82 BEV. F. A. WALKER, D.D., F.L.S., 
having regard to such a passage of Holy Writ as Isaiah 1. 18: 
“Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as 
snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” 
But the special reason why I have mentioned the colours 
enjoined for the service of the Tabernacle is, that scarlet, blue, 
and purple are here spoken of in combination, and scarlet, 
blue, and purple are three of the colours in Nature to which 
I wish to draw your attention, more particularly in the case 
of purple, as there is without doubt great variety and dis- 
crepancy in the particular colour intended by the word purple, 
as employed in different writers, ages, and countries. The 
ordinary modern acceptation of the word purple without doubt 
signifies such a tint as belongs to the Viola odorata and 
the purple crocus, to the purple, moreover, of a leaden- 
coloured cloud when lighted up by sun-light; and this state- 
ment derives additional corroboration from the fact that 
a large South American butterfly, Caligo Inachis, is also 
termed Uranus, or Heaven, from its purple wings with 
yellow band, being supposed to resemble the purple and 
gold of sunset. As an entirely different colour is intended, 
and described in the lines,— 
“The roseate hues of early dawn, 
The brightness of the day, 
The crimson of the sunset sky, 
How fast they fade away.” 
So, too, the purple mountain of Killarney, exhibiting a similar 
appearance in the intensity of its tint to the beautiful title 
of Athens in classic times as the “ city of the violet crown,” 
ioorépavor AOyva, from its environment by such purple hills 
as Pentelicus, Hymettus, &c., as I have seen and can 
personally testify. 
Of quite another hue was the Tyrian purple of the ancients, 
that became a synonym for royal attire. For example, the 
purple that is mentioned, together with fine linen, in St. 
Luke’s Gospel. We may feel assured of this from the 
original word in the Greek being zop¢tpeoe, also employed 
to designate the dark, dull red stone known, when Anglicised, 
as porphyry. Similarly, “born in the purple” became a 
proverbial expression for offspring born to reigning monarchs. 
A Byzantine prince was termed Porphyrogenitus, when born 
in an apartment with royal hangings of red, which was assigned 
for births in the imperial family, and the porphyry, or red, in 
which ancient missals, splendidly illuminated and richly deco- 
rated with gold or silver, were bound, was said to be of the 
