* * * * *
CHAP. II.
1 To come then in the first place to our more general Considerations, I
shall begin with saying something as to the Importance of examining the
Colours of Bodies. For there are some, especially _Chymists_, who think,
that a considerable diversity of Colours does constantly argue an equal
diversity of Nature, in the Bodies wherein it is conspicuous; but I confess
I am not altogether of their mind; for not to mention changeable Taffaties,
the blew and golden necks of Pidgeons, and divers Water-fowl, Rainbows
Natural and Artificial, and other Bodies, whose Colours the Philosophers
have been pleased to call not Real, but Apparent and Phantastical; not to
insist on these, I say, (for fear of needlesly engaging in a Controversie)
we see in Parrots, Goldfinches, and divers other Birds, not only that the
contiguous feathers which are probably as near in properties as place, are
some of them Red, and others White, some of them Blew, & others Yellow,
_&c._ but that in the several parts of the self-same feather there may
often be seen the greatest disparity of Colours; and so in the leaves of
Tulips, July-flowers, and some other Vegetables the several leaves, and
even the several parts of the same leaf, although no difference have been
observed in their other properties, are frequently found painted with very
different Colours.
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