330 MAUVE AND MAGENTA. 



This list might be considerably extended if there were any reason for 

 so doing. Our purpose is answered if we have sufficiently explained the 

 sources from which are now procured this class of charming colours, before 

 which the boasted Tyrian, or Imperial Purple, must pale. The colour ob- 

 tained from the shell-fish does not appear to have been a permanent colour ; 

 though costly, it was evanescent. The Mauve and Magenta are permanent 

 colours. Light does not bleach them ; the weaker acids do not stain them ; 

 the colour is dependent on the oxidation of the base of it, whereas, in nearly 

 all other colours, the action of oxygen is to destroy the colour. 



The power of chemistry is exemplified in this discovery, and through it 

 physical science teaches us a remarkable truth. 



Aniline is formed in the Indigo/era Anil, or Indigo Plant, in the process 

 of vegetation ; and we find Aniline existing in the coal that has been buried 

 myriads of ages, deep in our solid rock formations. 



Every organised form is the result of the action of the solar rays. The 

 woody structure of a plant is only formed under the influence of Light, and 

 for every equivalent of sunshine an equivalent of wood is formed. So of 

 the vegetable juices, and so of vegetable colours. In Nature's arcana the 

 Great Alchemist changes Light into Colour, and from the Imponderable 

 Powers, material forms are created, the quantity being always in exact pro- 

 portion to the amount of solar influence brought into action on matter. 



We may perhaps be able to render this intelligible to the unscientific 

 reader, by taking an example from another department of science. Elec- 

 tricity is always developed during chemical change. The galvanic battery 

 is merely an arrangement for taking advantage of this. A plate of zinc, 

 when placed in water, rusts, or oxidises — taking its oxygen, to form Oxide 

 of Zinc, from the water. For every grain of this oxide formed, an equivalent 

 (an exact quantity) of water is decomposed — and an equally exact propor- 

 tion of electricity is liberated. If near this zinc plate a piece of copper is 

 placed, it collects this subtile Power ; and provided we attach to each piece 

 of metal a wire, and carry those wires into another vessel of water, holding 

 a metal in solution — say copper — a remarkable action takes place. The 

 electricity obtained by the oxidation of the metal, zinc, in one vessel, passes 

 over by the wires into the other, and there it precipitates precisely the 

 same proportion of copper as was required of zinc to develop the electricity 

 in the first vessel. 



The Sun is represented by the galvanic arrangement. In that orb 

 matter is continually changing its form to produce Light, Heat, and other 

 Physical forces ; the connecting wires are the sun-beams, and our earth is 

 the second vessel — or the recipient — upon which a corresponding change of 

 matter is effected — the agencies being absorbed in producing the material 

 effect. That " every dust is weighed in the balance," we are told by the 

 inspired poet ; and this beautiful truth is proved to the satisfaction of the 

 hivman intellect by the labours of the philosopher. 



By the sun-light the face of early Nature was covered with vegetable 

 forms, and the Powers emanating from the sun were used {expended) in 



