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The wiugs of lepidopterous insects afford an admirable field whereon 

 to test the truth of our proposition. The colouring is of every possible 

 variety — bold and vigorous or delicate and subdued, strongly contrasted 

 or exquisitely shaded ; yet the preservation of tone is never violated. 

 Our common English butterflies are fine examples. What can be con- 

 ceived more perfect than the painting of the common peacock butterfly, 

 Vanessa lo, or that of the admiral, Vcmessa Atalanta ? Yet if we 

 should introduce a portion of the scarlet from the admiral into the rich 

 maroon grounding of the peacock, how unseemly would be the result ! 



We are familiar with the brimstone butterfly. Now iu this insect 

 we have a combination of two colours generally considered to be inhar- 

 monious, yellow and orange. An orange patch on a yellow ground is a 

 false combination. How, then, is the tone preserved ? The orange is 

 reduced in size to a small sharply-defined dot, and in this form it gives 

 a life to the broad yellow wing, without in the least interfering with 

 the tone. But in another closely allied insect found on the Continent, 

 the orange occupies a large space in the centre of the yellow. Here is 

 a fresh difficulty ; and how is it met ? The orange is no more a sharply 

 defined patch, but is beautifully shaded off until it imperceptibly 

 merges into the yellow, like a similar combination in the petals of the 

 Escoltzia. 



The colours of shells are hardly to be considered fair examples, 

 hecause they are not complete natural productions without the animals, 

 and many of the marine mollusca are brightly tinted in a way that 

 must be taken into account when we regard the tone of the whole 

 object. 



Yet shells are most harmoniously coloured. Mitra episcopalis is 

 perhaps the coarsest and least beautiful of any, yet the tone, though 

 not pre-eminently beautiful, is w^ell preserved. 



We might prolong these illustrations to almost any extent, but, 

 before we leave this part of the subject, it may be well to enquire what 

 is the exact meaning we attach to the word tone. 



The term is incapable of exact definition. Tone in a combination of 

 cSlours may be recognized and admired, but can never be described, 

 any more than the grace or beauty of a curved line. We have no 

 equation that can express the conditions of beauty in a curved line, 

 yet nothing can be more exact than these conditions. The slightest 

 deflection is fatal. 



So in music. Harmony is supposed to be subject to laws that can 

 be written, though this is every day becoming more doubtful; but 

 melody obeys no such restrictions. Yet is not melody a thing as true 

 as the existence of the sun in the heavens ? 



