1. What we have Discours'd of Whiteness, may somewhat Assist us to form a Notion of Blackness, those two Qualities being Contrary enough to Illustrate each other. 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 suâpte Naturâ nigra constare ex particulis, quarum Superficieculæ scabræ sint, nec facilè 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.