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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Symbolism Of Colour.
SYMBOLISM OF COLOUR .
LONDON , SATURDAY , OCTOBER 1 , 1859 .
" Foi'iiue diguitas coloris bonitate tuencla est . " Cicero de Ojjiciis , i . 36 . AVHEN the Almighty fiat went forth on the first day of creation , " Let the earth bring forth grass , and the herb y ielding seed , and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind , whose seed is in itself , upon the earth : and it ivas so "—the
o-lorious purpose could scarcel y be said to be perfected till the following day , when the fourth command was promulgated , by which the beauteous creation of plants and trees , herbs , mid all the pompous panoply of nature then starting into being would be apparent to man for whom all this gorgeousness of creation was preparing ; for on that day passed first
the creative word : " Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the clay from the night ; and let them be for signs , and for seasons , and for days , and for years . And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth : and it was so . " Then and not before was accomplished the purpose of
Jehovah , to gladden the lord of all this mighty preparation , who was soon to enter into the full fruition of his being ,-b y the perception ancl enjoyment of all the grand ancl beautiful in nature ; thou was his eye opened to the cerulean Vault of heaven , to the green carpet of the earth , studded with all the countless varied hues that the refraction of the new born sun produced ; the rich umbrageous woods filled with the
beauteous and contrasted hues of an infinite feathered multitude , exhibiting at every move a neiv prismatic change . This consummation was perfected as soon as the glorious luminary of day appeared above the horizon ; then was granted to man the gracious boon of colour . To estimate more fully this most precious gift of heaven
, let us only for a moment figure our world and all creation deprived of-the prismatic action of the solar rays , and contemplate the appearance of every object on which we could cast our eyesight , veiled in one uniform unvaried tint ; a case almost within the description of Virgil ' s Cyclops , taken objectively ;—
" Monstrum informe ingens cui lumen ademptum , " It is of no consequence what single tint we propose in which to cloud all nature ; any one unvaried ivould be equally objectionable ; red would weary the eyesight , and tend to weaken , if it did not induce blindness ; brown or black would afflict the mindand induce melancholy ; even the more
, subued tints of green or blue would ultimately wear down the soul by monotonous insi pidity and unvarying tameness . With such an habitation its human denizen would attain , the same frame of mind which Virgil ( Mil . iv . 450 ) attributes from different causes to Dido when . / Eneas fled : —
' ¦ . nun vero mfelix fatis exterrita Dido Mortem orat ; taxlet cceli convexa tueri . " _ Sir Isaac Newton says in his " Opticks" : — " If the sun ' s light consisted but of one sort of rays , there would be but one colour in the whole world ; nor would it be possible to produce any new colour by reflexions or refractions ; and by consequence that the variety of colours depends the
upon composition of li ^ ht . " - p from such a tristc and miserable abode , such an unchanged and wearisome existence , we arc kindly saved by the diversity of the solar rays and tho variety of colour , which , however , could scarcely have been perceived before Mankind made use of this diversity ; and it seems but
reason" ¦ Ue that mankind should early in the natural distinction ol colours have sought corresponding tokens of the different relations of life , of thought and action . This was but a accessary consequence of the permanence , the variety aud 'ho beaut y of the physical objects around them . By degrees 0 evei 7 tin * un unchanging idea was attached , and which ™ ay have been fostered hy the ideas which some of the "neients entertained , ofthe uatm-e of colour . Plato consider od
all colour as a flame issuing from the coloured substances , a reflex of the rays of his supreme god—the sun . The stoic Zeno called it the contour and boundary of matter ; and Aristotle said it was some property by which alone bodies became visible ; here evidentl y defining a cause by a consequence . Ashoweverthe opinion of Plato seems to have
, , been , if not so acknowledged , at least the received general theory of the ancient ancl eastern world , we cannot wonder that a due appreciation of colour became soon an object of religious usage , and that particular colours were soon appropriated and restricted to particular divinities . The language of colours became thus intimatelv allied to the heathen
dispensations in China , in Egypt , in Greece , and in Rome . Even in the remote clime of Iceland , where nature is divested of half her beauty , the darker and cloudy lines were introduced into its creed ; and in the middle ages the missals , the encrusted walls of their churches , the encaustic paintings , and the glorious windows ' dim with reli gious light , " each
told its story of mythic lore in the various tints it exhibited . The conventional colours these displayed were of most ancient usage , and of the most venerable observance . We may trace many of their contrasts ancl much of their splendour and ^ beauty to the liturgical precepts of the Zendavesta ; to the Brahniii ileal rituals of the Vedas . The reproduction of the
jDolychromic figures and temples from most of the countries we have named , enshrined in their new crystal repository at Sydenham , that literall y " doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus , and we petty men
Walk , under his huge legs ancl peep about , " bears witness to the truth of our assertion : there in a microcosm , " a narrow world , " is collected full evidence of the truth of the constant and unvaried symbolism of colour . In Egypt , that land of priestcraft ancl intelligence , the robe of Isis was of every hue which the natural objects of
the country afforded . Osiris , the puissant god , was the luminary , the sun by which alone she , as variegated nature , shone . The chromic orthodoxy of Egypt was kept up by the strictest injunctions . Synesius tells us that their laws prohibited the workers of metals and their stonemasons from
forming figures of their divinities , for fear of a departure from established forms and tints . At Home the monopol y of the imperial purple to the family of the emperor is inculcated as late as the Justinian code ; ancl it is well known that in China the minute gradations of rank to the present date are carefully denoted by the colour of the garment ; and in
that celestial empire , possibly , the study of precedence and authority may be there as curious and ridiculous as the labours of our heralds in their multip lied , tints and blazons . The Chinese code gives three hundred bastinadoes and three years of banishment to any ono unlucky or daring enough to encroach uuauthorizeclly upon the sacred figures ofthe green
dragon or the yellow phoenix . Turner ' s " Embassy to Thibet" ( p . 314 , ) gives us a similar fixity ancl meaning for colour in Thibet , neighbouring and much dependent upon China : — " The priests were habited in long robes of yellow cloth with a conical cap of the same colour , having flaps to draw down and
cover the cars . I notice this particularity in the colour of their dress , us it is a distinction adopted to mark one of the tivo religious sects that divide almost the whole of Tartary to the eastern limits of this country . The other colour is rod , and the tribes arc known as belonging to the reel or yellow cap . The former differs principally , as I understand , from the sectaries of the yclloiA- in admitting the marriage of their priests . But the latter
are considered as the most orthodox , as well as possessed of by far the greatest influence . 'The Emperor of China is decidedly a votary of this sect , ami he has sanctified his preference of the yellow colour by a sumptuary law , which limits it to the service of religion and the imperial use . "
This may however have been a later innovation of the now dominant Mi . ntchew Tartars who entered China m 1 C > £ 3 , w AVC find , is . Sfcauutoivs &_ eouut e ! _ tty . embassy fclufchw . " ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Symbolism Of Colour.
SYMBOLISM OF COLOUR .
LONDON , SATURDAY , OCTOBER 1 , 1859 .
" Foi'iiue diguitas coloris bonitate tuencla est . " Cicero de Ojjiciis , i . 36 . AVHEN the Almighty fiat went forth on the first day of creation , " Let the earth bring forth grass , and the herb y ielding seed , and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind , whose seed is in itself , upon the earth : and it ivas so "—the
o-lorious purpose could scarcel y be said to be perfected till the following day , when the fourth command was promulgated , by which the beauteous creation of plants and trees , herbs , mid all the pompous panoply of nature then starting into being would be apparent to man for whom all this gorgeousness of creation was preparing ; for on that day passed first
the creative word : " Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the clay from the night ; and let them be for signs , and for seasons , and for days , and for years . And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth : and it was so . " Then and not before was accomplished the purpose of
Jehovah , to gladden the lord of all this mighty preparation , who was soon to enter into the full fruition of his being ,-b y the perception ancl enjoyment of all the grand ancl beautiful in nature ; thou was his eye opened to the cerulean Vault of heaven , to the green carpet of the earth , studded with all the countless varied hues that the refraction of the new born sun produced ; the rich umbrageous woods filled with the
beauteous and contrasted hues of an infinite feathered multitude , exhibiting at every move a neiv prismatic change . This consummation was perfected as soon as the glorious luminary of day appeared above the horizon ; then was granted to man the gracious boon of colour . To estimate more fully this most precious gift of heaven
, let us only for a moment figure our world and all creation deprived of-the prismatic action of the solar rays , and contemplate the appearance of every object on which we could cast our eyesight , veiled in one uniform unvaried tint ; a case almost within the description of Virgil ' s Cyclops , taken objectively ;—
" Monstrum informe ingens cui lumen ademptum , " It is of no consequence what single tint we propose in which to cloud all nature ; any one unvaried ivould be equally objectionable ; red would weary the eyesight , and tend to weaken , if it did not induce blindness ; brown or black would afflict the mindand induce melancholy ; even the more
, subued tints of green or blue would ultimately wear down the soul by monotonous insi pidity and unvarying tameness . With such an habitation its human denizen would attain , the same frame of mind which Virgil ( Mil . iv . 450 ) attributes from different causes to Dido when . / Eneas fled : —
' ¦ . nun vero mfelix fatis exterrita Dido Mortem orat ; taxlet cceli convexa tueri . " _ Sir Isaac Newton says in his " Opticks" : — " If the sun ' s light consisted but of one sort of rays , there would be but one colour in the whole world ; nor would it be possible to produce any new colour by reflexions or refractions ; and by consequence that the variety of colours depends the
upon composition of li ^ ht . " - p from such a tristc and miserable abode , such an unchanged and wearisome existence , we arc kindly saved by the diversity of the solar rays and tho variety of colour , which , however , could scarcely have been perceived before Mankind made use of this diversity ; and it seems but
reason" ¦ Ue that mankind should early in the natural distinction ol colours have sought corresponding tokens of the different relations of life , of thought and action . This was but a accessary consequence of the permanence , the variety aud 'ho beaut y of the physical objects around them . By degrees 0 evei 7 tin * un unchanging idea was attached , and which ™ ay have been fostered hy the ideas which some of the "neients entertained , ofthe uatm-e of colour . Plato consider od
all colour as a flame issuing from the coloured substances , a reflex of the rays of his supreme god—the sun . The stoic Zeno called it the contour and boundary of matter ; and Aristotle said it was some property by which alone bodies became visible ; here evidentl y defining a cause by a consequence . Ashoweverthe opinion of Plato seems to have
, , been , if not so acknowledged , at least the received general theory of the ancient ancl eastern world , we cannot wonder that a due appreciation of colour became soon an object of religious usage , and that particular colours were soon appropriated and restricted to particular divinities . The language of colours became thus intimatelv allied to the heathen
dispensations in China , in Egypt , in Greece , and in Rome . Even in the remote clime of Iceland , where nature is divested of half her beauty , the darker and cloudy lines were introduced into its creed ; and in the middle ages the missals , the encrusted walls of their churches , the encaustic paintings , and the glorious windows ' dim with reli gious light , " each
told its story of mythic lore in the various tints it exhibited . The conventional colours these displayed were of most ancient usage , and of the most venerable observance . We may trace many of their contrasts ancl much of their splendour and ^ beauty to the liturgical precepts of the Zendavesta ; to the Brahniii ileal rituals of the Vedas . The reproduction of the
jDolychromic figures and temples from most of the countries we have named , enshrined in their new crystal repository at Sydenham , that literall y " doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus , and we petty men
Walk , under his huge legs ancl peep about , " bears witness to the truth of our assertion : there in a microcosm , " a narrow world , " is collected full evidence of the truth of the constant and unvaried symbolism of colour . In Egypt , that land of priestcraft ancl intelligence , the robe of Isis was of every hue which the natural objects of
the country afforded . Osiris , the puissant god , was the luminary , the sun by which alone she , as variegated nature , shone . The chromic orthodoxy of Egypt was kept up by the strictest injunctions . Synesius tells us that their laws prohibited the workers of metals and their stonemasons from
forming figures of their divinities , for fear of a departure from established forms and tints . At Home the monopol y of the imperial purple to the family of the emperor is inculcated as late as the Justinian code ; ancl it is well known that in China the minute gradations of rank to the present date are carefully denoted by the colour of the garment ; and in
that celestial empire , possibly , the study of precedence and authority may be there as curious and ridiculous as the labours of our heralds in their multip lied , tints and blazons . The Chinese code gives three hundred bastinadoes and three years of banishment to any ono unlucky or daring enough to encroach uuauthorizeclly upon the sacred figures ofthe green
dragon or the yellow phoenix . Turner ' s " Embassy to Thibet" ( p . 314 , ) gives us a similar fixity ancl meaning for colour in Thibet , neighbouring and much dependent upon China : — " The priests were habited in long robes of yellow cloth with a conical cap of the same colour , having flaps to draw down and
cover the cars . I notice this particularity in the colour of their dress , us it is a distinction adopted to mark one of the tivo religious sects that divide almost the whole of Tartary to the eastern limits of this country . The other colour is rod , and the tribes arc known as belonging to the reel or yellow cap . The former differs principally , as I understand , from the sectaries of the yclloiA- in admitting the marriage of their priests . But the latter
are considered as the most orthodox , as well as possessed of by far the greatest influence . 'The Emperor of China is decidedly a votary of this sect , ami he has sanctified his preference of the yellow colour by a sumptuary law , which limits it to the service of religion and the imperial use . "
This may however have been a later innovation of the now dominant Mi . ntchew Tartars who entered China m 1 C > £ 3 , w AVC find , is . Sfcauutoivs &_ eouut e ! _ tty . embassy fclufchw . " ,