cotoun. 



As wo staled in tin- li: ;-, matter is ii.itur.illy posscgs- 



vd of certain properties whieh arc inseparable from it. The 

 mineral atnins liavc. naturally, as inherent elements, the cold 

 colours; Lino, Mack and white; while the vegetable atoms 

 arc naturally possessed of the warm colours, red, yell" 1 , 

 orange. Of course there appear to be exceptions, '(Jold is 

 yellow, but it is very scarce and pri/.ed accordingly. Sulphur 

 is yellow also, but it sheds a blue light when burned. Some- 

 times we see a blue flower also, but they are very rare indeed. 

 Every material we know of has a colouring element of its own, 

 caused by the colours of ihe different classes of matter compos- 

 ing it. Grass and most vegetation is green a mixture of the 

 yellow and blue of the two classes of atoms while all tha 

 beautiful variety of colours we see in a flower garden, are de- 

 fived in a similar way. 



We once saw a professor experimenting before an audience 

 of an evening with diiferent minerals, showing the colours 

 which they assumed on being set on fire, and were astonished 

 that he did not, or would not, understand what gave the- 

 flames their various colours. It could not have been frou 

 sunlight, for there was none ; neither could it have been gas- 

 light (or " bottled sunshine," as it is called by our sensational 

 philosophers) for that w;us turned down. It must, therefore, as 

 a necessary consequence, have been inherent in the ma: 

 themselves, and we cannot see how it could be properly ex- 

 plained otherwise. 



Again, by the accepted theory, a bouquet of flowers ought to 

 be colourless at night, but if we hold them to this mineral 

 flame, we see the natural colours of the flowers just as in day- 

 light. Thus proving the fallacy of the assertion that everything 



