20 ON COLOUR. Part I. 



extended to sounds ; and we must at least allow her the credit 

 of giving them to the notes of birds, and the voices of other 

 animals; yet every one will admit that the sounds uttered by 

 a parrot and a pig, though quite natural, are far from agree- 

 able. So too with flowers ; and as some are most beautiful 

 and harmonious in their colours, others are discordant : and 

 few persons will go so far as to maintain that all nature's 

 works are equally pleasing, or that the figures of all animals 

 being beautiful, we are to admire the hippopotamus, or other 

 hideous creatures, as well as the most graceful. It might be 

 as reasonable to maintain that every odour in nature is 

 agreeable, as that every combination of colour in nature is so. 

 But those who appeal to nature as their guide should rather 

 consult the natural taste of man in colour ; and this they 

 will most certainly find to be most in accordance with the 

 coloured ornamentation of the best periods, and of people 

 most remarkable for taste in this particular. 



16. The coloured works of the Arabs and other orientals will 

 illustrate the fact of the early combinations of colours being 

 the most perfect, and at the same time afford an insight into 

 the proper principle of arranging them in carpets, and similar 

 ornamental fabrics. Here we see that the colour, not the 

 pattern, was the chief object ; and, though they of all people 

 had the greatest facility in combining regular geometrical pat- 

 terns, they abstained from introducing them into carpets. The 

 reason was obvious. The effect was to be produced by colours ; 

 they therefore made these the principal features, and showed 

 by the indistinctness of the patterns how secondary a place the 

 latter were to hold in the composition. And here I cannot 

 abstain from noticing some very sensible remarks by Mr. 

 Giles on this very point : that " colour, and not the pattern, is 

 the primary source of interest in such cases, as in the ordinary 

 Turkey carpet, in which no one looks for a pattern ; and while 

 our Axminsters, Wiltons, and Kidderminsters, the designs of 



