PROP. VII. Theor. V.

All the Colours in the Universe which are made by Light, and depend not on the Power of Imagination, are either the Colours of homogeneal Lights, or compounded of these, and that either accurately or very nearly, according to the Rule of the foregoing Problem.

For it has been proved (in Prop. 1. Part 2.) that the changes of Colours made by Refractions do not arise from any new Modifications of the Rays impress'd by those Refractions, and by the various Terminations of Light and Shadow, as has been the constant and general Opinion of Philosophers. It has also been proved that the several Colours of the homogeneal Rays do constantly answer to their degrees of Refrangibility, (Prop. 1. Part 1. and Prop. 2. Part 2.) and that their degrees of Refrangibility cannot be changed by Refractions and Reflexions (Prop. 2. Part 1.) and by consequence that those their Colours are likewise immutable. It has also been proved directly by refracting and reflecting homogeneal Lights apart, that their Colours cannot be changed, (Prop. 2. Part 2.) It has been proved also, that when the several sorts of Rays are mixed, and in crossing pass through the same space, they do not act on one another so as to change each others colorific qualities. (Exper. 10. Part 2.) but by mixing their Actions in the Sensorium beget a Sensation differing from what either would do apart, that is a Sensation of a mean Colour between their proper Colours; and particularly when by the concourse and mixtures of all sorts of Rays, a white Colour is produced, the white is a mixture of all the Colours which the Rays would have apart, (Prop. 5. Part 2.) The Rays in that mixture do not lose or alter their several colorific qualities, but by all their various kinds of Actions mix'd in the Sensorium, beget a Sensation of a middling Colour between all their Colours, which is whiteness. For whiteness is a mean between all Colours, having it self indifferently to them all, so as with equal facility to be tinged with any of them. A red Powder mixed with a little blue, or a blue with a little red, doth not presently lose its Colour, but a white Powder mix'd with any Colour is presently tinged with that Colour, and is equally capable of being tinged with any Colour whatever. It has been shewed also, that as the Sun's Light is mix'd of all sorts of Rays, so its whiteness is a mixture of the Colours of all sorts of Rays; those Rays having from the beginning their several colorific qualities as well as their several Refrangibilities, and retaining them perpetually unchanged notwithstanding any Refractions or Reflexions they may at any time suffer, and that whenever any sort of the Sun's Rays is by any means (as by Reflexion in Exper. 9, and 10. Part 1. or by Refraction as happens in all Refractions) separated from the rest, they then manifest their proper Colours. These things have been prov'd, and the sum of all this amounts to the Proposition here to be proved. For if the Sun's Light is mix'd of several sorts of Rays, each of which have originally their several Refrangibilities and colorific Qualities, and notwithstanding their Refractions and Reflexions, and their various Separations or Mixtures, keep those their original Properties perpetually the same without alteration; then all the Colours in the World must be such as constantly ought to arise from the original colorific qualities of the Rays whereof the Lights consist by which those Colours are seen. And therefore if the reason of any Colour whatever be required, we have nothing else to do than to consider how the Rays in the Sun's Light have by Reflexions or Refractions, or other causes, been parted from one another, or mixed together; or otherwise to find out what sorts of Rays are in the Light by which that Colour is made, and in what Proportion; and then by the last Problem to learn the Colour which ought to arise by mixing those Rays (or their Colours) in that proportion. I speak here of Colours so far as they arise from Light. For they appear sometimes by other Causes, as when by the power of Phantasy we see Colours in a Dream, or a Mad-man sees things before him which are not there; or when we see Fire by striking the Eye, or see Colours like the Eye of a Peacock's Feather, by pressing our Eyes in either corner whilst we look the other way. Where these and such like Causes interpose not, the Colour always answers to the sort or sorts of the Rays whereof the Light consists, as I have constantly found in whatever Phænomena of Colours I have hitherto been able to examine. I shall in the following Propositions give instances of this in the Phænomena of chiefest note.