The same thing
happens upon viewing an object in various degrees of light. And
what is more known than that the same bodies appear differently
coloured by candle-light from what they do in the open day? Add
to these the experiment of a prism which, separating the
heterogeneous rays of light, alters the colour of any object, and
will cause the whitest to appear of a deep blue or red to the
naked eye. And now tell me whether you are still of opinion that
every body hath its true real colour inhering in it; and, if you
think it hath, I would fain know farther from you, what certain
distance and position of the object, what peculiar texture and
formation of the eye, what degree or kind of light is necessary
for ascertaining that true colour, and distinguishing it from
apparent ones.
. I own myself entirely satisfied, that they are all
equally apparent, and that there is no such thing as colour
really inhering in external bodies, but that it is altogether in
the light. And what confirms me in this opinion is, that in
proportion to the light colours are still more or less vivid; and
if there be no light, then are there no colours perceived.
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