198 WOOD AND GARDEN 



and the second condoned, it could only be used in a 

 secondary sense, as signifying something that is useful 

 and suitable and right in its place. In this limited 

 sense the scarlet of the soldier's coiat, and of the pillar- 

 box and mail-cart, and the bright colours of flags, or 

 of the port and starboard lights of ships, might be 

 said to be just so far " artistic " (again if grammar 

 would allow), as they are right and good in their 

 places. But then those who use the word in the usual 

 ignorant-random way have not even this simple con- 

 ception of its meaning. Those who know nothing 

 about colour in the more refined sense (and like a 

 knowledge of everything else it wants learning) get no 

 farther than to enjoy it only when most crude and 

 garish — when, as George Herbert says, it "bids the 

 rash gazer wipe his ^ye," or when there is some violent 

 opposition of complementary colour — forgetting, or not 

 knowing, that though in detail the objects brought 

 together may make each other appear brighter, yet 

 in the mass, and especially when mixed up, the one 

 actually neutralises the other. And they have no idea 

 of using the colour of flowers as precious jewels in a 

 setting of quiet environment, or of suiting the colour 

 of flowering groups to that of the neighbouring foliage, 

 thereby enhancing the value of both, or of massing 

 related or harmonious colourings so as to lead up to 

 the most powerful and brilUant effects; and yet all 

 these are just the ways of employing colour to the best 

 advantage. 



