from A D to B C, will proceed on, through the containing medium by the pulses or waves K K, L L, M M, N N, O O; but Rh