Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours (1664) by Robert Boyle
page 77 of 285 (27%)
page 77 of 285 (27%)
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Light was truly Modify'd by the Refraction and Reflection it Suffer'd in
its Trajection through the Prism; and the Object in our case serv'd for a Specular Body, to Reflect that Colour to the Eye. And that you may not be Startled, _Pyrophilus_, that I should Venture to say, that a Rough and Coiour'd Object may serve for a _Speculum_ to Reflect the Artificial Rain-bow I have been mentioning, consider what usually happens in Darkned Rooms, where a Wall, or other Body conveniently Situated within, may so Reflect the Colours of Bodies, without the Room, that they may very clearly be Discern'd and Distinguish'd, and yet 'tis taken for granted, that the Colours seen in a Darkned Room, though they leave no Traces of themselves upon the Wall or Body that Receives them, are the True Colours of the External Objects, together with which the Colours of the Images are Mov'd or do Rest. And the Errour is not in the Eye, whose Office is only to perceive the Appearances of things, and which does Truly so, but in the Judging or Estimative faculty, which Mistakingly concludes that Colour to belong to the Wall, which does indeed belong to the Object, because the Wall is that from whence the Beams of Light that carry the Visible _Species_, do come in Straight Lines directly to the Eye, as for the same Reason we are wont at a certain Distance from Concave Sphærical Glasses, to perswade our Selves that we see the Image come forth to Meet us, and Hang in the Air betwixt the Glass and Us, because the Reflected Beams that Compose the image cross in that place, where the Image seems to be, and thence, and not from the Glass, do in Direct Lines take their Course to the Eye, and upon the like Cause it is, that divers Deceptions in Sounds and other Sensible Objects do depend, as we elsewhere declare. 5. I know not, whether I need add, that I have purposely Try'd, (as you'l find some Pages hence, and will perhaps think somewhat strange) that Colours that are call'd Emphatical, because not Inherent in, the Bodies in which they Appear, may be Compounded with one another, as those that are |
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