This curious and satisfactory theory demonstrates that the choice of colours which so often distinguishes good from bad taste in manufactures, furniture, dress, and in every circumstance where colour may be artificially introduced, is not the effect of chance, or fancy, but guided by certain general laws of NATURE. Sir Isaac Newton discovered a wonderful coincidence between sound and colours, and proves, mathematically, that the spaces occupied by the colours in the prismatic spectrum correspond with the parts of a musical chord, when it is so divided as to sound the notes of an octave. So this resemblance may now be considered as extending further, for, as in music, so likewise in colours, it will be found that harmony consists in distance and contrast, not in similitude or approximation. Two notes near each other, are grating to the ear, and are called discords; in like manner, two colours very near each other, are unpleasing to the sight, and may be called discordant; this may be proved by covering all the colours in the preceding diagram except the two adjoining, which, in every part of the scale, will appear discordant; while, on the contrary, if the two sides be covered in any direction so as only to shew the two opposite colours, they will appear in perfect harmony with each other; and this experiment confirms the good taste of those who, in the choice of colours, oppose reds to greens, yellows to purples, and blues to oranges, &c. But instead of contrasting these colours, they are mixed, or so blended, as not to appear each distinctly, as in silks or linens where the stripes are too narrow; when seen at a little distance, instead of relieving, they will destroy each other. In the application of this theory to some familiar instances, particularly in the furniture of rooms, I have observed that two colours, here deemed discordant, may be used without offending the eye, as green and blue, or green and yellow; but I have always considered such assortment intolerable, unless one were very dark, and the other very light; and thus the effect is again produced by contrast, al- though on a different principle; it is the contrast, not between colours, but between light and darkness.
