Theory of Colours — trans. Charles Lock Eastlake (1840)

• XXXIV. Chemical Contrast
• XXXV. White
• XXXVI. Black
• XXXVII. First Excitation of Colour
• XXXVIII. Augmentation of Colour
• XXXIX. Culmination
• XL. Fluctuation
• XLI. Passage through the Whole Scale
• XLII. Inversion
• XLIII. Fixation
• XLIV. Intermixture, Real
• XLV. Intermixture, Apparent
• XLVI. Communication, Actual
• XLVII. Communication, Apparent
• XLVIII. Extraction
• XLIX. Nomenclature
• L. Minerals
• LI. Plants
• LII. Worms, Insects, Fishes
• LIII. Birds
• LIV. Mammalia and Human Beings
• LV. Physical and Chemical Effects of the Transmission of Light through Coloured Mediums
• LVI. Chemical Effect in Dioptrical Achromatism

PART IV.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS.

The Facility with which Colour appears
The Definite Nature of Colour
Combination of the Two Principles
Augmentation to Red
Junction of the Two Augmented Extremes
Completeness the Result of Variety in Colour
Harmony of the Complete State
Facility with which Colour may be made to tend either to
the Plus or Minus side
Evanescence of Colour
Permanence of Colour

PART V.

RELATION TO OTHER PURSUITS.

Relation to Philosophy
Relation to Mathematics
Relation to the Technical Operations of the Dyer
Relation to Physiology and Pathology
Relation to Natural History
Relation to General Physics
Relation to the Theory of Music
Concluding Observations on Terminology

PART VI.

EFFECT OF COLOUR WITH REFERENCE TO MORAL ASSOCIATIONS.

Yellow
Red-Yellow
Yellow-Red
Blue
Red-Blue
Blue-Red
Red
Green
Completeness and Harmony
Characteristic Combinations
Yellow and Blue
Yellow and Red
Blue and Red
Yellow-Red and Blue-Red
Combinations Non-Characteristic
Relation of the Combinations to Light and Dark
Considerations derived from the Evidence of Experience and History
Æsthetic Influence
Chiaro-Scuro
Tendency to Colour
Keeping
Colouring
Colour in General Nature
Colour of Particular Objects
Characteristic Colouring
Harmonious Colouring
Genuine Tone
False Tone
Weak Colouring
The Motley
Dread of Theory
Ultimate Aim
Grounds
Pigments
Allegorical, Symbolical, Mystical Application of Colour
Concluding Observations

OUTLINE

OF A

THEORY OF COLOURS.

"Si vera nostra sunt aut falsa, erunt talia, licet nostra per vitam defendimus. Post fata nostra pueri qui nunc ludunt nostri judices erunt."

INTRODUCTION.

The desire of knowledge is first stimulated in us when remarkable phenomena attract our attention. In order that this attention be continued, it is necessary that we should feel some interest in exercising it, and thus by degrees we become better acquainted with the object of our curiosity. During this process of observation we remark at first only a vast variety which presses indiscriminately on our view; we are forced to separate, to distinguish, and again to combine; by which means at last a certain order arises which admits of being surveyed with more or less satisfaction.

To accomplish this, only in a certain degree, in any department, requires an unremitting and close application; and we find, for this reason, that men prefer substituting a general theoretical view, or some system of explanation, for the facts themselves, instead of taking the trouble to make themselves first acquainted with cases in detail and then constructing a whole.

The attempt to describe and class the phenomena of colours has been only twice made: first by Theophrastus,[1] and in modern times by Boyle. The pretensions of the present essay to the third place will hardly be disputed.