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After this, they took a Charcoal, and viewing it
with one of their best Microscopes, discovered in it an
infinite multitude of pores, some bigger, some less; so
close and thick, that they left but very little space betwixt
them to be filled with a solid body; and to give
her Imperial Majesty a better assurance thereof, they
counted in a line of them an inch long, no less then
2700 pores; from which observation they drew this
following conclusion, to wit, that this multitude of
pores was the cause of the blackness of the Coal; for,
said they, a body that has so many pores, from each
of which no light is reflected, must necessarily look
black, since black is nothing else but a privation of light,
or a want of reflection. But the Emperess replied,
That if all colours were made by reflection of light, and
that black was as much a colour as any other colour;
then certainly they contradicted themselves in saying,
that black was made by want of reflection. However,
not to interrupt your Microscopical inspections, said
she, let us see how Vegetables appear through your
Glasses; whereupon they took a Nettle, and by the
vertue of the Microscope, discovered that underneath
the points of the Nettle there were certain little bags or
bladders, containing a poysonous liquor, and which
the points had made way into the interior parts of the
skin, they like Syringe-pipes served to conveigh that
same liquor into them. To which observation the
Emperess replied, That if there were such poyson in
Nettles, then certainly in eating of them, they
would hurt us inwardly, as much as they do outwardly?
But they answered, That it belonged to Physicians
more then to Experimental Philosophers, to give reasons
hereof; for they onely made Microscopial inspections,
and related the figures of the natural parts of Creatures
according to the presentation of their glasses.
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| And if any should like the world I have made,
and be willing to be my subjects, they may imagine themselves such, and they are such—I mean
in their minds, fancies or imaginations. But if they cannot endure to be subjects, they may
create worlds of their own and govern themselves as they please.
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| © 2021 by Sarah Reitmeier, except text from The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing World, published 1666 by Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle.
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