TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. Bold text is denoted by =equal signs=. Footnote anchors are denoted by [number], and the footnotes have been placed below the paragraph containing the anchor. The tables in this book are best viewed using a monospace font. Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book. THE SYMBOLISM OF COLOUR THE SYMBOLISM OF COLOUR BY ELLEN CONROY, M.A. “Speak to the earth and it shall teach you.”--JOB. LONDON WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED 8 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 4 1921 CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE 1. COLOUR A TRUE SYMBOL 1 2. THE OLD LANGUAGE OF RED 6 3. THE OLD LANGUAGE OF YELLOW 14 4. THE OLD LANGUAGE OF GREEN 21 5. THE OLD LANGUAGE OF BLUE 27 6. THE OLD LANGUAGE OF PURPLE 36 7. THE OLD LANGUAGE OF WHITE 40 8. THE OLD LANGUAGE OF BLACK 46 9. THE OLD LANGUAGE OF BROWN AND GREY 50 10. THE OLD LANGUAGE OF THE RAINBOW 53 APPENDICES-- 1. SCHOOLS OF COLOUR 61 2. THE COLOURS OF THE PLANETS 62 3. CHROMATICS OF THE SKY 64 4. YELLOW 64 5. COLOUR AND FORM 65 6. THE GROWTH OF PLANTS UNDER COLOURED RAYS 65 THE SYMBOLISM OF COLOUR CHAPTER I COLOUR A TRUE SYMBOL “The great below clenched by the great above.”--E. B. B. “God made the country; man made the town,” says William Cowper, and almost everyone will agree that it is the deprivation of the colour of the country that makes our towns so sadly depressing, for nearly all people appreciate colour, though perhaps in a general way. They realise that colour helps to beautify the world. Other people, however, look upon colour as one of the greatest joys in life. The colour of the woods, the flowers, the sunrise, and the sunset are sources of the very deepest emotion, exalting them above mere interest in external things into the very highest realms of vision and beauty. The colours of an artist like Titian make them realise the joy of living. Even the word-pictures of the poets do the same, so that they become firm believers in the poetic fallacy that what is beautiful in nature reflects what is beautiful in the mind of man. Thus Buddha watching the sun rise seems to clothe Nature with his own luminous soul, which is striving to make a new age begin on the earth. Edwin Arnold, in his _Light of Asia_, tells us that the Buddha rose just before the False Dawn and stood--