On the Principles of Bemiiy in Colouring. 268 



the contrary, if beauty be a term for that quahty of objects which 

 renders them capable of exciting an emotion of pleasme,the cause 

 of that emotion becomes an interesting object of inquiry. 



The emotion excited bv the presence of a beautiful object may 

 either arise from the peculiar constitution of our organs of sen- 

 sation, or from the pleasing associations it recalls to the mind : 

 but, in general, the emotion may be considered as the combined 

 effect of both these causes. 



In inquiries of this kind we cannot expect to show the cor- 

 rectness of our reasoning by a detail of experiments ; but when 

 it leads to principles which coincide with or approach to those 

 followed by artists who have cultivated their natural powers of 

 perceiving the beautiful, we may justly conclude that it is correct. 

 Those who have never studied geometry woidd Ije very incom- 

 petent judges of the beauty of a geometrical demonstration; — and 

 is it less inconsistent to expect those who have never examined 

 the effect of different combinations of colours, to be capable of 

 deciding on the comparative beauty of an arrangement of colours? 

 Colours, in themselves, perhaps, cannot be considered as beautiful 

 when divested of the associations which accomjiany them ; but a 

 succession or combination of colours may be beautiful, and that 

 not from any physical or intrinsic quality in the colours, but from 

 the peculiar structure of the organ, and the manner in which it 

 transmits the impressions to the mind. Instances of such com- 

 binations may be seen in the rainbow, the prismatic spectrum, 

 coloured rings, fringes*, minerals f, flowers, &c. 



A late writer, who affects to deny that the beauty of colours 

 depends on particular successions or combinations, admits that 

 in the case oif sounds " there is such an organical delight ; and 

 that it constitutes a larger share of the beauty of sounds, than 

 tints and shadows do of the hemity of visible objects J." And in 

 another publication, he says, he does not " mean to dispute, that 

 there are such things as melody and harmony, and that most 

 men are offended or gratified by the violation or observance of 

 those laws upon whicli they depend. This, however, it should 

 be observed, is a faculty quite unique, and unlike any thing else 

 in our constitution ; by no means universal, as the sense of 

 heauty is, even in cultivated societies, and apparently withheld 

 from whoje com muni tips of quick-eared savages and barba- 

 rians §." 



Now in this there is something extremely inconsistent : for 

 jthough the mere musical arrangement of sounds may not excite 



* See Brcwbter's papers on those siiljcct*, Pliil. Tniiis. 



t See Sowcrljy's wcjikon Colours. X Ediii.Rexicw^ No. xxxv. p. 39. 



^ Supp. Eiicy. IBrit. art. Bcuulj/, 1816. 



R4 the 



