320 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



prefent, to exhibit ; it would, however, be a mat- 

 ter of no furprize to me, Ihould many of my 

 Readers diffent from what I have advanced. Our 

 natural taftes are perverted from our infancy, by 

 prejudices which determine our phyfical fenfations, 

 much more powerfully than thefe lafl give direc- 

 tion to our moral affedions. More than one 

 Churchman confiders violet as the moil beautiful 

 of colours, becaufe his Bifliop wears it : more Bi- 

 fhops than one give fcarlet the preference, becaufe 

 it is the Cardinal's colour ; and more than one 

 Cardinal, undoubtedly, would rather be drefled in 

 white, becaufe this colour is appropriated to the 

 Head of the Church. A foldier, frequently, 

 looks upon the red as the moft beautiful of all 

 ribbons ; but his fuperior officer prefers the blue. 

 Our temperaments, as well as our conditions, have 

 an influence upon our opinions. 



Gay people prefer lively colours to every other ; 

 perfons of fenfibility, thofe which are delicate j 

 the melancholy afllime the duiky. Though I my- 

 felf confider red as the moft beautiful of colours, 

 and the fphere as the moft perfed of forms j and 

 though I am bound more than any other man, 

 ftrenuoufly to adhere to this order, becaufe it is that 

 of my fyftem, I prefer to the full red, the carmine 

 colour, which has a flight fliade of violet ; and to 

 the fphere, the oval, or elliptical form. It likewife 



appears 



