IV 



COLOR 



Taking us as a people, by and large, our en- 

 joyment of color is rather barbaric. We have 

 no objection to a lot of it, and if the key is high 

 pitched it does not keep us awake. We have 

 held puritanical objections to liveliness, whether 

 of color, music, speech, thought or conduct, but 

 either we did not recognize it in tints when we 

 saw it, or we are recovering somewhat of that 

 youth of the eye that it had before Cromwell 

 blacked it for us. We improve in taste as we 

 grow younger, and the hope that penetrates far 

 into the future sees, even in our streets, such 

 splendors as were seen in Florence in its days of 

 greatness. Flowers can be vehement, though 

 they seldom are, for green is a delicious solvent 

 that brings them into relation, and often into har- 

 mony : and, again, they are of a purity and trans- 

 parency that softens them, even in contrast. If 

 the hues of certain blossoms are a bit aggressive 



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