[8] Gent. Septen. Histor. lib. 4 cap. 13.
6. I know indeed that divers Learned Men think, that Snow so strongly
Affects our Eye, not by a Borrow'd, but a Native Light; But I venture to
give it as a Proof, that White Bodies reflect more Light than Others,
because having once purposely plac'd a parcel of Snow in a Room carefully
Darkned, that no Celestial Light might come to fall upon it; neither I, nor
an ingenous Person, (Skill'd in Opticks) whom I desir'd for a Witness,
could find, that it had any other Light than what it receiv'd. And however,
'tis usual among those that Travel in Dark Nights, that the Guides wear
something of White to be Discern'd by, there being scarce any Night so
Dark, but that in the Free Air there remains some Light, though Broken and
Debilitated perhaps by a thousand Reflections from the Opacous Corpuscles
that Swim in the Air, and lend it to one another before it comes to arrive
at the Eye.
7. Thirdly, And the better to shew that White Bodies reflect store of
Light, in comparson of those that are otherwise Colour'd, I did in the
Darkn'd Room, formerly mention'd, hold not far from the Hole, at which the
Light was admitted, a Sheet only of White Paper, from whence casting the
Sun-beams upon a White Wall, whereunto it was Obverted, it manifestly
appear'd both to Me, and to the Person I took for a Witness of the
Experiment, that it Reflected a far greater Light, than any of the other
Colours formerly mention'd, the Light so thrown upon one Wall notably
Enlightning it, and by it a good part of the Room.
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