Ver. 710. Secondly, He teaches in these fixteen verfes, that the atoms are not imbued with any colours, and that it would be to no purpose for any man to pretend they are, fince there is no neceffity they should be fo; for allow them a variety of figures, and from the different order, fite and difpofition of them, colours will proceed; for example, the fea is of a cerulean colour, but grows white by the agitation of the waves. Thus too the feeds, which difpofed in one manner, look blue when they are placed in another order, may put on and exhibit a white. But if a blue coour were innate, and naturally in the feeds, no pofition or agitation whatever could make thofe principles white.

Ver. 720. Ovid. Metam. xi. ver. 499. speaking of a tempeftuous fea :

-cum fulvas ex imo vertit arenas, Concolor eft illis; Stygia modo nigrior unda : ternitur interdum, fpumifque fonantibus albet.

When yellow fands are fifted from below,
The glitt'ring billows give a golden fhow:
And when the fouler bottom spews the black,
The Stygian dye the tainted waters take:
Then frothy white appear the flatted feas,
And change their colour, changing their disease.
Dryd.

Ver. 126. But fome perhaps will allege that the water of the fea is compofed of various coloured atoms, from whence proceeds that change of colours in the waves, now cerulean, now white, in like manner as a fquare is compofed of two or four triangles included in it; which triangles within themfelves have other figures. But the poet, in thele twelve verfes, tells us this is not the cale; for in the fquare you may fee the diffimilar Egures, without or exterior to which it is a fquare, that is to fay, you may fe the figures, which the fquare has and contains within it; but you can fee nothing like this in the water of the fea, that is, you can fee no mixed and different colours. And, therefore, the objection that fome Jerhaps might make, that white things do not proceed from white feeds, nor black from black; but white from black, and on the contrary, black from white, &c. is of no weight whateve.

Ver. 743. He urges this yet farther, in these fix verfes, and afferts, that they who pretend that one fimple colour may be made of feeds of feveral colours, forfake the former opinion, and over. throw the only reafon of their own. For they infift upon coloured feeds, that white bodies may proceed from white feeds, and black from black: but if either a black or a white colour should proceed from various coloured principles, the whole reafon of the argument they before infifted on is loft. Then he adds, that a white colour (and the fame may be faid of any other colour) will fooner proceed from feeds that have no colour at all, than from feeds imbued with a black or any o ther colour. Thus I explain this paffage, which none of the interpreters hitherto have rightly understood: and it may be observed, that the whole feries of the difputation confirms this interpreta-.

tion.

Ver. 749. In thefe fifteen verfes, Lucretius concludes, that the atoms are colourlefs, because colour is nothing but light refracted in a body, or reflected from the furface of an opacous body. The poet fays nothing of refracted light, but if you put to your eyes a prifm, or common threecornered piece of glafs, you will find that the rays of light, that fuffer a double refraction, prefent feveral colours to the fight. But he oblerves, that the feathers about a pigeon's neck, or in peacocks tails, as the rays of light frike directly or obliquely upon them, put on and diffufe now a yellow, now a green, now a flame, and feveral other colours. And hence he argues, that in dark places, where no rays of light enter, and out of which none are reflected, there is no fuch thing as colours; and therefore that colours, which appear in things when the light returns, are produced from the light itfelf, according to the difpofitions the things have to receive, reficct, refract, and convey it to the eyes. Therefore fince feeds never come into the light, or reflect any rays, they are altogether colourlefs, as much as if they were concealed and buried in utter darkness. Epicurus, in the fecond book againft Theophraftus fays: ἐκ εἶναι τὰ χρώματα συμφών τοῖς σώμασιν, ἀλλὰ γένεσθαι κατὰ ποίας τίνας ταξ c.s, xui Divers weòs rèv öqiv. And again : & oldes ὅπως δεν τὰ ἐν σκοτῶν ὄντα φῆσαι χρώματα έχειν, Plutarchus adverf. Colorem.

The difpute about colours is altogether difficult and various are the opinions concerning the caule and reafon of colour. Epicurus and Democritus, as Diogen. Lacrt. lib. x. fays, were of opinion, that colour is not actually in any thing; but the other philofophers afferted it to be really in things, yet with this difference, the Daj

the Pythagoreans did not diftinguish colour from the furface of bodies, nor the Stoics from the first figurations of matter, nor the Peripatetics from the perfpicuous bound of matter. Empedocles alone held colour to be a certain effluence from bodies, and Plato would have it to be a certain flame. This will help us to explain more clearly the opinion of Epicurus, who, as Plutarch fays, taught that colours are not inherent in bodies, and a part of them, but are produced according to certain orders and pofitions of the fight. Moreover, that by the word bodies, he did not mean the atoms, but the things and bodies of the things compofed of them, as the fame Plutarch witnesses. Therefore I interpret his colours not inhering to be colours not engendered with, or innate in things. For Epicurus held, that in the outmoft parts of things, or the furfaces of bodies, there is fuch a difpofition and order of the atoms, of which the things are compofed, as makes them exhibit and fhow forth certain colours, when the light comesto them; and that they emit out of themfelves certain atoms, which conftituting the image, of the thing feen, ftrike the ball of the eye in fuch a manner, order, and difpofition, that by certain ftrokes of the light, they are the cause that the things are feen in the eye itfelf. Nor would he allow any colour to be in his atoms, but taught that colours proceed from the various orders and pofitions of the atoms, when the light | comes to them. Thus too Lucretius fays, ver. 753. that there can be no colour in the dark: and, according to this doctrine, Virgil fings, Eneid vi. ver. 271.

-ubi cœlum condidit umbra Jupiter, et rebus nox abftulit atra colorem. This was the opinion of that philofopher. But the most probable opinion is, that colour is a certain power in bodies of affecting our organs after fuch or fuch a manner, whereby fuch or fuch a perception is excited and produced in the mind. This power is put into action by the intermediation of the rays of light, and confequently colour is but light reflected and modified; for when the rays of light are withdrawn, no colours are per ceptible. Colour fo far depends on the object feen, that, according to the different difpofition, connection, and fituation of the parts of bodies, the different reflections of the rays of light are produced; therefore, if the difpofition of the object be altered, the colour likewife will vary, becaufe the rays will not then be reflected in the fame manner as they were before. fal, when broken into fmall pieces, lofes its spicuous tranfparency, and becomes bright; and wood, though before white, grows black with burning. Befides, what reafons could be given for the various colours in clouds, which are foinetimes red, sometimes white; and to what can we attribute the gaudy diverfity of colours in the rainbow, but to the different modifications of the rays of light, according to the variations of the figures and motions of the particies of fuch bodies? Neither can any one juftly deny thefe to

Thus cry

per

be colours, fince colour is only fuch a power as is defcribed above; nor ought it to be alleged, that because fome colours are tranfitory and not permanent, they ought not really to be called colours, or at least, not without the addition of spu rious for it might with equal reason be afferted, that the fhort duration of the cause destroys the effect. Thus, a child that dies as foon as born, would not deferve the name; and the greennels of leaves might be faid to be no colour, because they fo foon fade and' wither. If this were allowed, there would be no colours in the world; for there are not any that are everlasting. The opinion of Ariftotle and his followers concerning colour is unfatisfactory for they define it thus: A fecond quality. fenfible to the fight, and produced from the tempering of the first qualities: But this definition leaves us ftill in the dark; for the queftion till remains, What this quality is? How it is produced? From what? When? Others define colour thus: " Perfpicui extremitas in corpore determinatio, feu extremitas perfpicui determinati." And the opinion of Plato, which I mentioned above, deferves to be tran fcribed at large. The paffage is in his Timæus, P. 342. Edit Lamatianæ, and contained in thefe words : Τέταρον δὴ λοιπὸν ἔτι γένος ἡμῖν αἰσθητικά, ὁ διεγέσθαι χρή, συχνὰ ἐν εαύτῳ ποικίλματα κινήμα μόνον ά ξυμπάντα μὲν χρωὰς ἐκαλέσαμεν φλόγα τῶν σωμάτων εκάτων ἀποῤῥέωσαν, όψει σύμμερα μόρια σχεσει gis alodnow where, in exprefs words, he calla colours flames, that is, light continually flowing from bodies. Moreover, if it be inquired how one object comes to be yellow, another green, a third red, &c. the answer is, That colours being only the mixture of light with darkness in the furface of opacous bodies, yellow, for example, is the mixture of light with a little darkneis, blue with a little more, red with more yet; fo that, as we faid before, colours are nothing but light variously reflected and fhadowed. Pindar, Ode vi. elegantly attributes to flowers, wa úgys ativas, purple beams: And Cowley had fomething like this in his mind, when he said: It cafts a dufky gloom o'er all the flowers, And with full beams their mingled light devours,

David. 2.

And in his Hymn to the Light he is entirely of this opinion:

All the world's bravery that delights our eyes,
Is but thy fev'ral liveries:

Thou the rich die on them beftow'ft;
Thy pencil paints this landskip as thou go'ft.
A crimson garment in the rofe thou wear'ft;
A crown of ftudded gold thou bear'st :
The virgin lilies in their white,
Are clad but with the lawn of almost naked light.
The violet, fpring's little infant, ftands
Girt in thy purple fwaddling bands:
On the fair tulip thou doft doat ;
Thou cloth'ft it with a gay and particolour'd coat.
Having given this fhort account of the feveral
opinions concerning the caufe of colour, I will

only add, that colours are generally divided into two forts, fimple and compound. The fimple are only the extremes, white and black, to which fome add yellow, blue, and red, which they call middle colours, as being of a middle constitution between white and black. The compound colours are those that are formed by the mixture of fome of the fimples; for example, the cinericean or afhcolour is a compofure of white and black; the gold colos, of yellow and red; the purple, of red and blue; the green, of yellow and blue; the livid, of red, yellow, and blue, &c. All which colours vary, according to the different mixture of falts with fulphurs, earth, &c. and where, the caput mortum" more or lefs abounds, there the mixture turns to a colour more or lefs dark, &c.

But to return to our author: Epicurus farther taught, that all things are not difpofed and ordered in a like manner, so as to exhibit the like colours, when the light comes to them; but that one thing has a different difpofition from another, which is the reason that it exhibits a different colour; as pipes utter feveral and different founds, when they receive the breath of him that plays upon them; or as different plants that have no flowers, yet put forth different flowers, according as they have different heat or moisture; moreover, fince it is manifest that the fame thing chan. ges and varies its colours according to the differeat degrees of light or fhade, as it happens in the feathers of pigeons. Epicurus, therefore, for this reafon, believed, that none of thofe different colours can be affumed or put on, so as to be faid to be in the things themfelves; and therefore that no colour is inherent in bodies.

Ver. 764. Another argument is contained in these feven verses. In the perception of every colour, the pupil or light of the eye is ftruck. But it receives one fort of ftroke when a white, another when a black, or any other colour offers itself to it. But what need have feeds of colours, that they may in various manners affect and strike the eye? Allow only that these principles are of different figures, and difpofed befides in different manners, and from thence will arife various images, by which they will variously ftrike the eyes, and ftir up different motions in the organs. For fight, according to Epicurus, is made diàr TWY ADÓRWY ÉS TÀr öfı ipclóriws. And from this doctrine of his, we may gather, that he held cach of the fenfes to be a certain touch, and that all fenfation is made by the incursion of the image out of the object into the organ of the fenfe, which is ftruck by it; but this image is nothing elfe but the atoms themselves, which come upon the fenfe in a different manner, according to their different pofition, order, figure, &c. Thus fight is made, when the atoms come from the object feen into the pupil of the eye, and move, and af. fet it according to their different pofition, order, figure, &c. But fince the perception of that image is different, according to the different motions or qualities of the atoms; hence it is that the atrokes which the apple of the eye receives,

come to be different; and this is the reafon it perceives different colours. But Aristotle taught, that the cause of fight proceeds from the quality of the things feen, which quality discovers and makes manifeft its power, and lays it open to the sense of fight. Plato and the Stoics are of another opi nion, nor do they agree among themselves. See A. Gell. lib. v. c. 15.

Ver. 771. In these fix verses, he adds another argument, taken partly from the confeffion of those against whom he difputes, and partly from the conftancy of the colours that appear in the different kinds of things. They, fays he, who imagine that feeds have colours, do not afcribe any certain colours to any certain figures, nor af. firm that feeds of fuch a figure are of fuch a colour for inftance, they do not pretend that all quadrangular feeds are black, nor that the round are white, the triangular blue, &c. Whence then proceeds this conftancy of colour in some kinds of things? Why are all crows black? Why all fwans white? We fhould certainly fee both fwans and crows of various colours, if the feeds of which they are compofed were ftained with various dyes.

Ver. 777. In thefe eight verfes, he argues yet farther, and fays: Divide any coloured body, and the smaller the particles are made, the weaker grow the colours; nay, they will at length be quite loft, and vanish away even while the particles ftill remain vifible to the eye. We are therefore much in the wrong to expect colour in the principles of things, which we cannot find in the minutest parts of bodies.

Ver. 785. In these ten verses, he preffes hard on his adversaries. All men grant, fays he, that the bodies which the noftrils cannot fmell, are inodorous, and that they which the ear cannot hear have no found. Then why muft it not be granted, in like manner, that the bodies which the eyes cannot perceive, are void of colours? For the fenfes are the fole judges of the qualities of things, nor ought we to believe that any quality can belong to a body which the fenfes do not afcribe to it.

And fince there are bodies that want fonie certain qualities, why may not the atoms in like manner want colour, fenfibility, cold, dry. nefs, &c.

Ver. 795. Enough of colours. He now demonftrates, in thefe twenty verfes, that the atome are deftitute of all other qualities likewife, as fmell, cold, heat, found, humidity, taste, softness, flexibility, rareness, &c. To prove which he brings three arguments: Firft, If you allow smell to the atoms, you will confound all things: the most delightful fragrancy of the feeds must be lost by the intervening of the unfavoury ftenches of other feeds; and as when artifts compofe effences of rich perfumes, unless they make use of inodorous oil, that has no fcent at all, the oil will corrupt their sweetest odours; we may conclude the fame likewife of tafte, found, heat, cold, &c. The feeds cannot be divided, and therefore cannot exhale either odours, or found, or heat, or tafie, or cold, which confift of particles that are Dd iiij

emitted and flow from bodies. Third, If you afcribe to atoms, foftnefs, flexibility, rarenefs, brittleness, &c. you will at the fame time make them mutable, therefore obnoxious to diffolution, and confequently all things muft fall into nothing.

Thus we allow that Lucretius has convincingly performed his defign of freeing his atoms from all fenfible qualities: and indeed he is of late teconded by fo many experiments of the late philofopher Boyle, that it is now paft all doubt. And if we can believe our fenfes, we muft forfake forms and qualities, and allow what we formerly called fuch to be only phantafms arising from the ftroke of external bodies on our organs.

Ver. 815. Having proved that the feeds of things are void of heat, cold, smell, tafte, colour, and all other fenfible qualities, and having afferted, that hot, cold, favoury, odorous, &c. things are nevertheless made of them, he now undertakes a greater task, and teaches, that things of fenfe can fpring from fenfelefs feeds, and that there is no need of any fuperior principle to matter, but a fit combination of atoms can think, will, and remember. To prove this, he appeals first to experience: Worms, fays he, are bred from a rotten dunghill, in which it would be in vain to fearch for any life or feufe. This argument is contained in nine verses.

Ver. 820. Thus bees too are produced from the bowels of a fuffocated and putrified heifer, as Virgil fays, Georg iv. and Ovid. xv. Metani. & Faft. i.

fervent examina putri

De bove; mille animas una necata dedit.

And Diodorus Siculus, in the beginning of his first books, fays, That in the country about Thebes, at certain featons of the year, large nice. that devoured every thing, were bred out of the clods of the earth. Athenæus, in his eighth book, chap. 2. reports, that in Paonia and Dardanium (now called Bulgaria), there rained down to many frogs from heaven (that is, perhaps they were fuddenly produced after great showers), that they filled all the public ways, and fwarmed even in the private houses, infon uch that their domeftic furniture was covered with them; that they found them even in the very pots where they boiled their meat; and that, what with the trouble of the living, and stench of the dead ones, the inhabitants were forced at length to fortake their country. And Plny, in his eighth book, ch. 29. reports, that a whole city in Gallia and another in Afric, were driven away, the firft by frogs, the other by locufts, which had been bred in like manner. And many examples of this kind might be collected in profane hiftories, not to mention these we find in the facred writers. Ovid defcribes this production of animals from the putrid and fermenting flime of the river Nile:

Sic ubi deferuit madidos feptemfluus agros
Nilus, et antiquo fua flumina reddidit alveo,

Æthereoque recens exarfit fydere limus; Plurima cultores verfis animalia glebis [ipfum Inveniunt, et in his quædam modo cæpta fub Nafcendi fpatium quædam imperfecta, fuifque Trunca vident numeris: et eodem in corpore fæpe

Altera pars vivit, rudis eft pars altera tellus.
Metam. lib. i. v. 422.

Which Dryden thus interprets :
Thus when the Nile from Pharian fields is fled,
And feeks with ebbing tides his ancient bed:
The fat manure with heav'nly fire is warm'd,
And crufted creatures as in wombs are form'd:
Thefe, when they turn the glebe the peasants find,
Some rude and yet unfinish'd in their kind:
One half alive, and one of lifeless earth.
Short of their limbs, a lame imperfect birth,

Ver. 824. Neither does he, to confirm this affertion, propofe an example only in the generation of worms and animals, but in thofe already generated. Thus, in these twelve verfes he tells us, that the food that is taken into the body of ani mals, from inanimate, as it was before, becomes animated. Beafts and birds, which are things of fenfe, are nourished with infenfible food, as grafs, leaves, &c. Mankind feeds upon birds and beats; and thus men are at length composed of the infen. fible particles of grafs, leaves, &c. He then illuf trates this opinion with a very proper fimilitude, Dry wood is refolved into fire and flame; but infenfible nourishment is not more different from living and fenfible flesh, than dull wood from clear and fhining fire and flame. And as from the wood must be extricated some particles, which by ftirring up, and difentangling themselves from their former pofition, and then difpofing themfelves in a new order, may be endowed with that new power of fhining and warming: fo from the meat must be feparated the fpirituous particles, which, by being extracted in a certain manner, and difpofed in a new, may obtain this energy of fenfibility. For the procreation of sense, or of a fenfible thing from infenfible principles, is owing to tion, order and motion of thofe principles. the certain ard peculiar magnitude, figure, pofi

Ver. 836. But left experience itself should be from experience, he owns in these twenty verles, thought to contradict the arguments he has brought

that he cannot deny that wood, ftone, and earth mixed together, do fometimes remain infenfible; otherwife we fhould fee living houfes, and fenfible

towers

things, unless they have a certain figure and meg nitude, unless they be agitated in a due motion, and difpofed in a certain order, never compofe fenfible things. But let all things neceffary and requifite be allowed them, and then an animal will be produced from the most infenfible of ail things. For let wood putrify, or earth grow rotten with constant flowers, and you will foon be hold a numerous train of animals fpring from that putrified wood and rotten earth.

He therefore confeffes, that infenfible

Ver. 856. Thefe five verfes contain another ar gument to this effect. If the principles of which