STUDY X. 



299 



in a great meafure, of that beautiful black var- 

 nilhed ware, which we import from their country. 

 White muft, thereforcj produce a harfh diflbnance 

 with their furniture, their drefs, and, above all, 

 with the dufky colour of their ikin. 



If thofe Nations were to wear a black habit, in 

 mourning, as we do, be their colour ever fo deep, 

 it would not form a clafhing oppofition in their 

 drefs. The expreffion of grief, accordingly, is 

 precifely the fame with them as with us. For if 

 we, in a feafon of mourning, oppofe the black 

 colour of our clothes to the white colour of our 

 ikin, in order thence to produce a funereal diflb- 

 nance, the fouthern Nations oppofe, on the con- 

 trary, the white colour of their garments to the 

 dufky colour of their fkin, in order to produce 

 the fame efFeâ:, 



This variety of tafte admirably confirms the 

 univerfality of the principles which we have laid 

 down refpeéting the caufes of harmony and diflb- 

 nance. It farther demonftrates, that the agree- 

 ablenefs, or difagreeablenefs of a colour, refides 

 not in one fingle Ihade, but in the harmony, or 

 in the clafliing contraft, of two oppofite colours. 



We might find proofs of thofe laws multiplied 

 without end, in Nature, to which Man ought ever 



to 



