poet's art as a powerful auxiliary: antients and moderns have used it as such, and Homer may be considered not the patriarch of poets only, but of painters also. Plutarch remarks, "that poetry is an imitative art that hath in it much of the nature of painting," and he observes, "that it is a common saying that poetry is vocal painting, and painting, silent poetry.” may be asserted of colouring in particular. The same With regard to the beauty of colours individually, it is a general law of their relations, confirmed by nature and the impressions of sense, that those colours which lie nearest in nature to light have their greatest beauty in their lightest tints; and that those which lie similarly toward shade are most beautiful in their greatest depth or fulness,—a law which of course applies to black and white particularly. Thus the most beautiful yellow, like white, is that which is lightest and most vivid; blue is most beautiful when deep and rich, while red is of greatest beauty when of intermediate depth or somewhat inclined to light, and their compounds partake of these relations: we speak here only of the individual beauty of colours, and not of that relative beauty, by which every tint, hue, and shade of colour becomes pleasing or otherwise according to place and reference, for this belongs to the general nature and harmony of colours. There is however a vicious predilection of some artists in favour of a particular colour, from which some of the best colourists have not been totally free, which arises nevertheless from organic defect or mental association; but these minions of prejudice are greatly to be guarded against by the colourist, who is every way surrounded by dangers: there is danger on the one hand lest he fall into whiteness or chalkiness; on the other, into blackness or gloom: in front, he may run into fire and foxiness, or he slide backward into cold and leaden dulness: all these are extremes may he must avoid. There are also other important prejudices to which the eye is liable, in regard to colours individually, which demand also his particular attention, because they arise from the false affections of the organ itself, to which the best eye is most subject; these are occasioned by the various specific powers of single colours acting on the eye according to their masses, the activity of light, or the length of time they are viewed; whereby vision becomes over-stimulated, unequally exhausted, and endued, even before it is fatigued, with a spectrum which clouds the colour itself, * Works, vol. III. p. 46. and gives a false brilliancy, by contrast, to surrounding hues, so as totally or partially to throw the eye off its balance and to mislead the judgment. This may be effected by a powerful colour on the palette, a mass of drapery, the colour of a wall, or other accidental cause; and the remedy against it is to refresh the eye with a new object, of nature, if possible, or to give it rest. The powers of colours in these respects will be hereafter adverted to under their distinct heads. As to the powers of pigments individually, and their reciprocal action and influence chemically, these will be denoted separately of each colour or pigment, and such colours as injure each other pointed out, leaving it to be understood that in instances not noticed colours may be mixed and employed with impunity. * See Note I. CHAP. VIII. ON THE NEUTRAL, WHITE. I take thy hand;-this hand As soft as dove's down, and as white as it; Or Ethiopian's tooth, or the fann'd snow that 's bolted SHAKSPEARE. WHITE, in a perfect state, should be neutral in hue, with regard to colour, and absolutely opaque; that being the best which reflects light most brilliantly. This is the property in white called body, which term in other pigments, more especially in those which are transparent, means tingeing power. White, besides its uses as a colour, is the instrument of light in painting, and compounds with all colours, when pure, without changing their class; yet it dilutes and cools all colours except blue, which is specifically cold; and, though it does not change nor defile any colour, it is defiled and changed by all colours. This pureness of white, if it be not in some degree broken or tinged, will cast down or degrade every other colour in a picture, while itself becomes harsh and crude. Hence the lowness of tone which has been thought necessary in painting, but is so only because our other colours do not approach to the purity of white. Had we all necessary colours thus relatively pure as white, colouring in painting might be carried up to the full brilliancy of nature. The term colour is equivocal when attributed to the neutrals, yet the artist is bound to consider them as colours; and, in philosophic strictness, they are such in extreme composition and latently, for a thing cannot but be that of which it is composed, and neutrals are composed of all colours. Locally, white is the most advancing of all colours in a picture, and produces the effect of throwing other colours back in different degrees, according to their specific retiring or advancing powers; which powers are not however absolute properties of colours, but dependant upon the relations of light and shade, which are variously appropriate in all colours: hence it is that a white object, properly adapted, appears to detach, distribute, put in keeping, and give relief, decision, distinctness, and distance to every thing around it. White itself is advanced or brought forward, unless indeed white surround a dark object, in which case they retire together. In mixture white communicates these properties to its tints, and harmonizes in conjunction or opposition with all colours, but lies nearest in series to yellow, and remotest from blue, of which, next to black, it is the most perfect contrast. It is correlative with black, which is the opposite extreme of neutrality. We have said that black and white are the same colour; and the truth of this appears practically in painting a white object upon a light ground, which is done with black pigment; and also in painting a black object upon a dark ground, which is done with white pigment in the latter case, by supplying the lights of the object; and in the former, by supplying the shadows: the same is evinced to the eye in the black and white of the definitive scale, Pl. 1. fig. 3. Perfect white is opaque, and perfect black transparent; hence, when added to black in minute proportion white gives it solidity; and from a like small proportion of black combined with white the latter acquires locality as a colour, and better preserves its hue in painting. Both white and black communicate these properties to other colours in proportion to their lightness or depth, while they cool each other in mixture, and equally contrast each. other when opposed. These extremes of the chromatic scale are each in its way most easily defiled, as green, the mean of the scale, is the greatest defiler of colours. Rubens regarded white as the nourishment of light and the poison of shadow. White is expressive of modesty and sweetness, and contributes to these expressions in other colours, when mixed therewith, by subduing their force; it is hence the pleasing expression of paleness and pureness of colour arises;—and in its general effect, as a colour on the eye and the mind, white is enlivening and elating, without gaiety, according to the neutrality of its relations; inspiring confidence or hope, as black or darkness does fear and distrust;—it has ever been the vesture of priesthood, and, in its sensible and moral expression, it is the natural garb and emblem of purity, delicacy, innocency, timidity, gentleness, dignity, piety, peace, and all the modest virtues; hence the white flag is the token of peace; the white feather the meta phor of timidity; and the white vestments of the vestal and priest the symbols of purity and peace: and it heightens these sentiments in pictorial representations, and lends its powers to language metaphorically; hence the poet also employs it ideally and rhetorically for all this variety of expression in the construction of epithets and the clothing of figures and symbols; and this he does likewise with all colours in the manner, reference, and relation, and with the same feeling as the painter. Spenser, who was a great poetical colourist, gives this moral colouring to his figures; thus his Humbleness, as Humilta, -Was an aged sire all hoary gray. FAIRIE QUEEN, Cant. X. 5. His Reverence, Right cleanly clad in comely sad attire. C. x. 7. His Faith, as Fidelia, She was arrayed all in lily white. C. x. 13. His Hope, as Speranza, Was clad in blue that her beseemed well. C. x. 14. His Charity, as Charissa, Was all in yellow robes arrayed. C. x. 30. His Falsehood, Clad in scarlet-red Purfled with gold and pearl of rich assay. C. XI. 13. His Praise-desire, In a long purple pall, whose skirt with gold C. IX. 37. His Idleness, The nurse of sin Arrayed in habit black and amice thin. C. IV. 18. And many others. Indeed there is hardly a virtue, vice, or quality, which |