62 ON COLOUR. Past I. 



similar, and subject to the same laws. For yellow and blue 

 do not deceive the eye to the same extent as the others, 

 when in juxtaposition. Nor has red with green the same 

 effect as red with blue and yellow ; and still less have red 

 blue and yellow the same effect as these three colours when 

 united in one. 



A difference will also be caused by the relative qualities 

 of the two colours, as well as by the presence of others; 

 and yellow placed between red and blue (in juxtaposition, 

 therefore, with both of them) is not only agreeable, but is 

 necessary, as before stated, for keeping them distinct, and 

 completes the harmony of the three primaries. 



The difference of effect produced by green and blue with 

 red is well known to those who have fire-coloured hair ; and 

 experience teaches them that green softens the force of red. 

 Blue, on the contrary, being a constrast to red (particularly 

 to scarlet and fire-red, as well as to orange) sets it off; and 

 women with red hair are justified in their habit of diminishing 

 its intensity by the other more suitable colour. In ornamen- 

 tation this is not our object. We want to show, not to hide, 

 the colours. We wish to brighten, not to diminish, their 

 effect. Great quantities of green, therefore, deaden the reds 

 of a carpet or a wall, by depriving them of their full effect, 

 and by interfering with the balance of colour on which har- 

 mony so much depends ; since by taking away from the reds 

 some of their due power, these no longer bear the same pro- 

 portion to the other colours in the design. The same applies 

 to all colours which have a reciprocal effect on each other. 

 Whatever diminishes their effect is contrary to the spirit of 

 ornamentation ; it disturbs and even alters altogether the 

 relative powers of the various colours. For a colour so 

 affected ceases to be the same it really is. Thus a black next 

 to a red, or to a green, or between two of these, ceases to 

 appear really black ; it becomes of a dull, or a russet, hue ; and 



