310 THE WORLD OF LIFE chap. 



to the Colours of Animals and Plants, and I opened the 

 discussion with the following remarks, which indicate my 

 present views on the subject. I will, therefore, give a few 

 passages here : 



" There is probably no one quality of natural objects from which 

 we derive so much pure intellectual enjoyment as from their colours. 

 The heavenly blue of the firmament, the glowing tints of sunset, 

 the exquisite purity of the snowy mountains, and the endless shades 

 of green presented by the verdure - clad surface of the earth, are 

 a never-failing source of pleasure to all who enjoy the inestimable 

 gift of sight. Yet these constitute, as it were, but the frame and 

 background of a marvellous and ever-changing picture. In contrast 

 with these broad and soothing tints, we have presented to us, in the 

 vegetable and animal worlds, an infinite variety of objects adorned 

 with the most beautiful and the most varied hues. Flowers, insects, 

 and birds are the organisms most generally ornamented in this way ; 

 and their symmetry of form, their variety of structure, and the 

 lavish abundance with which they clothe and enliven the earth, 

 cause them to be objects of universal admiration. The relation 

 of this wealth of colour to our mental and moral nature is 

 indisputable. The child and the savage alike admire the gay 

 tints of flower, bird, and insect ; while to many of us their con- 

 templation brings a solace and enjoyment which is wholly beneficial. 

 It can then hardly excite surprise that this relation was long thought 

 to afford a sufficient explanation of the phenomena of colour in 

 nature, and this received great support from the difficulty of 

 conceiving any other use or meaning in the colours with which 

 so many natural objects are adorned. Why should the homely 

 gorse be clothed in golden raiment, and the prickly cactus be 

 adorned with crimson bells ? Why should our fields be gay with 

 buttercups, and the heather-clad mountains be clad in purple robes ? 

 Why should every land produce its own peculiar floral gems, and 

 the alpine rocks glow with beauty, if not for the contemplation and 

 enjoyment of man ? What could be the use to the butterfly of 

 its gaily-painted wings, or to the humming-bird of its jewelled breast, 

 except to add the final touches to a world - picture calculated at 

 once to please and to refine mankind ? And even now, with all 

 our recently acquired knowledge of this subject, who shall say 

 that these old-world views were not intrinsically and fundamentally 

 sound ; and that although we now know that colour has ' uses ' 

 in nature that we little dreamt of, yet the relations of those colours 

 — or rather of the various rays of light — to our senses and emotions 

 may not be another, and more important use which they subserve 

 in the great system of the universe ? " 



The above passage was written more than forty years 





