50 
that children are generally agreeably excited by 
scarlet colour. It is said to produce painful excite- 
ment and angry emotion in some animals; as bulls 
and turkeys. Pliny observes of emeralds: “ The 
pleasure excited by the verdure of leaves and grass 
is nothing compared with that derived from the 
emerald. It fully possesses the eye with enjoyment, 
yet never produces satiety: so that lapidaries, when 
their eyes are wearied by working on stones of other 
colour, refresh and reinvigorate them by looking on 
the emerald. The diamond,” he says, “ has the pro- 
perty of counteracting poison through the eye, and 
of driving away phrensy,” &c. One of the Roman 
emperors is said to have kept a sapphire continually 
in his hand, observing, that the sight soothed his 
mind under frequent irritation. Some colours ex- 
cite nausea when viewed while the nerves are in a 
diseased state. The most beautiful to ordinary 
healthful eyes may be occasionally obnoxious from 
ungrateful association. very writer on the sub- 
ject of the suggestion, as it is called by Brown, or 
association of ideas, or taste, since the publication 
of Allison’s Essay, and on our ideas of sublimity or 
beauty, recognises the complexity of these ideas; 
which are assuredly aggregates of several simple 
agreeable sensations linked together in memory. It 
is a known fact that certain sweet notes delight the 
ear, certain sweet scents the nostrils, sweet savours 
the palate and tongue. The rose tint of the rose 
flower, or that of the British female’s cheek, is 
sweetly beautiful. All produce a common emotion, 
