462 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



color. The epithet of ' golden-mouth/ which became the name of the 

 eloquent Chrysostom, shows that ' gold ' was used in a highly symbolic 

 sense at an early period in the history of Christianity, while Shake- 

 speare's ' golden lads and girls ' is typical of this vague poetic use of 

 the word. ' Golden ' in English has largely come to mean not yellow 

 or any other definite shade of color, but merely beautiful and precious, 

 as ' red ' means in Eussia. The same contrast between ' yellow ' and 

 ' golden ' may be found in other European languages ; in French, for 

 example, the affective tone of jaune is totally different from that of or, 

 and it is the same in Italian and most other allied languages. As a 

 general rule yellow is not applied by the poets to any object which sug- 

 gests a definitely beautiful emotional tone, while ' golden ' only in a 

 minority of cases, as when applied to hair, corn, etc., bears any in- 

 sistence on definite color. 



It is not until the middle of the last century, at all events in Eng- 

 land, that we find any definite revival of the old classic feeling in 

 regard to yellow. It is very notable in Swinburne, who dwells with 

 pleasure on honey and amber and other yellow substances, emphasizing 

 their color; yet at the same time he usually avoids the use of the word 

 yellow ; ' white and gold and red,' he declares, are ' God's three chief 

 words,' and he marks his sense of the inferiority of the word in the 



lines : 



A comb of yellow shell for all the rest, 

 A comb of gold for the king's daughter. 



In the course of centuries and until recent times, we find, there has 

 thus been a gradually diminishing tendency to insist on the color of 

 any beautiful or desirable object that is yellow. At the same time, 

 there has been a tendency to emphasize the associations of yellow, 

 which are really founded on one of the most ancient observations of 

 man. Yellow is the color of bile and of a jaundiced skin. Most of 

 the evil passions and impulses of mankind, in the popular science of 

 primitive peoples, have their origin in the liver and the bile. The 

 degree to which mankind has been impressed by the yellowness of bile 

 is sufficiently proved by the fact that bile has constantly served to 

 supply a name to yellow; thus among the Eskimo, the Chukchis, the 

 Samoyeds, the Voguls and other subarctic races yellow (and sometimes 

 green) are called by a word which means bile. 16 Even in our own 

 Aryan tongues it seems to be the same, and ' gall ' lies at the root not 

 only of ' yellow ' but also of ' green ' and even of ' gold.' Hence it is 

 that yellow is the color alike of envy and of melancholy. We have in 

 Shakespeare's phrase the 'jealous complexion' (orange) and 'green 

 and yellow melancholy,' and in Pope the ' jaundiced eye ' to which ' all 



16 W. H. E. Rivers, ' Colour Vision of the Eskimo,' Proceedings Cambridge 

 Philosophical Society, Vol. XL, Pt. II., 1901. 



