^0 On the Antlent Names for Colour, p.ifliadaiiy 



thorities themselves, and was consequently ititliiced thereby to 

 enter more at larcje into the real import of the names used bv 

 the Roman and Greek writers for colours. And I am convinced 

 that no accurate argument can be drawn from the Classical writers 

 respectint^ the real colours of stars, or anv other natural bodies, 

 from the very vague and indefinite meaning of the names of co- 

 lours themselves, and also from the excessive latitude given by 

 poetic writers to the signification of words. I would, however, 

 make an exception of such cases as those wherein two particular 

 colours are contrasted to each other in thei same passage. 



To apply this observation to our subject : Though the observa- 

 tions of TychoBrahe, and other more modern astronomers, rela* 

 tive to the light of the stars, are valuable, being written at a time 

 when, philosophical Latin having become the medium of com- 

 municating science, terms were used in a more definite sense ; 

 yet I should suspect the accuracy of any arguments drawn from 

 the early Greek and Roman poets, in which the colour of the 

 starlight is alluded to ; making an exception only of such pas-* 

 sages as contrasted strikingly opposite colours. 



1 shall offer a few examples to illustrate this position ; and 

 conclude with referring to the etymologicar import of many 

 words designating colours. 



I. Passages wherein two or more colours are contrasted and 

 distinguished, hut which still do not accurately define thepre-^ 

 cise tint, 



'thfe ancients have in some instances used words for colour in 

 a sense hardly to be mistaken, by employing them to contrast 

 two phaenomena whds& difference of colour is marked and well 

 knowil everywhere, and which we have no reason to think 

 changes from time to time. Instances are to be met with, in 

 which the colours produced by refraction of the light of the 

 heavenly bodies constitute examples. 



Ovid, in Metamorph. xv. 192, uses ruhere, to redden, for the 

 red colour of the sun near the horizon, produced by denser re- 

 fraction ; and contrasts it with the term candidtis, applied to the 

 sun in his greatest altitude ; whereas from a lesser degree of re- 

 fraction it approaches nearer to white. Thus, 



" Ipse Dei clvfeus, tcna cum tollitiir imA, 

 Matie rubet: terraquc rulict, Cum conditiir ima, 

 Candidas in summo est. Mclior iiatura quoH ilUc 

 /Etiieris est, lerin;que prociil coiitagia vital.'' 



Virgil, in Georg. i. 431, among the signs of wind, evidently 

 marks the red colour of the moon : 



" At, si virgineiiui siifl'uHerit ore ruhorem, 

 Veiitus erit: vcnto suftper rubct aurca Piioebc." 



He 



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