§ 51. NAMES OP COLOURS. 79 



of a lady who was a brunette, I met there another who was 

 remarkably fair, when the conversation turned on the new 

 mode of fitting up the opera house. The colour selected had 

 been of an orange hue. "How much I admire," said the 

 former, "the colour they have chosen for it." "Do you, 

 indeed," said her light haired friend; "do you not think blue 

 would have been preferable ? " I felt quite sure before she 

 spoke what her objection would be; and the reason was 

 equally evident why the other preferred the orange hue; 

 and the same difference of opinion would exist about other 

 colours selected without reference to the taste and require- 

 ments of the wearer. 



51. I have stated that the names of colours are uncertain and 

 indefinite (p. 68), and in proof of this it is only necessary to 

 ask what idea is conveyed to the mind by the mere mention 

 of a red, or a blue, colour ? 'A scarlet coat is called red ; and 

 the term red is applied to a rose, a brick, port wine, mul- 

 berries, cherries, and other things of very different hues : the 

 sky, a violet, a slate, and a steel helmet are called blue ; puce 

 colour has been transferred to a blue-purple ; and the Arabs, 

 who apply "green" to a mouse-colonred horse as well as to 

 a copper-coloured Abyssinian, call jet-black "blue;" and 

 their " blue horse" may mean one of jet-black, or iron-grey, 

 colour. In like manner, the Welsh glas " blue," or " green," 

 is applied to black (provided it has no brown tinge) ; and grey 

 is also called "blue" ([/las). — Hence glastum, a name of woad. 



It would lead to endless confusion if the names were thus 

 vaguely used in the application of colours ; and yet so un- 

 settled is their nomenclature in most countries, that it is 

 often impossible, in reading the description of any object, to 

 form in our mind a true idea of its colour and appearance. 

 Even when we are more particular, and we attempt to point 

 out certain tones which are thought to be well defined, we are 

 not always intelligible ; thus the well-known name of purple 

 conveys no positive idea of the colour we mean ; and some 



