Symbolism Of Colour.

descriptions of the interiors of their temples ancl palaces , and paintings frequently mentioned us vermillion , and notices of red ornaments in them . The envelope for the royal drinking cup of gold , after being licked clean b y the imperial tongue , is a piece of red silk .

The symbolism or the perpetuity of colour was not confined to the narrow bounds of the eastern hemisphere : the same deference to particular colours was g iven b y Aztecs ancl Tolteeks ( the most ancient inhabitants we read of for Central America ) as in the Old World , and though man y curious traces of mutual knowledge are gradually opening betwixt

the Neiv ancl the Old World , this deference to colour seems but a common feeling implanted in every human being whose organs of sight are perfect . In Mexico , the favourite , the sacred , aud the regal colour seems to have been green .

Prescott ( " Conquest of Mexico , ' vol . ii ., p . CO ) , tells us " It was not long before he ( the King of Texueo ) appeared borne in a palanquin litter richly decorated with plates of gold and precious stones , having p illars curiously wrought supporting a canopy of green plumes , a favourite colour with the Aztec princes ; ' and at p . 03 , of Montezuma ' s dress at his interview with Cortez it is said , " Both the cloak and

sandals were srjrinkled with pearls and precious stones , amongst which the emerald and the chalihivit , a green stone of a hi gher estimation than any other amongst the Aztecs , were conspicuous . On his head he wore no other ornament than a panache of plumes of tho royal green which floated down his back ; the badge of military ( priestly ?) , rather

than of regal rank . " We have queried this former epithet , for we find ( vol . i . ) the idol of the Huscalans had its headdress also of green feathers ; ancl further , that this sacred colour extended its influence to the feathered tribe in which it preponderated , for at p . 101 , Prescott , speaking of the aviary of Montezuma , tells of "the endless parrots with

their rainbow hues , the royal green predominant . " The practical Peruvians put the different shades of colour to a very useful purpose . Their yuipoa served them for many adaptations of a note book or a chronicle , ancl a similar practice had extended far across the Pacific , as Prince Lee Boo endeavoured on his journey from the Friendly Islands of

his father to make similar coloured threads serve for a journal of his passage , till Hearing England the multitude of events ancl fresh ideas made him throw up the imperfect records in despair . Mahomet felt the influence of antiquity and Egyptian nei g hbourhood , ancl perpetuated its reverence of colours aud

the endurance of their meaning to his followers by whicli , amongst others , the symbolism of flowers has been established over a large portion of tho civilized world . Ho has given it in the Koran ( Bees chap , xvi . ) as a precept received from heaven , "that colours are the principal distinctions of objects . " * His Moslem followers were read y disciples , and

extended the meaning by willing expounders of this creed . The seclusion of the harem , the beauty of their eastern floral wealth , led his votaries easily and fully to a floral language precise and well understood . The billets doux in a bouquet , well defined and conventional , though apparentl y innocent , are often the channels of a deep intrigue .

It was however impossible that objects so constantl y in view ancl so pleasing should not have had their votaries and meaning far more extended than the realms of the Moslem . ISTcale and Webb , in an introduction to a translation to a portion of Durancl ' s Work on the Ceremonies , & c , of the Catholic Church , tell us , ( p . 47 ) , when speaking of the symbolism of flowers : — " This is a species of symbolism , which has prevailed among

all nations , and AA'hich our devout ancestors were not SIOAV in stamping with the impress of religion . AVitness , for example the herb trinity , noiv generally called heart ' s ease , the passion floAver , and lachryma Christi . In the present clay , who knows not that the rose is the symbol for beaut }' , the violet for modest y , the simfloAvcr for faithfulness * the forget-me-not for remembrance

, the pansy for thought , the cypress for woe , the yew for true heartcdness , the everlasting for immortality . " We adduce this meagre list of symbols at present as a sample , but trust to be able in time to give a larger ancl more expressive catalogue from the Catholic Calendar ; a church which has always endeavoured to all y its tenets ancl practice

with natural objects ancl a popular perceptiveness . Some of these congruities are palpable enough ; the pansy , for thought , can onl y arise through the French penser , which is forced ; the forget-me-not is not so thoroughly popularized as its German prototype the verc / iss-mein-nicht ; and the heart ' s ease has received from Shakespeare an interpretation

in the "Midsummer Ni g ht ' s Dream" not very favourable to the weaker sex , to which the flower usuall y is attributed ; for with him the heart is changed to one only of its passions , ancl we will trust , for the honour of the female sex , that ease is

not always idleness—so that his full interpretation of love and idleness for heart ' s ease is not invariably true . But to these symbolical meanings we must revert again when the different classes of natural objects have to be noticed . To return , however , to the chromic symbolism of classic antiquity , we may remark that much of it is lost to us from

the almost entire destruction of their monuments . In the fifteenth century not more than six ancient statues were known , aud if with these ancients each colour had its symbolical meaning or was a fixed attribution , we can now onl y learn so from occasional notices in their writings that have reached us . We may , however , at least conjecture , much as it may

militate against our a _ s . hetical feelings , that most of the plastic chefd ' osuvres of their chisels received the aid of colour . It requires only a visit to tho El gin marbles in the British Museum to find traces of a coating of pigment , which the exposure of more than two milliaries has rubbed from the prominent portions—it requires , therefore , a close scrutiny of

the crannies of the figures before this is discovered ; but so firmly was Mr . Owen Jones persuaded of the fact that , in his classic restorations at S ydenham , polychromy is plentifully used .

Anotner difficulty , however , in settling the symbolical meanings of the ancient p igments arises from the great doubt which hangs over the particular name of the tint of any g iven pigment . These ancients themselves were most loose in their use of the terms descriptive of the various colours . On this head , Spence , the author of the " Polymetis" is undeniable

, authority . He says , p . 167 , — " 1 believe there is no one thing in the whole language of the Romans that we are more at a loss about than their names of colours . It appears evidently enough that cceruleu . i was used by them for some dark colour . "

One mi g ht bring a number of instances to prove this . " Scope videmus Ipsius in vultu varios errare coloros ; Ccoruleus pluviam denunciat , "—Georg i . 451 . And " Turn mihi coeruleus supra caput astitit imber Noctem hieineuique ferens et inhorruit unda tenebri . .

Jin , iii . 195 . " Spence mi ght have supported his proposition also from Ovid ( Fasti , iv . 420 ) , when describing the rape of Proserp ine , Pluto ' s horses are noted as ccerulei . " H ' ane videt ot visum patruus vclnciter imferfc Kegnaquc eceruleis in sua portat ecpiis . "

Equally uncertain are we as to the use or tint of purpnrena . I again quote Spence , p . 185 , — " What idea the Romans meant b y the word parptirons is not * " So the simfloAvcr turns on his god when ho sets , The same look that he gave when he rose , "—Moom :.