lect
but Few of them, or those but Languidly, towards the Eye, it happening here
almost in like manner as to a ball, which thrown against a Stone or Floor,
would Rebound a great way Upwards, but Rebounds very Little or not at all,
when it is thrown against Water, or Mud, or a Loose Net, because the Parts
yield, and receive into themselves the Motion, on whose Account the Ball
should be Reflected Outwards. But this Last way of Explicating Blackness, I
shall content my Self to have Propos'd, without either Adopting it, or
absolutely Rejecting it. For the Hardness of Touchstones, Black Marble and
other Bodies, that being Black are Solid, seem to make it somewhat
Improbable, that such Bodies should be of so Yielding a Texture, unless we
should say, that some Bodies may be more Dispos'd to Yield to the Impulses
of the Corpuscles of Light by reason of a Peculiar Texture, than other
Bodies, that in other Tryals appear to be Softer than they. But though the
Former of these two Explications of Blackness be that, by which we shall
Endeavour to give an Account of it, yet as we said, we shall not Absolutely
Reject this Latter, partly because they both Agree in this, that Black
Bodies Reflect but Little of the Light that falls on them, and partly
because it is not Impossible, that in some Cases both the Disposition of
the Superficial particles, as to Figure and Position, and the Yielding of
the Body, or some of its Parts, may joyntly, though not in an Equal measure
concurr to the rendring of a Body Black. The Considerations that induc'd me
to propose this Notion of Blackness, as I Explan'd it, are principally
these:

3. First, That as I lately said, Whiteness and Blackness being generally
reputed to be Contrary Qualities, Whiteness depending as I said upon the
Disposition of the Parts of a Body to Reflect much Light, it seems likely,
that Blackness may depend upon a Contrary Disposition of the Black Bodies
Surface; But upon this I shall not Insist.

4. Next then we see, that if a Body of One and the same Colour be plac'd,
part in the Sun-beams, and part in the Shade, that part which is not Shin'd
on will appear more of Kin to Blackness than the other, from which more
Light Rebounds to the Eye; And Dark Colours seem the Blacker, the less
Light they are Look'd upon in, and we think all Things Black in the Dark,
when they send no Beams to make Impressions on our Organs of Sight, so that
Shadows and Darkness are near of Kin, and Shaddow