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‘On Documentation’
2015
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Various species of common matter that exist,
Whose nature and properties are the same,
However different in appearance they may be;
Between the capacity of a lump of clay
And of a piece of flint;
Between the flexibility of lead and of iron;
Between the elasticity of steel and of whalebone;
And between the expansibility of gases in general
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A proposition, such as this, may be solved with as much certainty
By a child of five years of age,
As much by a man who has lived to the years of Methuselah:
A child will, at once, affirm that strokes or impressions made on him by a rod,
Give him pain; that a rose is fragrant; that gold is yellow; silver; white; jet, black, sugar,
Sweet, vinegar, sour, fire, hot, snow, cold.
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We see coloured light perpetually radiating
From bodies in a state of combustion
The quality of the colour seems altogether to depend on the nature
Of the materials of which the base is composed;
Subservient to that process ; different kinds of
Coal and of peat, will produce a peculiarity
In the colour of the flame
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