16 OX COLOUR. Part I. 



so far from green being employed in the large masses she 

 spreads before us, its use should rather be confined to lighting 

 up a coloured composition, for which it is admirably suited. 

 It may also be introduced in larger proportions, when intended 

 to be seen by candlelight, which improves green, while it 

 interferes with the effect of blue ; and this change sufficiently 

 shows how different are the conditions of colour for orna- 

 mentation and in nature. So far, indeed, from adopting the 

 quantities and arrangements of colours in nature for that pur- 

 pose, we should generally deviate widely from them; and 

 who could think of using in decoration the same quantity of 

 green with which she covers the large expanse of a landscape, 

 or of introducing in any one part of a building the mass of 

 green we see in a single tree ? It is reposing to the eye to 

 look upon the great quantity of green in nature, and there is 

 no other colour on which the eye can dwell continually with- 

 out fatigue ; but in ornamenting with colours we do not seek 

 the same repose which is there required ; we seek rather a 

 contrary effect, as in music we are not satisfied with the 

 melody of natural sounds, but delight in that harmony which 

 is as artificial as the combination of positive colours for deco- 

 rative purposes. Nor is it our object to have a repetition of 

 the least fatiguing colour, or of the least effective piece of 

 music ; however soothing green and natural melody may be. 



12. The introduction of great quantities of green is one of 

 the mistakes which always creeps in when society becomes 

 artificial, and is one of the signs of a want or of a decline of 

 taste. The very general use of the primaries, frequently with 

 the addition of black and white, and a little green, marks the 

 taste of people before they become artificial, and before the true 

 perception of colour becomes blunted ; and experience abun- 

 dantly proves, that at first pure taste showed a preference for 

 the primaries, and that it was only when it began to be cor- 

 rupted that a superabundance of the secondaries were ad- 



