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darkness terrible; for in utter darkness it is impoffible to know in what degree of fafety we ftand; we are ignorant of the objects that furround us; we may every moment ftrike against fome dangerous obftruction; we may fall down a precipice the first step we take; and if an enemy approach, we know not in what quarter to defend ourselves; in such a cafe ftrength is no fure protection; wisdom can only act by guefs; the boldest are staggered, and he who would pray for nothing else towards his defence is forced to pray for light.

Ζευ πάτερ, αλλά συ ρύσαι υπ' ηερος υίας Αχαιων
Ποίησον δ' αίθρην, δος δ' οφθαλμοισιν ιδέσθαι

Εν δε φαει και όλεσσον.

As to the affociation of ghofts, and goblins; furely it is more natural to think, that darkness, being originally an idea of terrour, was chofen as a fit fcene for fuch terrible reprefentations, than that fuch reprefentations have made darkness terrible. The mind of man very easily flides into an errour of the former fort; but it is very hard to imagine, that the effect of an idea fo universally terrible in all times, and in all countries, as darkness, could poffibly have been owing to a set of idle stories, or to any cause of a nature fo trivial, and of an ope ration fo precarious.

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SECT. XV.

DARKNESS TERRIBLE IN ITS OWN NATURE.

PERHAPS it may appear on inquiry, that blackness and darkness are in fome degree painful by their natural operation, independent of any affociations whatsoever. I must observe, that the ideas of darknefs and blackness are much the fame; and they differ only in this, that blackness is a more confined idea. Mr. Chefelden has given us a very curious ftory of a boy, who had been born blind, and continued fo until he was thirteen or fourteen years old; he was then couched for a cataract, by which operation he received his fight. Among many remarkable particulars that attended his first perceptions and judgments on visual objects, Chefelden tells us, that the first time the boy faw a black object, it gave him great uneafinefs; and that some time after, upon accidentally seeing a negro woman, he was ftruck with great horrour at the fight. The horrour, in this cafe, can scarcely be supposed to arife from any affociation. The boy appears by the account to have been particularly obferving and fenfible for one of his age; and therefore it is probable, if the great uneafinefs he felt at the first fight of black had arifen from its connexion with any other difagreeable ideas, he would have obferved and mentioned it. For an

idea, difagrecable only by affociation, has the cause of its ill effect on the paffions evident enough at the first impreffion; in ordinary cafes, it is indeed frequently loft; but this is, because the original afsociation was made very early, and the confequent impreffion repeated often. In our inftance, there was no time for fuch an habit; and there is no reason to think that the ill effects of black on his imagination were more owing to its connexion with any difagreeable ideas, than that the good effects of more cheerful colours were derived from their connexion with pleafing ones. They had both probably their effects from their natural operation.

SECT. XVI.

WHY DARKNESS IS TERRIBLE.

IT may be worth while to examine how darknefs can opérate in fuch a manner as to caufe pain. It is obfervable, that ftill as we recede from the light, nature has fo contrived it, that the pupil is enlarged by the retiring of the iris, in proportion to our recefs. Now, inftead of declining from it but a little, fuppofe that we withdraw entirely from the light; it is reasonable to think, that the contraction of the radial fibres of the iris is proportionably greater; and that this part may by great darkness come to be fo contracted, as to ftrain

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ftrain the nerves that compofe it beyond their na tural tone; and by this means to produce a painful fenfation. Such a tenfion it feems there certainly is, whilst we are involved in darkness; for in fuch a state whilst the eye remains open, there is a continual nifus to receive light; this is manifeft from the flashes and luminous appearanceș which often seem in thefe circumftances to play before it; and which can be nothing but the effect of fpafms, produced by its own efforts in pursuit of its object; several other strong impulses will produce the idea of light in the eye, befides the fubftance of light itself, as we experience on many occafions. Some who allow darkness to be a caufe of the fublime, would infer, from the dilation of the pupil, that a relaxation may be productive of the fublime, as well as convulfion: but they do not I believe confider that although the circular ring of the iris be in some sense a sphincter, which may possibly be dilated by a fimple relaxation, yet in one refpect it differs from moft of the other fphincters of the body, that it is furnished with antagonist muscles, which are the radial fibres of the iris: no fooner does the circular muscle begin to relax, than these fibres, wanting their counterpoife, are forcibly drawn back, and open the pupil to a confiderable widenefs. But though we were not apprized of this, I believe any one will find, if he opens his eyes and makes an effort to fee in a dark,

a dark place, that a very perceivable pain ensues. And I have heard fome ladies remark, that after having worked a long time upon a ground of black, their eyes were fo pained and weakened, they could hardly fee. It may perhaps be objected to this theory of the mechanical effect of darkness, that the ill effects of darkness or blacknefs feem rather mental than corporeal: and I own it is true, that they do fo; and fo do all those that depend on the affections of the finer parts of our fyftem. The ill effects of bad weather appear often no otherwise, than in a melancholy and dejection of fpirits; though without doubt, in this cafe, the bodily organs fuffer firft, and the mind through thefe organs.

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THE EFFECTS OF BLACKNESS.

BLACKNESS is but a partial darkness; and therefore it derives fome of its powers from being mixed and furrounded with coloured bodies. In its own nature, it cannot be confidered as a coJour. Black bodies, reflecting none, or but a few rays, with regard to fight, are but as so many vacant fpaces difperfed among the objects we view. When the eye lights on one of these vacuities, after having been kept in fome degree of tenfion by the play of the adjacent colours upon it, it fuddenly falls

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