) Filings likewise of Steel and Copper, though in an excellent
_Microscope_, and a fair Day, they show'd like pretty Big Fragments of
those Metalls, and had considerable Brightness on some of their Surfaces,
yet I was not satisfi'd, that I perceiv'd any Reflection from the Inner
parts of any of the Filings. Nay, having look'd in my best _Microscope_
upon the Red _Calx_ of Lead, (commonly call'd _Minium_) neither I, nor any
I shew'd it to, could discern it to be other than Opacous, though the Day
were Clear, and the Object strongly Enlightned. And the deeply Red Colour
of _Vitriol_ appear'd in the same _Microscope_ (notwithstanding the great
Comminution effected by the Fire) but like Grossy beaten Brick. So that,
_Pyrophilus_, I shall willingly resign you the care of making some further
Enquiries into the Subject we have now been considering; for I confess, as
I told you before, that I think that the Matter may need a further
Scrutiny, nor would I be forward to Determine how far or in what cases the
Transparency or Semi-diaphaniety of the Superficial Corpuscles of Bigger
Bodies, may have an Interest in the Production of their Colours, especially
because that even in divers White bodies, as Beaten Glass, Snow and Froth,
where it seems manifest that the Superficial parts are singly Diaphanous,
(being either Water, or Air, or Glass) we see not that such Variety of
Colours are produc'd as usually are by the Refraction of Light, even in
those Bodies, when by their Bigness, Shape, &c.
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