Physiologia Epicuro-Gassendo-Charltoniana, or, A fabrick of science natural, upon the hypothesis of atoms founded by Epicurus repaired [by] Petrus Gassendus ; augmented [by] Walter Charleton ...

SECT. II.

* 1.1HAving thus recited, explicated, and espoused the Conceptions of Epicurus, of the Creation of Colours; it behoves us to advance to the Examination of its Consistency with right reason, not only in its General capacity, but deduction and accommodation to Particu∣lars.

But, First, to praevent the excess of your wonder, at that so Paradoxi∣cal assertion of his, That there are no Colours in the dark, or that all colours vanish upon the Amotion or defection of Light; we are to ob∣serve that it is one thing to be Actually Colorate, and another to be only Potentially, or to have a Disposition to exhibit this or that particular Colour, upon the access of the Producent, Light. For, as the several Pipes in an Organ, though in themselves all aequally Insonorous, or de∣stitute of sound, have yet an equal Disposition, in respect of their Figura∣tion, to yield a sound, upon the inflation of Wind from the Bellows; and as the seeds of Tulips, in Winter, are all equally Exflorous, or destitute of Flowers, but yet contain, in their seminal Virtues, a Capacity or Disposition to emit various coloured flowers, upon the access of fructify∣ing heat and moysture, in the Spring: so likewise may all Bodies, though we allow them to be actually Excolor, in the Dark, yet retain a Capacity, whereby each one, upon the access and sollicita∣tion of Light, may appear clad in this or that particular Colour, re∣spective to the determinate Ordination and Position of its superficial particles.

* 1.2To inculcate this yet farther, we desire you to take a yard of Scar∣let Cloth, and having extended it in an uniform light, observe most exactly the Colour, which in all parts it bears. Then extend one half thereof in a primary light, i. e. the immediately incident, or direct rayes of the Sun; and the other in a secondary, or once reflected light: and then, though perhaps, through the praeoccupation of your judg∣ment, you may apprehend it to be all of one colour; yet if you en∣gage a skilful Painter to pourtray it to the life, as it is then posited, He must represent the Directly illuminate half, with one Colour, viz. a bright and lightsome Red, and the Reflexly illuminate half, with ano∣ther, i. e. with a Duskish or more obscure Red; or shamefully betray his ignorance of Albert Durers excellent Rules of shadowing, and fall much short of your Expectation. This done, gently move the exten∣ded Cloth through various degrees of Light and shadow: and you shall confess the Colour thereof to be varied upon each remove; respondent to the degree of Light striking thereupon. Afterward, fold the Cloth, as Boyes do paper for Lanterns, or lay it in waves or pleights of dif∣ferent magnitude; and you shall admire the variety of Colours apparent thereon: the l••minent and directly illustrate parts projecting a lively C••••nation, the Lateral and averted yeilding an obscure sanguine, clouded with Murrey, and the Profound or unillustrate putting on so perfect

sables, as no colour drawn on a picture can counterfeit it to the life, but the deadest Black. Your Sense thus satisfied, be pleased to exercise your Reason a while with the same Example; and demand of your self, Whether any one of all those different Colours can be really inhaerent in the Cloth? If you pitch upon the Scarlet, as the most likely and proper; then must you either confess that Colour not to be really inhaerent, since it may, in less than a moment, be varied into sables, only by an interception of Light: or admit that all the other Colours exhibited, are aequally inhaerent; which is more, we praesume, then you will easily allow. And, therefore, you may attain more of satisfaction, by con∣cluding, that indeed no one of all those Colours is really so inhaerent in the cloth, as to remain the same in the absence of Light; but, that the superficial particles of the Cloth have inhaerent in them (ratione Figurae, Coordinationis & Positus) such a Disposition, as that in one de∣gree of Light it must present to the eye such a particular colour; in ano∣ther degree, a second gradually different from that; in another, a third discriminate from both, until it arrive at perfect obscurity, or Black.

And, if your Assent hereto be obstructed by this DOUBT,* 1.3 Why that Cloth doth most constantly appear Red, rather then Green, Blew, Willow, &c. you may easily expede it, by admitting, that the Reason consisteth only herein, that the Cloth is tincted in a certain Liquor, whose minute Particles are, by reason of their Figure, Ordination and Dispositi∣on, comparate or adapted to Refract and Reflect the incident rayes of Light, in such a manner, temperation, or modification, as must present to the eye, the species of such a Colour, viz. Scarlet, rather then a Green, Blew, Willow, or any other. For, every man well knows, that in the Liquor, or Tincture, wherein the Cloth was dyed, there were several in∣gredients dissolved into minute p••rticles; and that there is no one Hair, or rather no sensible part in the superfice thereof, whereunto Myriads of those dissolved particles do not constantly adhere, being agglutinated by those Fixative Salts, such as Sal Gemmae, Alum, calcined Talk, Alablaster, Sal Armoniack, &c. wherewith Dyers use to graduate and engrain their Tinctures. And, therefore of pure necessity it must be, that, according to the determinate Figures and Contexture of those adhaerent Granules, to the villous particles in the superfice of the Cloth, such a determinate Re∣fraction and Reflection of the rayes of Light should be caused; and conse∣quently such a determinate species of Colour, and no other, result there∣from.

Now, insomuch,* 1.4 as it is demonstrated by Sense that one and the same su∣perfice doth shift it self into various Colours, according to its position in various degrees of Light and Shadow, and the various Angles, in which it reflecteth the incident rayes of Light, respective to the Eye of the Spe∣ctator; and justly inferrible from thence by Reason, that no one of those Colours can be said to be more really inhaerent than other therein, all be∣ing equally produced by Light and Shadow gradually intermixt, and each one by a determinate Modification thereof: What can remain to interdict our total Explosion of that Distinction of Colours into Real or Inhaerent, and False, or only ••pparent, so much celebrated by the Schools? For, since it is the Genuine and Inseparable Propriety of Colours, in General,

to be Apparent; ••o suppose that any Colour Apparent can be False, or less Real than other, is an open Contradiction, not to be dissembled by the most specious Sophistry; as Des Cartes hath well observed (in Meteor. cap. 8. art. 8.). Besides, as for those Evanid Colours, which they call 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, meerly Apparent ones, such as those in the Rainbow, Parheliaes, Paraselens, the trains of Peacocks, necks of Doves, Mallards, &c. we are not to account them Evanid, because they are not True: but, because the Disposition of those superficial particles in the Clouds, and Feathers, that is necessary to the Causation of them, is not Constant, but most easily mu∣table; in respect whereof those Colours are no more permanent in them, than those in the Scarlet cloth, upon the various position, extension, plication thereof. And Charity would not dispense, should we suppose any man so obnoxious to absurdity, as to admit, that the greater or less Duration of a thing doth alter the Nature of it. Grant we, for Example, that the particles of Water constituting the rorid Cloud, wherein the Rainbow shews it self, were so constant in that determinate position and mutuall coordination, as constantly to refract and reflect the incident beams of the Sun, in one and the same manner; and then we must also grant, that they would as constantly exhibite the same Species of Colours, as a R••inbow painted on a table: but, because they are not, and so cannot constantly refract and reflect the irradiating light, in one and the same manner; it is repugnant to reason, thereupon to con∣clude, that the Instability of the Colours doth detract from the Verity, or Reality of their Nature. For, it is only Accidental, or Unessential to them either to be varied, or totally disappear. So that, if you admit that Sea Green observed in the Rainbow, to be less True, than the Green of an Herb, because its Duration is scarce momentany in comparison of that in the Herb▪ you must also admit that Green in the Herb, which in a short progress of time degenerates into an obscure yellow, to be less true, than that of an Emrauld, because its Duration is scarce momentany, in comparison of th•••• of the Emrauld.

* 1.5But, perhaps▪ Praejudice makes you yet inflexible, and therefore you'l farther urge; th••t the Difficulty doth cheifly concern those Evanid Colours, which ••••e appinged on Bodies, reflecting light, by Prisms or Triangular Glasse••, vulgarly called Fools Paradises: because these seem to have the least of Reality, among all other reputed meerly Apparent. And, in case y•••• assault us with this your last Reserve; we shall not desert our station, for want of strength to maintain it. For, that those Colours are as Real, as any other the most Durable, is evident even from hence; that they have the very same Materials with all o∣ther, i. e. they are the substance of Light it self reflected from those ob∣jected Bodies, ••nd (what happens not to those eyes, that speculate them without a Prism) twice refracted.

Experience d••monstrates, that if a man look intently upon a po∣lite Globe, in ••hat part of it superfice, from which the incident Light is reflecte••▪ in direct lines toward his eye; He shall perceive it to appear clad in another Colour, than when He looks upon it from any other part of the Medium, toward which the Light is not re∣flected: and 〈…〉〈…〉 He have no reason, why He should not account both those Dif••••••ent Colours to be True▪ the Reflection of light,

which varieth the Apparition according to the various Position of the eye in several parts of the Medium, nothing diminishing their Verity. If so, why should not those Colours created by the Prism, be also re∣puted Real; the Refraction of Light, which exhibiteth other Colours in the objected Bodies, than appear in them without that Refraction, no∣thing diminishing their Reality?

By way of COROLLARY, let us here observe;* 1.6 that the Colours created by Light, reflected from objects on the Prism, and therein twice refracted, are Geminated on both sides thereof. For, insomuch as those Colours are not appinged but on the Extremes of the Object, or where the sup••rfice is unequal (for if that be Plane and Smooth, it ad∣mits only an Uniform Colour, and the same that appears thereon, when beheld without the Prism): therefore are two Colours alwayes obser∣ved in that Extreme of the Object, which respecteth the Base of the Tri∣angle in the Glass, and those are a Vermillion and a Yellow; and two other Colours in that extreme, which respecteth the Top of the Triangle, and those are a Violet blew, and a Grass green. And hence comes it, that if the Latitude of the Superfice be so small, as that the extremes ap∣proach each other sufficiently near; then are the two innermost Co∣lours, the Yellow and Green connected in the middle of the Super∣fice, and all the four Colours constantly observe this order, beginning from the Base of the Triangle; a Vermillion, Yellow, Green, and Violet, beside the inassignable variety of other Intermediate Colours, about the Borders and Commissures. We say, Beginning from the Base of the Triangle; because, which way soever you convert the Prism, whe∣ther upward or downward, to the right or to the left, yet still shall the four Colours distinguishably succeed each other in the same method, from the Base: however all the rayes of Light reflected from the object on the Prism, and trajected through it, are carried on in lines parallel to the Base, after their incidence on one side thereof, with the obliquity or inclination of near upon thirty degrees, and Refraction therein to an Angle of the same dimensions; that issuing forth on the other side, they are again Refracted in an An∣gle of near upon 30 degrees, and with the like obliquity, or inclination.

These Reasons equitably valued, it is purely Consequent,* 1.7 that no other Difference ought to be allowed between these Emphatick, or (as the Peri∣patetick.) False Colours, and the Durable or True ones, than only this; that the Apparent deduce their Creation, for the most part, from Light Re∣fracted in Diaphanous Bodies, respectively Figurated, and Disposed, and sometimes from light only reflected: but, the Inhaerent, or True (as they call them) deduce theirs from Light variously Reflexed in opace bodies, whose superficial particles, or Extancies and Cavities are of this or that Figure, Ordination, and Disposition.

Not that we admit the Durable Colours, no more than the Evanid,* 1.8 to be Formally (as the Schools affirm) Inhaerent in Opace bodies, whose superficial Particles are determinately configurate and disposed to the production of this or that particular species of colou••••, and no other: but only Materially, or Effectively. For, the several species of Colours depend on the several Manners, in which the minute particles

of Light strike upon and affect the Retina Tunica; and therefore are we to conceive, that op••••e Bodies, reflecting Light, do create Colours only by a certain Modification or Temperation of the reflected light, and respondent Impression thereof on the Sensory: no otherwise than as a Needle which though it contain not in it self the Formal Reason of Pain, doth yet Ma∣terially, or Effectively produce it, when thrust into the skin of an Animal; for, by reason o•• its Motion, Hardness, and Acuteness, it causeth a dolorous sensation in the part perforated.

* 1.9To diminish t•••• Difficulty yet more, we are to recognize; th••t the First Matter, or Catholique Principles of all Material Natures, are absolutely de∣voyd of all Sensible Qualities; and that the Qualities of Concretions, such as Colour, Sound, Odour, Sapor, Heat, Cold, Humidity, Siccity, Asperity, Smoothness, Ha••dness, Softness, &c. are really nothing else but various MODIFICATIONS of the insensible particles of the First Matter, rela∣tive to the va••ious Organs of the Senses. For, since the Org••ns of the Sight, Hearing, ••asting, Smelling, and Touching, have each a peculiar Contexture of the insensible particles that compose them; requisite it is, that in Concretions there should be various sorts of Atoms, some of such a special Magni••••••••, Figure and Motion, as that falling into the Eye, they may conveniently move or affect the Principal Sensory, and therein produce a sensation of themselves; and that either Grateful or Ingratefull, according as they are Commodious or Incommodious to the small Receptaries thereof (for the Gratefulness or Ingratefulness of Colours ariseth from the Congruity or Incongruity of the particles of the Visible Species, to the Receptaries or sm••ll Pores in the Retina Tunica): Some, in like m••nner, that may be conv••nient to the Organ of Hearing; Others to that of smel∣ling, &c. So that, though Atoms of all sorts of Magnitude, Figure and Motion contexed into most minute Masses, arrive at all the Organs of Sense; yet may the Eye only be sensible of Colour, the Ear of Sound, the Nostrils of Odour, &c. Again, that Colour, Sound, Odour, and all other sensible Qualities, are 〈◊〉〈◊〉 according to the various situation, order, addition, de∣traction, transposition of Atoms; in the same manner as Words, whereof an almost infinite ••ariety may be composed of no more then 24 Letters, by their various sit••••tion, order, addition, detraction, transposition; as we have more cop••••••sly discoursed, in our precedent Original of Qua∣lities.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Art. 1. A PARADOX That there are no Colours in the Dark.
• * 1.2

  Art. 2. A familiar Ex∣periment, atte∣sting the Veri∣ty thereof.
• * 1.3

  Art. 3. The Constan∣cy of all Arti∣ficial Tin∣ctures, depen∣dent on the constancy of Disposition in the superficial Particles of the Bodies that wear them.
• * 1.4

  Art. 4. That s•• gene∣rally magnif••∣ed Distinction of Colors into Inh••rent, and meerly Ap∣parent; redar∣gued of mani∣fe••t C••ntrad••∣ction.
• * 1.5

  Art. 5. The Emphat••∣••al, or Evan••d Colo••rs, crea∣ted by 〈◊〉〈◊〉; n•• less R••al & 〈◊〉〈◊〉, than the ••ost 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Ti••ctures.
• * 1.6

  Art. 6. COROLLA∣RY.

  The Reasons of Emphatical Colours, ap∣pinged on Bo∣dies objected, by a Prism.
• * 1.7

  Art. 7. The true Dif∣ference of Em∣phatical and Durable Co∣lour••▪ 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.8

  Art. 8. No Colour Formally in••••e∣rent in ob∣jects▪ but on∣l•• 〈◊〉〈◊〉▪ or 〈◊〉〈◊〉 c••••••rary to the constant 〈…〉〈…〉.
• * 1.9

  Art. 9. 〈…〉〈…〉 ••ar∣ther▪ ••indi••a∣ted from Diffi¦culty, by the 〈…〉〈…〉 pra••ce∣de•••• 〈…〉〈…〉 o•• the A••••∣mists.