Wesley Corpus

And do they exist without us? Certainly, as much as the sun does. And are the consti tuent parts of those objects real? Nobody questions it. But are they really of such a size, and arranged in such a manner? They are; and what will you infer from that? I infer, that colour is just as real as size or figure; and that all colours do as really exist without us, as trees, or corn, or heaven, or earth. “But what do you mean by colour?” When I say, “That cloth is of a red colour,” I mean its surface is so dis posed as to reflect the red (that is, the largest) rays of light. When I say, “The sky is blue,” I mean, it is so disposed as to reflect the blue (that is, the smallest) rays of light. And where is the delusion here? Does not that disposition, do not those rays, as really exist, as either the cloth or the sky? And are they not as really reflected, as the ball in a tennis court? It is true, that, when they strike upon my eye, a particular sensation follows in my soul. But that sensation is not colour; I know no one that calls it so. Colour therefore is a real material thing. There is no illusion in the case, unless you confound the perception with the thing perceived. And all other secondary qualities are just as real as figure or any other primary one. So you have no illusion in the natural world to countenance that you imagine to be in the moral. Wherever, therefore, this argument occurs, (and it occurs ten times over,)--“The natural world is all illusion; therefore, so is the moral,”--it is just good for nothing. But, take it all together, and what a supposition is this ! Is it not enough to make one's blood run cold 2 “The great God, the Creator of heaven and earth, the Father of the spirits of all flesh, the God of truth, has encompassed with falsehood every soul that he has made I has given up all mankind ‘to a strong delusion, to believe a lie!