Royal Society. 67 
thought. so monotonous and uniform, is not at all so. If it were 
throughout a fine green, a true green, it would in reality be a 
very insipid monotony. Nothing, however, is more diversified, 
by the different touches of red, violet, and orange, which are 
manifestly blended with this green, as if to soil it, and which 
render it rich, and infinitely charming,—on this account alone, 
that it is diversified. 
One of the reasons why nature is lavish of her dingy colours, 
is to give a brilliancy to the true colours, either by their rarity, 
or by the contrast. If we examine closely, we shall seldom, see 
a fine colour which is not contrasted, in natural objects, by ob- 
secure colours: these become, however, precious, by the contrast 
even which they oppose to the colours that are precious: in 
themselves, and with which they are assorted. 
. The green of the leaves of orange, lemon, and pomegranate 
trees is considered as a fine green, and is every thing but that 
if we view it attentively. The fact is, that we constantly repre- 
sent it to ourselves in the point of iow of these golden fruits, 
or of these pomegranate flowers, which, while it is relieved by 
them, gives a fresh éc/at to their beaiaty. 
I have known a person who, in a picture of contrast, boasted 
of the shades, as if they had been the finest gilones in’ the 
painting, saying expressly that he had never seen such fine ¢o- 
jours as these shades. He confounded the brightness which 
they cast on the coloured parts, with the shades themselves. 
Whatever contributes to the heauty of any thing, partakes ina 
certain degree of this beauty. This is because every thing is 
relative, aud because a fine conformity renders the, beauty reci- 
procal to each ef the terms of the comparison, although one of 
them may be a negative beauty, oftentimes founded on a_posi- 
tive uricomeliness. 
XV. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
ROYAL SOCIETY. 
Jans 1. Sra fH. Davy communicated a short paper detail - 
ing some further Experiments on Fire-damp. Sir H. has ad- 
vanced from discovery to discovery in the most effectual mode’ of 
preserving the lives of miners at the least possible expense, It 
appears from these experiments, that no new lamp or other ap- 
paratus is necessary to prevent explosions; that the lamps now 
in use, when covered with a wire-gauze screen, are not only per- 
fectly sufficient to preserve the miners from all danger, but even 
may be used to consume the fire- damp by burning it to show 
them 
