Experiments upon coloured Shadows. 117 
which always appeared to subsist between the colours, what- 
ever they were, of the two shadows ; and this harmony seemed 
to me to be full as perfect and pleasing when the shadows 
were of different tints of brown, as when one of them was 
blue and the other yellow. In short, the harmony of these 
colours was in all cases not only very striking, but the ap- 
pearances were altogether quite enchanting ; and I never 
found any body to whom I showed these experiments whose 
eyes were not fascinated with their bewitching beauties. It 
is, however, more than probable, that a great part of the plea- 
sure which these experiments afforded to the spectators arose 
from the continual changes of colour, tint, and shade, with 
which the eye was amused, and the attention kept awake. 
We are used to seeing colours fixed and unalterable, hard as 
the solid bodies from which they come, and just as motion- 
less, consequently dead, uninteresting, and tiresome to the 
eye ; but in these experiments all is motion, life, and beauty. 
It appears to me very probable, that a further prosecution 
of these experiments upon coloured shadows may not only 
lead to a knowledge of the real nature of the harmony of 
colours, or the peculiar circumstances upon which that har- 
mony depends ; but that it may also enable us to construct in- 
struments for producing that harmony, for the entertainment 
of the eyes, in a manner similar to that in which the ears 
are entertained by musical sounds. I know that attempts 
have already been made for that purpose ; but when I consi- 
der the means employed, I am not surprised that they did not 
succeed. Where the flowing tide, the varying swell, the 
crescendo is wanting, colours must ever remain hard, cold, and 
inanimate masses. 
