ON COLOURS IN NATURE. 8] 
Also the presentation to the Library of the Proceedings of the following 
Societies :— 
Proceedings of the Royal Society. 
zs Royal Asiatic Society (Bombay Branch). 
ay Royal Colonial Institute. 
et Royal Dublin Society. 
a Royal Geographical Society. 
i Royal Institution. 
Royal Irish Academy. 
Ee Royal Society of Canada. 
5 Royal United Service Institution. 
oe Geological Society. 
re American Geographical Society. 
- + Geological Society. 
os e Philosophical Society. 
99 Canadian Institute. 
a8 New Zealand Institute. 
33 Smithsonian Institute (Washington). 
$3 Society of Arts. 
Sydney Museum. 
Society of Biblical Archzology. 
a The various United States Government Surveys 
And others. 
ARITITAANALA oe Fn ahd 
A NN t we rl i? ) Fim) ‘ < fhe yO f 
wey o VI UE a | 
per was then read by the Author :— | 
a ah } rc ; ; ' 
FOF WASHINGTON DC | 
By the Rev. F. A. Watxer, 
The following 
COLOURS IN NATURE. 
‘Scarlet and blue and purple and fine linen.” 
ae was the combination of colours ordained of God by 
Moses for the service of the Tabernacle at the com- 
mencement of the Jewish national history. And there have 
not been wanting those who, in allegorising the whole of 
the prescribed ritual, have professed to regard the above 
productions of art as symbolising the four elements in the - 
world of Nature,—to wit, scarlet, fire; blue, water; purple, 
as I suppose, air, from the tint of the mountains and clouds 
when viewed through the medium of distance; and fine 
linen, earth, from flax, of which it is composed, being a pro- 
duct of earth. J am not prepared to endorse this interpre- 
tation as the real one, although I do not go so far as to assert 
that no symbolism is intended, and with regard to scarlet, at 
any rate, the deep dyeand glaring character of sin may be hereby 
portrayed, as is more particularly exemplified by scarlet being 
one of the offerings required for the cleansing of the leper, and 
VOL, XXIII. G 
