their discoverys rather admir'd than understood and for my part I had much rather deserve the thanks of the Ingenious than enjoy the Applause of the Ignorant And if I can so farr contribute to the discovery of the nature of Colours as to help the Curious to it I shall have reach'd my End and sav'd my self some Labour which else I may chance be tempted to undergo in prosecuting that subject and adding to this Treatise which I therefore call a History because it chiefly contains matters of fact and which History the Title declares me to look upon but as Begun Because though that above a hundred not to say a hundred and fifty Experiments some loose and others interwoven amongst the discourses them selves may suffice to give a Beginning to a History not hitherto that I know begun by any yet the subject is so fruitfull and so worthy that those that are Curious of these Matters will be farr more wanting to themselves than I can suspect if what I now publish prove any more than a Beginning For as I hope my End avours may afford them some assistance towards this work so those Endeavours aremuch too Vnfinish'd to give them any discouragement as if there were little left for others to do towards the History of Colours For first I have been willing to leave unmention'd the most part of those Phaenomena of Colours that Nature presents us of her own accord that is without being guided or over-ruld by man such as the different Colours that several sorts of Fruites pass through before they are perfectly ripe and those that appear upon the fading of flowers and leaves and the putrifaction and it s several degrees of fruits c. together with a thousand other obvious Instances of the changes of colours Nor have I much medled with those familiar Phaenomena wherein man is not an Idle spectator such as the Greenness produc'd by salt in Beef much powder'd and the Redness produc'd in the shells of Lobsters upon the boyling of those fisles For I was willing to leave the gathering of Observations to those that have not the Opportunity to make Expements And for the same Reasons among others I did purposly omit the Lucriferous practise of Trades-men about colours as the ways of making Pigments of Bleanching wax of dying Scarlet c. though to divers of them I be not a stranger and of some I have myself made Tryall Next I did purposely pass by divers Experiments of other Writers that I had made Tryall of and that not without registring some of their Events unless I could some way or other improve them because I wanted leasure to insert them and had thoughts of prosecuting the work once begun of laying together those I had examin'd by themselves in case of my not being prevented by others diligence So that there remains not a little among the things that are already published to imploy those that have a mind to exercise themselves in repeating and examining them And I will not undertake that none of the things deliver'd ev'n in this Treatise though never so faithfully set down may not prove to be thus farr of this Sort as to afford the Curious somewhat to add about them For I remember that I have somewhere in the Book itself acknowledged that having written it by snatches partly in the Countrey and partly at unseasonable times of the year when the want of fit Instruments and of a competent variety of flowers salts Pigments and other materials made me leave some of the following Experiments especialy those about Emphatical Colours far more unfinishd than they should have been if it had been as easie for me to supply what was wanting to compleat them as to discern Thirdly to avoyd discouraging the young Gentleman I call Pyrophilus whom the less Familiar and more Laborious operations of Chymistry would probably have frighted I purposely declin'd in what I writ to him the setting down any Number of such Chymicall Experiments as by being very elaborate or tedious would either require much skill or exercise his patience And yet that this sort of Experiments is exceedingly Numerous and might more than a little inrich the History of Colours those that are vers'd in Chymical processes will I presume easily allow me And Lastly for as much as I have occasion more than once in my several Writings to treat either porposely or incidentally of matters relating to Colours I did not perhaps conceive my self oblig'd to deliver in one Treatise all that I would say concerning that subject But to conclude by summing up what I would say concerning what I have and what I have not done in the following Papers I shall not on the one side deny that considering that I pretended not to write an accurate Treatise of Colours but an Occasional Essay to acquaint a private firiend with what then occurrd to me of the things I had thought or try'd concerning them I might presume I did enough for once if I did clearly and faithfully set down though not all the Experiments I could yet at least such a variety of them that an attentive Reader that shall consider the Grounds on which they have been made and the hints that are purposely though dispersedly couched in them may easily compound them and otherwise vary them so as very much to increase their Number And yet on the other side I am so sensible both of how much I have either out of necessity or choice left undone and of the fruitfullness of the subject I have begun to handle that though I had performed far more then 't is like many Readers will judge I have I should yet be very free to let them apply to my Attempts that of Seneca where having spoken of the Study of Natures Mysteries and Particularly of the Cause of Earth-Quakes he subjoins Nullares consummata est dum incipit Nec in hac tantum reomnium maxima ac involutissimâ in quâ etiam cum multum actum erit omnis aetas quod agat inveniet sed in omni alio Negotio longè semper à perfecto fuere Principia The Publisher to the READER Friendly Reader HEre is presented to thy view one of the Abstrusest as well as the Gentilest Subjects of Natural Philosophy the Experimentall History of Colours which though the Noble Author be pleased to think but Begun yet I must take leave to say that I think it so well begun that the work is more than half dispatcht Concerning which I cannot but give this advertisement to the Reader that I have heard the Author express himself that it would not surprise him if it should happen to be objected that some of these Experiments have been already published partly by Chymists and partly by two or three very fresh Writers upon other Subjects And though the number of these Experiments be but very small and though they be none of the considerablest yet it may on this occasion be further represented that it
is easie for our Author to name several men of whose number I can truly name my self who remember either their having seen him make or their having read his Accounts of the Experiments delivered in the following Tract several years since and long before the publication of the Books wherein they are mentioned Nay in divers passages where he could do it without any great inconvenience he hath struck out Experiments which he had tryed many years ago because he since found them divulged by persons from whom he had not the least hint of them which yet is not touched with design to reflect upon any Ingenious Man as if he were a Plagiary For though our Generous Author were not reserved enough in shewing his Experiments to those that expressed a Curiosity to see them amongst whom a very Learned Man hath been pleased publickly to acknowledge it several years ago yet the same thing may be well enough lighted on by persons that know nothing of one another And especially Chymical Laboratories may many times afford the same Phaenomenon about Colours to several persons at the same or differing times And as for the few Phaenomena mentioned in the same Chymical writers as well as in the following Treatise our Author hath given an account why he did not decline rejecting them in the Anotations upon the 47th Experiment of the third part Not here to mention what he elsewhere saith to shew what use may be Justifiably made of Eperiments not of his own devising by a writer of Natural History if what he employes of others mens be well examined or verified by himself In the mean time this Treatise is such that there needs no other invitation to peruse it but that t is composed by one of the Deepest Most indefatigable searchers of Nature which I think the World as far as I know it affords For mine own part I feel a secret Joy within me to see such beginings upon such Themes it being demonstratively true Mota facilius moveri which causeth me to entertain strong hopes that this Illustrious Virtuoso and Restless Inquirer into Nature's Secrets will not stop here but go on and prosper in the Disquisition of the other principal Colours Green Red and Yellow The Reasoning faculty set once a sloat will be carried on and that with ease especially when the productions thereof meet as they do here with so greedy an Entertainment at home and a broad I am confident that the ROYAL SOCIETY lately constituted by his MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY for improving Natural knowledge will Judge it their interest to exhort our Author to the prosecution of this Argument considering how much it is their design and business to accumulate a good stock of such accurate Observations and Experiments as may afford them and their Offpring genuine Matter to raise a Masculine Philosophy upon whereby the Mind of Man may be enobled with the Knowledge of solid Truths and the Life of Man benefited with ampler accommodations than it hath been hitherto Our Great Author one of the Pillars of that Illustrious Corporation is constantly furnishing large Symbola's to this work and is now falln as you see upon so comprehensive and important a theme as will if insisted on and compleated prove one of the considerablest peeces of that structure To which if he shall please to add his Treatise of Heat and Flame as he is ready to publish his Experimental Accounts of Cold I esteem the World will be obliged to Him for having shewed them both the Right and Left Hand of Nature and the Operations thereof The considering Reader will by this very Treatise see abundant cause to sollicit the Author for more sure I am that of whatever of the Productions of his Ingeny comes into Forein parts where I am happy in the acquaintance of many intelligent friends is highly valued And to my knowledge there are those among the French that have lately begun to learn English on purpose to enable themselves to read his Books being impatient of their Traduction into Latin If I durst say all I know of the Elogies received by me from abroad concerning Him I should perhaps make this Preamble too prolix and certainly offend the modesty of our Author Wherefore I shall leave this and conclude with desiring the Reader that if he meet with other faults besides those that the Errata take notice of as I believe he may he will please to consider both the weakness of the Authors eyes for not reviewing and the manifold Avocations of the Publisher for not doing his part who taketh his leave with inviting those that have also considered this Nice subject experimentally to follow the Example of our Noble Author and impart such and the like performances to the now very inquisitive world Farewell THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. THe Author shews the Reason first of his Writing on this Subject 1. Next of his present manner of Handling it and why he partly declines a Methodical way 2. and why he has partly made use of it in the History of Whiteness and Blackness 3. Chap. 2. Some general Considerations are premis'd first of the Insignificancy of the Observation of Colours in many Bodies 4 5. and the Importance of it in others 5. as particularly in the Tempering of Steel 6 7 8. The reason why other particular Instances are in that place omitted 9. A necessary distinction about Colour premis'd 10 11. That Colour is not Inherent in the Object 11. prov'd first by the Phantasms of Colours to Dreaming men and Lunaticks Secondly by the sensation or apparition of Light upon a Blow given the Eye or the Distemper of the Brain from internal Vapours 12. The Author recites a particular Instance in himself another that hapn'd to an Excellent Person related to him 13. and a third told him by an Ingenious Physician 14 15. Thirdly from the change of Colours made by the Sensory Disaffected 15 16. Some Instances of this are related by the Author observ'd in himself 16 17. others told him by a Lady of known Veracity 18. And others told him by a very Eminent Man 19. But the strange Instances afforded by such as are Bit by the Tarantula are omitted as more properly deliver'd in another place 20. Chap. 3. That the Colour of Bodies depends chiefly on the disposition of the Superficial parts and partly upon the Variety of the Texture of the Object 21. The former of these are confirm'd by several Persons 22. and two Instances the first of the Steel mention'd before the second of melted Lead 23 24. of which last several Observables are noted 25. A third Instance is added of the Porousness of the appearing smooth Surface of Cork 26 27. And that the same kind of Porousness may be also in the other Colour'd Bodies And of what kind of Figures the Superficial reflecting Particles of them may be 28. and of what Bulks and closeness of Position 29. How much these may conduce to the Generation of Colour
to think he had found in this Stone no slight Confirmation of his Ingenious Masters Hypothesis touching the Generation of Light in Sublunary Bodies not sensibly Hot. A Postscript Annexed some Hours after the Observations were Written SO many particulars taken notice of in one Night may make this Stone appear a kind of Prodigie and the rather because having try'd as I formerly noted not only a fine Artificial Crystal and some also that is Natural but a Ruby and two Diamonds I did not find that any of these disclos'd the like Glimmering of Light yet after all perceiving by the Hardness and the Testimony of a Skilfull Gold-smith that this was rather a Natural than Artificial Stone for fear lest there might be some difference in the way of Setting or in the shape of the Diamonds I made use of neither of which was like this a flat Table-stone I thought fit to make a farther Trial of my own Diamonds by such a brisk and assiduous Affriction as might make amends for the Disadvantages above-mention'd in case they were the cause of the unsuccessfulness of the former Attempts And accordingly I found that by this way I could easily bring a Diamond I wore on my Finger to disclose a Light that was sensible enough and continued so though I cover'd it with Spittle and us'd some other Trials about it And this will much lessen the wonder of all the formerly mention'd Observations by shewing that the properties that are so strange are not peculiar to one Diamond but may be found in others also and perhaps in divers other hard and Diaphanous Stones Yet I hope that what this Discovery takes away from the Wonder of these Observations it will add to the Instructiveness of them by affording pregnants Hints towards the Investigation of the Nature of Light FINIS L. Annae 1 Senecae Natur. Quest l. 6. c. 5. * He that desires more instances of this kind and matter that according to this doctrine may much help the Theory of colours and particularly the force both of Sulphureous and volatile as likewise of Alcalizate and Acid Salts and in what particulars Colours likely depend not in their causation from any Salt at all may beg his information from M. Boyle who hath some while since honoured me with the sight of his papers concerning this subject containing many excellent experiments made by him for the Elucidation of this doctrine c. Dr. R. Sharrock in his ingenious and usefull History of the Propagation and Improvement of Vegetables published in the yeare 1660. See the Discourse of the Nature of Whiteness and Blackness * Since for his eminent Qualities and Loyalty Grac'd by his Majesty with the Honour of Knighthood Exercitat 325. Parag. 4. Album quippe nigrum hoc quidem asperum esse dicit hoe vero laeve de Sensu 3. Sensil 3. Epist. 2. pag. 45. Gent. Septen Histor lib. 4. cap. 13. Hist Anatom Cent. 3. Hist 44. Olearius Voy. age de Mosco et de Perse liv 3. Piso Nat. Med. Hist de Brasil lib. in fine Purchas Pilgrim Second part Seventh Book 3. Chap. Sect. 5. Purchas Ibid. Purchas Ibid. in sin See Scaliger Exercit. 325. Sect. 9. Nicolaus Monardes lib. simplic ex India allator cap. 27. Kircher Art Mag. Ducis umbrae lib. 1. part 3. Herbarists are wont to call this Plant Cyanus vulgaris minor Paracelsus de Mineral tract 1. pag. m. 242. See Parkinson Th. Botan Trib. 9. cap. 26. Parkinson Thea Bot. Trib. 4. cap. 12. Beguinus Tyr. Chy. Lib. 2o. Cap. 13o. Libr. 2 â—o Cap. 340. See the latter end of the fiftieth Experiment * The Curious Reader that desires further Information concerning Lakes may Resort to the 7th Book of Neri's Art of Glass Englished 6 or 7 years since the Writing of this 49th Experiment and Illustrated with Learned Observations by the Inquisitive and Experienc'd Dr. Charles Merret Boetius de Boot Gem. Lapid Histor Lib. 2. Cap. 8. Musaei Wormiani Cap. 17. Purchas's Pilgrim lib. 1. cap. 4. pag. 104. In the year 1619. Behvonuâ—o Cellini nell Aree del Gioiellar's Lib. 1. pag. 10. * The Narrative in the Authors own words is this Ego sayes he sanctè affirmare possum me unam aureo Annulo inclusam perpetuo gestare cujus facultatem si gemmae est nunquam satis admirari potui Gestaverat enim ante Triginta annos Hispanus quidam non procula puternis aedibus habitans Is cum vitâ-functus esset ipsius suspellex ut moris apud nos est venum exposita esset inter caetera etiam Turcois exponebatur Verum nemo licet complures co concurrissent ut eam propter Coloris Elegantiam quam vivo Domino habuerat emerent sibi emptam voluit pristinum enim nitorem Colorem prorsus amiserat ut potius Malachites quam Turcois videretur Aderat tum temporis gemmae habendae desiderio etiam parens frater meus qui antea saepius gratiam elegantiam ipsius viderant mirabundi cam nunc tam esse deformem Emit cam nihilominus pater satisâ—â— vili pretio qua omnibus contemptui crat ac presentes non eam esse quam Hispanus gestaral arbitrarentur Domum reversus Pater qui tam turpem Gemmam gestare sibi indecorum putabat eam mihi dono dat inquiens Quandoquidem fili mi vulgi fama est Turcoidem ut facultates suas exercere possit dono dari debere tibi eam devoveo ego acceptam Gemmam Sculptori trado at gentilitia mea insignia illi quamadmodam fieri solet in Jaspide Chalcedonio aliisque Ignobilioribus Gemmis insculper l. Turpe enim existimabam hujusmodi Gemmâ ornatus gratia dum gratiam nullam haberet uti Paret Sculptor redditque Gemmam quam gesto pro annulo Signatorio Vix per mensem gestaram redit illi pristinus color sed non it a nitens propter Sculpturam ac inaequalem superficiem Miramur omnes gemmam atque id praecipuè quod color indies pulchrior fieret Id quià observabam nunquam fere â—am à manu deposui ita ut uunc adhuc candem gestem Olaus Wormius in Musae 18o. pag. 186. Musae Worm pag. 99. Arte Vetratia lib. 7. cap. 102. * These were brought in and Read before the Royal Society the Day following Oct. 28. 1663. The Stone it self being to be shown to the Royal Society when the Observations were deliver'd I was willing being in haste to omit the Description of it which is in short That it was a Flat or Table Diamond of about a third part of an Inch in length and somewhat less in breadth that it was a Dull Stone and of a very bad Water having in the Day time very little of the Vividness of ev'n ordinary Diamonds and being Blemished with a whitish Cloud about the middle of it which covered near a third part of the Stone Hast made me forget to take notice that I went abroad the same Morning the Sun shining forth clear enough to look upon the Diamond through a Microscope that I might try whether by that Magnifying Glass any thing of peculiar could be discern'd in the Texture of the Stone and especially of the whitish Cloud that possest a good part of it But for all my attention I could not discover any peculiarity worth mentioning V. For it drew light Bodies like Amber Jet and other Concretes that are noted to do so But its attractive power seem'd inferiour to theirs IX We durst not hold it in the Flame of a Candle no more than put it into a naked Fire For fear too Violent a Heat which has been observ'd to spoil many other precious Stones should vitiate and impair a Jewel that was but borrow'd and was suppos'd to be the only one of its Kind XV. We likewise Plung'd it as soon as we had excited it under Liquors of several sorts as Spirit of Wine Oyl both Chymical and express'd an Acid Spirit and as I remember an Alcalizate Solution and found not any of those various Liquors to destroy its Shining property XVI Having found by this Observation that a warm Liquor would not extinguish Light in the Diamond I thought fit to try whether by reason of its warmth it would not excite it and divers times I found that if it were kept therein till the Water had leisure to communicate some of its Heat to it it would often shine as soon as it was taken out and probably we should have seen it Shine more whilst it was in the Water if some degree of Opacity which heated Water is wont to acquire upon the score of the Numerous little Bubbles generated in it had not kept us from discerning the Lustre of the Stone * I after bethought my self of imploying a way which produc'd the desir'd Effect both sooner and better For holding betwixt my Fingers a Steel Bodkin near the Lower part of it I press'd the point hard against the Surface of the Diamond and much more if I struck the point against it the Coruscation would be extremely suddain and very Vivid though very Vanishing too and this way which commonly much surpris'd and pleas'd the Spectators seem'd far more proper than the other to show that pressure alone if forcible enough though it were so suddain and short that it could not well be suppos'd to give the Stone any thing near a sensible degree of Warmth as may be suspected of Rubbing yet 't is sufficient to generate a very Vivid Light We afterwards try'd precious Stones as Diamonds Rubies Saphires and Emeralls c. but found not any of them to Shine except some Diamonds and of these we were not upon so little practice able to fore-tell before hand which would be brought to Shine and which would not For several very good Diamonds either would not Shine at all or much less than others that were farr inferiour to them And yet those Ingenious Men are mistaken that think a Diamond must be foul and cloudy as Mr. Claytons was to be fit for Shining for as we could bring some such to afford a Glimmering Light so with some clear and excellent Diamonds we could do the like But none of those many that we try'd of all Kinds were equal to the Diamond on which the Observations were made not only considering the degree of Light it affotded but the easiness wherewith it was excited and the Comparatively great duration of its Shining