102 ON COLOUR. Paet I. 



as I have had occasion to show in Sect. IV. Sometimes, then, 

 a colour of the same hue, and of a deeper, or of a lighter, tone, 

 may be improved, at other times injured, by juxtaposition ; 

 and it may be employed, or avoided, as the case requires. 

 Indeed, in the combination of two or many colours, attention 

 must be paid to the effect they mutually have on each other, 

 sometimes borrowing, sometimes diminishing, each other's 

 power; and the arrangement of a polychrome composition 

 must vary according to the mutual effects of the various 

 colours. For (as I have just said) colours are not only 

 influenced by others of a similar nature, but by those of a 

 totally different character ; a black placed in the midst of red 

 takes from the latter, and when seen at a certain distance, has 

 a rusty, while the red has a brick, hue ; and a bright green in 

 the midst of red looks like a dingy green. The black requires 

 white or yellow next to it in order to give it a decidedly 

 black hue; and the green requires the addition of a yellow 

 to give it its true character. This I have already noticed 

 (p. 62) as the reciprocal effect of colours: and it is quite 

 as essential to consider the effect that a colour has on its 

 neighbour, in order to maintain the just balance of colours, 

 as to avoid the undue predominance of one or more in a 

 composition. This reciprocal effect of colours has been called 

 simultaneous contrast ; and both have been used to convey 

 the same meaning ; though in reality the two should be kept 

 distinct, and applied to different cases. Thus red and black 

 change their character from reciprocal effect, not from con- 

 trast; while black and white have each their true character 

 through simultaneous contrast ; but as the latter term is well 

 known, it is not necessary to insist on the minuteness of this 

 distinction. 



The same colours have also a different effect when seen at 

 a distance from what they have when nearer the eye ; it is, 

 therefore, necessary to consider the point from which they 



