6 ON COLOUR. Part I. 



judging of colour. The fact is most interesting, but it has 

 no bearing on the question, it is only to be used as a simile ; 

 and when practice has given us the means of understanding 

 the whole subject, we may amuse ourselves with this or any 

 other speculation on the analogy of colours and sound, with- 

 out fear of being drawn thereby into hasty and erroneous 

 conclusions. 



5. Every one willingly admits the great utility of rules ; but 

 we must first make ourselves masters of the subject, and be 

 contented to seek for facts to guide us in their formation. 

 As I have already observed, it is useless to pretend to write a 

 grammar before the language is understood ; and languages 

 were spoken long before grammarians laid down their rules. 

 In like manner, poetic genius was never obtained by theory ; 

 the beauty of proportion and of form, and various harmonious 

 effects, have been appreciated at all times ; and the mark is 

 hit by an arrow, or a ball, without any acquaintance with the 

 curve of a parabola. Again, we hear a sharp sound more readily 

 than a deep one, without having first to understand the nature 

 of quick and slow vibrations ; and we know whether the per- 

 fume of a flower is sweet without having to wait for a theory 

 of scent. Experiments, such as looking at a colour through 

 a particular medium with the right, and through a different 

 one with the left, eye, or conjectures denying the existence 

 of more than one primary colour, making yellow a "de- 

 clining red and blue privation of light," are interesting as phi- 

 losophical inquiries, but are quite irrespective of the effect of 

 colours as they present themselves to the eye under ordinary 

 circumstances, and have no more bearing upon the harmony 

 and combination of various hues than they might have on 

 j udging of the beauty and effect of a painting ; and to admit 

 any conclusions from them respecting the concords, or the 

 relationship of colours to each other, has only the effect of 

 substituting theory for fact. 



