The Charm of Color 
249 
and he said that an cc elegantly branched coquet- 
tishly variegated bush” seemed to him like a piece 
of bric-a-brac which should be hunted out and 
praised like some curio hidden on the shelf of a 
collector. 
A lack of color perception seems to have been 
prevalent of ancient days, as it is now in some 
Oriental countries. The Bible offers evidence of 
this, and it has also been observed that the fra- 
grance of flowers is nowhere noted until we reach the 
Song of Solomon. It is believed that in earliest 
time archaic men had no sense of color ; that they 
knew only light and darkness. Mr. Gladstone wrote 
a most interesting paper on the lack of color sense in 
H omer, whose perception of brilliant light was 
good, especially in the glowing reflections of metals, 
but who never names blue or green even in speak- 
ing of the sky, or trees, while his reds and purples 
are hopelessly mixed. Some German scientists have 
maintained that as recently as Homer's day, our 
ancestors were (to use Sir John Lubbock's word) 
blue-blind, which fills me, as it must all blue lovers, 
with profound pity. 
The influence of color has ever been felt by other 
senses than that of sight. In the Cotton Manuscripts , 
written six hundred years ago, the relations and ef- 
fects of color on music and coat-armor were labori- 
ously explained : and many later writers have striven 
to show the effect of color on the health, imagination, 
or fortune. I see no reason for sneering at these 
notions of sense-relation ; I am grateful for borrowed 
terms of definition for these beautiful things which 
