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 than 2,700 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 Empress 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.