The Charm of Color 249 



and he said that an " elegantly branched coquet- 

 tishly variegated bush " seemed to him like a piece 

 of bric-a-brac which should be hunted out and 

 praised like some curio hidden on the shelf of a 

 collector. 



A lack of color perception seems to have been 

 prevalent of ancient days, as it is now in some 

 Oriental countries. The Bible offers evidence of 

 this, and it has also been observed that the fra- 

 grance of flowers is nowhere noted until we reach the 

 Song of Solomon. It is believed that in earliest 

 time archaic men had no sense of color ; that they 

 knew only light and darkness. Mr. Gladstone wrote 

 a most interesting paper on the lack of color sense in 

 Homer, whose perception of brilliant light was 

 good, especially in the glowing reflections of metals, 

 but who never names blue or green even in speak- 

 ing of the sky, or trees, while his reds and purples 

 are hopelessly mixed. Some German scientists have 

 maintained that as recently as Homer's day, our 

 ancestors were (to use Sir John Lubbock's word) 

 blue-blind, which fills me, as it must all blue lovers, 

 with profound pity. 



The influence of color has ever been felt by other 

 senses than that of sight. In the Cotton Manuscripts, 

 written six hundred years ago, the relations and ef- 

 fects of color on music and coat-armor were labori- 

 ously explained : and many later writers have striven 

 to show the effect of color on the health, imagination, 

 or fortune. I see no reason for sneering at these 

 notions of sense-relation ; I am grateful for borrowed 

 terms of definition for these beautiful things which 



