23O STUDIES OF NATURE. 



The green colour poffefies this farther advan- 

 tage, that it accords in a moft wonderful manner 

 with all the others, which arifes from it's being the 

 harmony of the two extreme colours. Painters, 

 who are endowed with tafte, hang the walls of their 

 exhibition-rooms with green, in order that the 

 pictures, of whatever colours they may be, may 

 detach themfelves from that ground without harfh- 

 nefs, and harmonize upon it without confufion*. 



Nature, not fatisfied with this firft general tint, 

 has employed, in extending it over the ground of 

 her fcene, what Painters call tranfitions. She has 

 appropriated a particular made of bluifh green, 

 which we call fea- green, to plants which grow 

 in the vicinity of water, and of the Heavens. 

 This is the (hade which, in general, tinges the 

 plants of the fhores, as reeds, willows, poplars ; 

 and thofe of high grounds, as the thiftle, the cy-r 

 prefs, and the pine ; and which makes the azure 

 of the rivers to harmonize with the verdure of the 



* Undoubtedly, when they put on a green ground, pictures 

 of plants, or landfcapes, fuch pictures detach themfelves from it 

 but indifferently. There is, in my opinion, a tint better adapted 

 to be the ground of a picture-gallery ; namely, gray. This 

 tint, formed of black and white, which are the extremes of the 

 chain of colours, harmonizes with every other, without excep- 

 tion. Nature frequently employs it in the Heavens, and on the 

 Horizon, by means of vapours and of clouds, which are gene- 

 rally of that colour. 



meadows, 



