dry light

English

Noun

dry light (usually uncountable, plural dry lights)

1. Pure unobstructed light.
2. (figurative, by extension) A clear, impartial view.
   • 1881, John Campbell Shairp, Aspects of Poetry:

     The scientific man must keep his feelings under stern control, lest they obtrude into his researches, and colour the dry light in which alone science desires to see its objects.

   • 1620, Francis Bacon, Novum Organum:

     The human understanding is not composed of dry light, but is subject to influence from the will and the emotions

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “dry light”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)