THE
EXPERIMENTAL HISTORY
OF COLOURS BEGUN.
THE FIRST PART.
CHAP. I.
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have ſeen you ſo paſſionately addicted, Pyrophilus to the delightful Art of Limning and Painting, that I cannot but think my ſelf obliged to acquaint you with ſome of thoſe things that have occurred to mee concerning the changes of Colours. And I may expect that I ſhall as well ſerve the Virtuoſi in general, as gratifie you in particular, by furniſhing a perſon, who, I hope, will both improve my Communications, and communicate his Improvements, with ſuch Experiments and Obſervations as may both invite you to enquire ſeriouſly into the Nature of Colours, and aſſiſt you in the Inveſtigation of it. This being the principal ſcope of the following Tract, I ſhould do that which might prevent my own deſign,
if I ſhould here attempt to deliver you an accurate and particular Theory of Colours; for that were to preſent you with what I deſire to receive from you; and, as farr as in mee lay, to make that ſtudy needleſs, to which I would engage you.
2 Wherefore my preſent work ſhall be but to divert and recreate, as well as excite you by the delivery of matters of fact, ſuch as you may for the moſt part try with much eaſe, and poſſibly not without ſome delight: And leſt you ſhould expect any thing of Elaborate or Methodical in what you will meet with here, I muſt confeſs to you before-hand, that the ſeaſons I was wont to chuſe to deviſe and try Experiments about Colours, were thoſe daies, wherein having taken Phyſick, and finding my ſelf as unfit to ſpeculate, as unwilling to be altogether idle, I choſe this diverſion, as a kind of Mean betwixt the one and the other. And I have the leſs ſcrupled to ſet down the following Experiments, as ſome of them came to my mind, and as the Notes wherein I had ſet down the reſt, occurr'd to my hands, that by declining a Methodical way of delivering them, I might leave you and my ſelf the greater liberty and convenience to add to them, and tranſpoſe them as ſhall appear expedient.