480 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
appearance ;’ where he leaves out the green, or, at all events, does not 
clearly define it. In the Edda, too, the rainbow is explained to be a tri- 
coloured bridge. 
«Democritus and the Pythagoreans assumed four fundamental colours, 
black, white, red, and yellow, a conception which for a long time obtained in 
antiquity. Nay, ancient writers (Cicero, Pliny, and Quintilian) state it as 
a positive fact that the Greek painters, down to the time of Alexander, 
employed only those four colours. * * * The Chinese have since olden 
times assumed five colours, viz., green in addition to the foregoing.’”— 
( Gieger, loc. cit.) 
And so Max Miiller.—* There is hardly a book now in which we do not 
read of the blue sky. But in the ancient hymns of the Veda, so full of the 
dawn, the sun, and the sky, the blue sky is never mentioned; in the Zenda- 
vesta the blue sky is never mentioned ; in Homer the blue sky is never 
mentioned; in the Old and even in the New Testament the blue sky is 
never mentioned. It has been asked whether we should recognize in this 
a physiological development of our senses, or a gradual increase of words 
capable of expressing finer distinctions of light. No one is likely to contend 
that the irritations of our organs of sense, which produce sensation, as dis- 
tinguished from perception, were different thousands of years ago from what 
they are now. They are the same for all men, the same even for certain 
animals, for we know that there are insects which react very strongly against 
differences of colour. * * * Democritus knew of four colours, viz., black 
and white, which he treated as colours, red and yellow. Are we to say that 
he did not see the blue of the sky because he never called it blue, but etther dark or 
bright? * * * Tn common Arabic, as Palgrave tells us, the names of 
green, black, and brown, are constantly confounded to the present day- It 
is well known that among savage nations we seldom find distinct words for 
blue and black; but we shall find the same indefiniteness of expression 
when we inquire into the antecedents of our own language. Though blue 
now does no longer mean black, we see in ‘such expressions as ‘to beat 
black and blue’ the closeness of the two colours. * * * As languages 
advance, more and more distinctions are introduced, but the variety of 
colours always stands before us as a real infinite. * * As 10 conception 
is possible without a name, I shall probably be asked to produce from the 
dictionaries of Veddas and Papuas any word to express the infinite ; ond 
the absence of such a word, even among more highly civilized races, will be 
considered a sufficient answer to my theory. Let me, therefore, say aa 
more that I entirely reject such an opinion. * * * The infinite wa® 
present from the very beginning in all finite perceptions, just as the bine 
