as applied to the Colour of the Light of Stars. 51 



He shortly afterwards contrasts this red colour with purOy or 

 nhife, that is free from coloration, when, hefore fane weather^ 

 the moon, 



" Piira, neque obtusis percoelum coriiibus ibit." 



Horace has the same expression for the pure light of the moon^ 

 in Carm. ii. v. 20. 



" Ut pura iiocturno rciiidet 

 Luna mnri." 



Aratus also, in Dios. 53, evidently contrasts the red with thd 

 white colour, in the following lines on the presages of weather: 



A'-KTYi y.sv Kci^aprj rs Wr^j Tf-irov r^fj-uq tovcru 

 Euliog fj.BV £(7)' XsTTT)] Is. xcn su /xaA' BgsuSv; 

 rivrjixurir). 

 Again, speaking of the more certain prognostic of rain in prd- 

 poition as the circles called halos are more reddened, — a facit 

 well known to modern meteorologists,— he says : 



o\og xipi xvxXog sXi(r(rri 



TlavTYi spz'j^ou,iWc, fictXa. ft;v tot; ^sifjLsoog eirj, 

 JMsit^ovt 6'av "^sifxuiVi ■nupcuTegu (poivKTcroiro, 

 Theophrastus, in Sign. Temp, contrasts the blackish colour of 

 the sun and moon, by the interposition of an obscure cloud, as 

 a sign of rain, with the red colour which is a forerunner of wind. 

 EoTJ 8s (TT,u.siu Y^XiM xoLi (TjAyjv)), T« ftsv ixsKUvx uiuTOi, Tu Is eqv^ga. 

 TTvsutj.ciTQc. Consult also Plin. lliil. Nal. xviii. 35. The 

 learned Scapula in Lex. Gi. observes of the word /AsAaj, Hack: 

 vox scepe pro horrendo ant ol'scino posila, qida tolia sunt 

 utra*. Thus the confused or the black appearance might con- 

 stitute the contrast to the red one, as above cited. 



\\. Passages wherein a most extended and undefinalle signifi- 

 cation is given to the names of colours by the ancients. 

 Aproof of the very indefinite import of names for colours among 

 the ancients may be drawn, 1st, from their incongruity with the 

 known colours of the substances to which thev are applied, if 

 taken in the strict sense : and 2(llv, from examples in which the 

 same term is applied to bodies of a known difference of colour.— 

 A few examples will sufficcj which happen to be in my mind^ and 

 will lead to a more extensive inquiry. 

 PuRPiiUEUs is applied, 



1. To the rose, in which it approaches the nearest to our 

 modern idea of purple; — thus in Virgil, c. H. 

 " llosa jiurptirca." 



* If the reader wislics to pursue tliis siilijcct fcirtlier, I have put A long 

 lilt of rcfcrciicps in t!ic notes to a late edition of tlio Dio^cineia of . Aratus, 

 p. 1 1, and %cr|ii<:l. 



D 2 2, To 



