§44. HOW COLOURS AFFECT EACH OTHER. 61 



quite distinct from blue and yellow, but has a very different 

 effect in combination with other colours from that produced 

 by blue and yellow. Such a theory might obtain for the 

 mono-chrome taste of churchwardens the credit of using: all 

 the primaries in the whitened walls for which our churches 

 are so remarkable ; but our sensations tell us the monotonous 

 truth. 



44. The great point in ornamenting with colours is to keep 

 them distinct; and to seek effect, not confusion, from their 

 combinations ; and the necessity of enabling the eye to see the 

 colours separately and distinctly may be illustrated by placing 

 red, blue, and green together, when the red and blue in 

 juxtaposition have the appearance of purple, which is a 

 discord with green ; whereas, if a yellow fillet had been inter- 

 posed between those two colours they would have been kept 

 distinct, and what has become a discord would have been a 

 harmonious combination. When the red and blue are in 

 small quantities, as, for instance, in narrow lines, the purple 

 effect becomes more evident, particularly when viewed from 

 a distance; and we not unfrequently see instances of it in 

 our modern stained glass windows. But though red and blue 

 in juxtaposition have the appearance of purple, and yellow 

 placed next to red gives it an orange hue, the same illusion 

 is not caused by the contact of the other two primary colours, 

 blue and yellow; and these do not look green when in juxta- 

 position, except in certain cases. Nor is the change then so 

 marked, as when blue and red, or yellow and red, are in con- 

 tact. And this is one of many proofs that all the three 

 primary colours are not under the same conditions in relation 

 to each other. It is not, therefore, necessary to lay down 

 the same general and invariable rule respecting the three 

 primaries: that "in making new patterns or ornaments, red 

 and blue should not join, nor yellow and red, nor yellow 

 and blue,'' as though the three combinations were exact]} 



