COL'OR, the type of color is found in. the prismatic spectrum or the rainbow. In which we discover that a ray of white light in capable of lacing decomposed into three primitive colors—red, blue, and yellow ; these, by their mixture, produce three other colors, which are termed see ondury ; thus, the union of red with Moo yields, when in varied proportions, the different hues of purple and violet ; red, mixed with yellow, yields orange: yel low, with blue, produces green. Every hue in nature is a, compound of two or more of the primitive colors in various proportions. Grays and browns are corn pounds of all three of the primary colors in unequal proportions. Black results from a mixture of blue, red, nod yellow of equal intensity and in equal propor tions. Of mate ...al colors (pigments) there is but one (ultramarine) that approaches the purity of the type in the spectrum— all the others are more or less impure ; thus we cannot obtain a pure red pig ment, since all are more or less alloyed with blue or yellow. If we could obtain a red and a yellow of the same purity and transparency as ultramarine, we should need no other pigments for our palette, since, by judicious mixture, they would yield every tint in nature.—Local colors are those peculiar to each individ ual object, and serve to distinguish them from each other.—Completnenlary colors arc composed of the opposites of any given color. If this color is a primitive, such as blue, the complementary color is com posed of the other two primitive colors, viz., red and yellow, or orange ; the com plementary color to any secondary is the other primitive color; thus the comple mentary to green (composed of Mee and yellow,) is red, and so on, for the remain der.—Harmony of colors results from an
equal distribution of the three primary colors, either pure, or compounded with each other, as grays and browns.—Con feast of color is either simple or com pound. Each of the primitive colors forms a contrast to the other two ; thus blue is contrasted by yellow and by red— either of these forms a simple contrast to blue ; but by mixing yellow and red to gether, we produce orange, which is a compound contrast, consequently orange, the complementary color, is the most powerful contrast that can be made to blue. Colors arc regarded as warm or cold, positive or negative; thus blue is a cold, and orange a warm, color. lied, neither warn nor cold. All warm colors are contrasts to cold colors.—Symbolic colors. Colors had the same signification amongst all nations of remotest antiquity. Color was evidently the first mode of transmitting thought and preserving memory ; to each color appertained a re ligious or politieal idea. The history of symbolic colors testifies to a triple origin mArked by the three epochs in the history of religion—the divine, the consecrated, and the profane. The first regulMed the cesium° of Aaron and the Levites, the rites of worship, &c. Religion gave birth to the Arts. It was to ornament temples that sculpture and painting were first in troduced. whence arose the consecrated language. The profane language of col. ors was a degradation from the divine and consecrated languages.