For first, having by the Trajection of the Sun-beams through a Glass-prism thrown an Iris on the Floor, I found that by placing a Blew Glass at a convenient distance betwixt the Prism and the Iris, that part of the Iris that was before Yellow, might be made to appear Green, though not of a Grass Green, but of one more Dilute and Yellowish.  And it seems not improbable, that the narrow Greenish List (if I may so call it) that is wont to be seen between the Yellow and Blew parts of the Iris, is made by the Confusion of those two Bordering Colours.

Next, I found, that though the want of a sufficient Liveliness in either of the Compounding Colours, or a light Error in the manner of making the following Tryals, was enough to render some of them Unsuccessfull, yet when all necessary Circumstances were duely observ’d, the Event was answerable to our Expectation and Desire.

And (as I formerly Noted) that Red and Blew compound a Purple, so I could produce this last nam’d Colour, by casting at some Distance from the Glass the Blew part of the Prismatical Iris (as I think it may be call’d for Distinction sake) upon a Lively Red, (for else the Experiment succeeds not so well.) And I remember, that sometimes when I try’d this upon a piece of Red Cloath, that part of the Iris which would have been Blew, (as I try’d by covering that part of the Cloath with a piece of White Paper) and Compounded with the Red, wherewith the Cloath was Imbued before, appear’d of a fair Purple, did, when I came to View it near at hand, look very Odly, as if there were some strange Reflection or Refraction or both made in the Hairs of which that Cloath was composed.

Calling likewise the Prismatical Iris upon a very Vivid Blew, I found that part of it, which would else have been the Yellow, appear Green. (Another somewhat differing Tryal, and yet fit to confirm this, you will find in the fifteenth Experiment.)

But it may seem somewhat more strange, that though the Prismatical Iris being made by the Refraction of Light through a Body that has no Colour at all, must according to the Doctrine of the Schools consist of as purely Emphatical Colours, as may be, yet even these may be Compounded with one another, as well as Real Colours in the Grossest Pigments.  For I took at once two Triangular Glasses, and one of them being kept fixt in the same Posture, that the Iris it projected on the Floor might not Waver, I cast on the same Floor another Iris with the other Prism, and Moving it too and fro to bring what part of the second Iris I pleas’d, to fall upon what part of the first I thought fit, we did sometimes (for a small Errour suffices to hinder the Success) obtain by this means a Green Colour in that part of the more Stable Iris, that before was Yellow, or Blew, and frequently by casting those Beams that in one of the Iris’s made the Blew upon the Red parts of the other Iris, we were able to produce a lovely Purple, which we can Destroy or Recompose at pleasure, by Severing and Reapproaching the Edges of the two Iris’s.