Yet among the Antient _Philosophers_ I find less
Assistance to form a Notion of Blackness than of Whiteness, only
_Democritus_ in the passage above Recited out of _Aristotle_ has given a
General Hint of the Cause of this Colour, by referring the Blackness of
Bodies to their Asperity. But this I call but a General Hint, because those
Bodies that are Green, and Purple, and Blew, seem to be so as well as Black
ones, upon the Account of their Superficial Asperity. But among the
_Moderns_, the formerly mention'd _Gassendus_, perhaps invited by this Hint
of _Democritus_, has Incidentally in another Epistle given us, though a
very Short, yet a somewhat Clearer account of the Nature of Blackness in
these words: _Existimare par est corpora suapte Natura nigra constare ex
particulis, quarum Superficieculae scabrae sint, nec facile lucem extrorsum
reflectant._ I wish this Ingenious Man had enlarg'd himself upon this
Subject; For indeed it seems, that as that which makes a Body White, is
chiefly such a Disposition of its Parts, that it Reflects (I mean without
much Interruption) more of the Light that falls on it, than Bodies of any
other Colour do, so that which makes a Body Black is principally a Peculiar
kind of Texture, chiefly of its Superficial Particle, whereby it does as it
were Dead the Light that falls on it, so that very little is Reflected
Outwards to the Eye.
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