STUDY X. 303 



formable fo the tafte of all Nations, who employ- 

 it in their ornaments, and in their architefture ; 

 and it is particularly conformable to the tafte of 

 children, who give it the preference to every other, 

 in the inftruments of their amufement. 



It is very remarkable, that thefe five elementary 

 forms have the fame analogies to each other which 

 the five primordial colours have among them- 

 felves ; fo that if you proceed to their afcending 

 generation, from the fphere toward the line, you 

 will have forms angular, lively, and gay, which 

 fhall terminate in the ftraight line, and of which 

 Nature compofes fo many radiations and expan- 

 fions of figure, in the Heavens and on the Earth, 

 fo agreeable to behold. If, on the contrary, you 

 defcend from the fphere to the excavations of the 

 parabola, you will be prefented with a gradation 

 of cavernous forms, which are fo frightful in 

 abyfles' and precipices. 



Farther, if you join the elementary forms to 

 the primordial colours, term for term, you willob- 

 lerve their principal charafter mutually ftrengthen 

 each other, at leaft in the two extremes, and in 

 the harmonic expreffion of the centre : for the 

 two firft terms will give the white ray, which is 

 the ray of light itfelf ; the circular form, united 

 ' to the red colour, will produce a figure analogous 



to 



