 | Studies of Nature |  |
OF COLOURS.
Colours, say naturalists, are refractions of light on bodies, demonstrated by the prism, which, by breaking a ray of the sun, decompounds it into seven coloured rays, displaying themselves in the following order: red, orange, yellow,
First, it is evident four of these are compounded; for orange is made up of yellow and red; green of yellow and blue; violet of blue and red; and indigo is only a tint of blue surcharged with black. This reduces the solar colours to three primordial; namely, yellow, red, and blue; to which if we add white, the colour of light, and black, the privation of it, we shall have five simple colours, with which may be compounded all imaginable shades of colour.
I must here observe, that our philosophical machinery deceives us with its affectation of superior intelligence, not only in ascribing false elements to Nature, as when the prism displays compound for primitive colours, but by stripping her of such as are true; for how many white and black bodies must be reckoned colourless, considering that this same prism does not exhibit their tints in the decomposition of the solar ray!
This instrument leads us farther into an error respecting the natural order of these very colours, by making the red ray the first in the series, and the violet ray the last. The order of colours in the prism, therefore, is only a triangular decomposition of a ray of cylindrical light, the two extremes of which, red and violet, participate the one of the other, without terminating it; so that the principle of colours, which is the white ray and its progressive decomposition, is no longer manifested in it. I believe it is even possible to cut a crystal with so many angles as would give to the refractions of the solar ray an order entirely different, and multiply the pretended primitive colours far beyond the number seven. The authority of such a polyedron would be as respectable as that of the prism, if the algebraists were to apply to it a few calculations, somewhat obscure, with a seasoning of the corpuscular philosophy, as they have done with regard to the effects of the triangular instrument.
We shall employ a method, not quite so learned, to convey an idea of the generation of colours, and the decomposition of the solar ray. Instead of examining them in a prism of glass, we shall consider them in the heavens, and there we
In a fine summer's night, when the sky is loaded only with some light vapours, sufficient to stop and to refract the rays of the sun, walk out into an open plain, where the first fires of Aurora may be perceptible. You will first observe the horizon whiten at the spot where she is to make her appearance; and this radiance, from its colour, has procured for it, in the French language, the name of aube, (the dawn,) from the Latin word alba, white. This whiteness insensibly ascends in the heavens, assuming a tint of yellow some degrees above the horizon; the yellow as it rises passes into orange; and this shade of orange rises upward into the lively vermilion, which extends as far as the zenith. From that point you will perceive in the heavens behind you the violet succeeding the vermilion, then the azure, after it the deep blue or indigo colour, and, last of all, the black, quite to the westward.
Though this display of colours presents a multitude of intermediate shades, which rapidly succeed each other, yet at the moment the sun is going to exhibit his disk, the dazzling white is visible in the horizon, the pure yellow at an elevation of 45 degrees; the fire colour in the zenith; the pure blue 45 degrees under it, toward the west; and in the very west the dark veil of night still lingering on the horizon. I think I have remarked this progression between the tropics, where there is scarcely any horizontal refraction to make the light prematurely encroach on the darkness, as in our climates.
Sometimes the trade-winds, from the north-east or south-east, blow there, card the clouds through each other, then sweep them to the west, crossing and recrossing them over one another, like the osiers interwoven in a transparent basket. They throw over the sides of this chequered work the clouds which are not employed in the contexture, roll them up into enormous masses, as white as snow, draw them out along their extremities in the form of a crupper, and pile them upon each other, moulding them into the shape of mountains, caverns, and rocks; afterwards, as evening approaches, they grow somewhat calm, as if afraid of deranging their own workmanship. When the sun sets behind this magnificent netting, a multitude of luminous rays are transmitted
These celestial valleys present in their different contours inimitable tints of white, melting away into white, or shades lengthening themselves out without mixing over other shades. You see, here and there, issuing from the cavernous sides of those mountains, tides of light precipitating themselves, in ingots of gold and silver, over rocks of coral. Here it is a gloomy rock, pierced through and through, disclosing, beyond the aperture, the pure azure of the firmament; there it is an extensive strand, covered with sands of gold, stretching over the rich ground of heaven; poppy-coloured, scarlet, and green as the emerald.
The reverberation of those western colours diffuses itself over the sea, whose azure billows it glazes with saffron and purple. The mariners, leaning over the gunwale of the ship, admire in silence those aerial landscapes. Sometimes this sublime spectacle presents itself to them at the hour of prayer, and seems to invite them to lift up their hearts with their voices to the heavens. It changes every instant into forms as variable as the shades, presenting celestial colours and forms which no pencil can pretend to imitate, and no language can describe.
Travellers who have, at various seasons, ascended to the summits of the highest mountains on the globe, never could perceive, in the clouds below them, any thing but a gray and lead-coloured surface, similar to that of a lake. The sun, notwithstanding, illuminated them with his whole light; and his rays might there combine all the laws of refraction to which our systems of physics have subjected them. Hence not a single shade of colour is employed in vain,
These admirable concerts of lights and forms, manifest only in the lower region of the clouds the least illuminated by the sun, are produced by laws with which I am totally unacquainted. But the whole are reducible to five colours: yellow, a generation from white; red, a deeper shade of yellow; blue, a strong tint of red; and black, the extreme tint of blue. This progression cannot be doubted, on observing in the morning the expansion of the light in the heavens. You there see those five colours, with their intermediate shades, generating each other nearly in this order: white, sulphur yellow, lemon yellow, yolk of egg yellow, orange, aurora colour, poppy red, full red, carmine red, purple, violet, azure, indigo, and black. Each colour seems to be only a strong tint of that which precedes it, and a faint tint of that which follows; thus the whole together appear to be only modulations of a progression, of which white is the first term, and black the last.
Indeed trade cannot be carried on to any advantage, with the Negroes, Tartars, Americans, and East Indians, but through the medium of red cloths. The testimonies of travellers are unanimous respecting the preference universally given to this colour. I have indicated the universality of this taste, merely to demonstrate the falsehood of the philosophic axiom, that tastes are arbitrary, or that there are in Nature no laws for beauty, and that our tastes are the effects of prejudice. The direct contrary of this is the truth; prejudice corrupts our natural tastes, otherwise the same over the whole earth.
With red Nature heightens the brilliant parts of the most beautiful flowers. She has given a complete clothing of it to the rose, the queen of the garden: and bestowed this tint on the blood, the principle of life in animals: she invests most of the feathered race, in India, with a plumage of this colour, especially in the season of love; and there are few birds without some shades, at least, of this rich hue. Some preserve entirely the gray or brown ground of their plumage, but glazed over with red, as if they had been rolled in carmine; others are besprinkled with red, as if you had blown a scarlet powder over them.
The red colour, situated in the midst of the five primordial
Colours may also have a powerful influence on the passions; and, as well as their harmonies, may be referred to the moral affections. For example, making red the point of departure, which is the harmonic colour supereminently, and proceeding towards white in an ascending progression, the nearer you approach to this first term, the more lively and gay are the colours. You will have in succession the poppy, orange, yellow, lemon, sulphur, and white. On the contrary, the farther you proceed from red towards black, the sadder and more lugubrious are the colours; for this is the progression; purple, violet, blue, indigo, and black.
In the harmonies to be formed, on both sides, by the union of opposite colours, the more that the tints of the ascending progression predominate, the more lively will be the harmonies produced; and the contrary will take place as the colours of the descending harmony shall prevail. From this harmonic effect, green, compounded of yellow and blue, is so much more gay, as the yellow has the ascendant, and sad in proportion as the blue predominates.
From this harmonic influence, white transfuses most gayety into all other tints, because it is light itself. Nay, it produces, from opposition, a most delightful effect in the harmonies, which I call melancholy; for blended with violet, it gives the delicious hue of the lilac flower; mixed with blue, it makes azure; and with black, produces pearl-gray; but melted away into red, it exhibits the rose-colour, that enchanting tint, the flower of life. But according to the predominance of black in gay colours, the effect produced is more mournful than that of unmixed black. This becomes perceptible on blending it with yellow, orange, and red, thereby rendered dull and gloomy colours. Red gives life
It would be ridiculous to affect ignorance of the objections which may be started against the universality of these principles. We have represented white as a gay, and black as a sad colour. Nevertheless, certain negro nations represent the devil as white; the inhabitants of the peninsula of India, in token of mourning, rub their forehead and temples with the powder of sandal-wood, the colour of which is a yellowish white. The navigator La Barbinois says, that white is the colour of mourning among the Chinese. From these instances it might be concluded, that the feeling of colour must be arbitrary, as it is not the same in all nations.
I venture to offer the following reply to these objections. The black nations of Africa and Asia prefer white women to those of every other tint. If there be negro nations who paint the devil white, it is from the strong feeling they have of the tyranny the whites exercise over them. White, accordingly, having become with them a political colour, ceases to be a natural one. Besides, the white of the devil is not a white beautifully harmonious, like that of the human figure, but a dead chalk white, such as that with which our painters illuminate the figures of phantoms and ghosts in their magical and infernal scenes.
If this dazzling colour is the expression of mourning among the Indians and Chinese, the reason is, it contrasts harshly with the black skin of those nations. The Indians are black. The skin of the southern Chinese is much sun-burnt. They derive their religion and leading customs from India, the inhabitants of which are black. Their outward garments are of a gloomy colour; and the ornamental furniture of their houses consists of beautiful black varnished ware. White must, therefore, produce a harsh dissonance with their furniture, dress, and above all, with the dusky colour of their skin.
If those nations wore a black habit, in mourning, as we do, be their colour ever so deep, it would not form a clashing opposition in their dress. The expression of grief, accordingly, is precisely the same with them as with us. For if we in mourning oppose the black colour of our clothes to the white of our skin, thence to produce a funereal dissonance, the southern nations oppose the white colour of their garments
This variety of taste confirms the universality of the principles we have laid down respecting the causes of harmony and dissonance. It farther demonstrates, that the agreeableness or disagreeableness of a colour resides not in one single shade, but in the harmony, or in the clashing contrast, of two opposite colours.
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