it. And I shall _insert_ an _Essay_, as well Speculative as Historical, of
the Nature of Whiteness and Blackness, that you may have a _Specimen_ of
the History of Colours, I have sometimes had thoughts of; and if you
dislike not the Method I have made use of, I hope, you, and some of the
_Virtuosi_, your friends, may be thereby invited to go thorow with _Red,
Blew, Yellow_, and the rest of the particular Colours, as I have done with
_White_ and _Black_, but with farr more sagacity and success. And if I can
invite Ingenious men to undertake such Tasks, I doubt not but the Curious
will quickly obtain a better Account of Colours, than as yet we have, since
in our Method the Theorical part of the Enquiry being attended, and as it
were interwoven with the Historical, whatever becomes of the disputable
Conjectures, the Philosophy of Colours will be promoted by the indisputable
Experiments.

* * * * *

CHAP. II.

1 To come then in the first place to our more general Considerations, I
shall begin with saying something as to the Importance of examining the
Colours of Bodies. For there are some, especially _Chymists_, who think,
that a considerable diversity of Colours does constantly argue an equal
diversity of Nature, in the Bodies wherein it is conspicuous; but I confess
I am not altogether of their mind; for not to mention changeable Taffaties,
the blew and golden necks of Pidgeons, and divers Water-fowl, Rainbows
Natural and Artificial, and other Bodies, whose Colours the Philosophers
have been pleased to call not Real, but Apparent and Phantastical; not to
insist on these, I say, (for fear of needlesly engaging in a Controversie)
we see in Parrots, Goldfinches, and divers other Birds, not only that the
contiguous feathers which are probably as near in properties as place, are