which gives exquisite satisfaction to the eye. In music, sequence
produces this effect upon the ear, and in colour, juxtaposition and
gradation upon the eye. Notes follow notes in melody as shade follows
shade in colour. We find no need of even different names for the
qualities peculiar to the two; scale--notes--tones--harmonies--the words
express effects common to colour as well as to music, but colour has
this advantage, that its harmonies can be _fixed_, they do not die with
the passing moment; once expressed they remain as a constant and
ever-present delight.

Notes of the sound-octave have been gathered by the musicians from
widely different substances, and carefully linked in order and sequence
to make a harmonious scale which may be learned; but the painter,
conscious of colour-harmonies, has as yet no written law by which he can
produce them.

The "born colourist" is one who without special training, or perhaps in
spite of it, can unerringly combine or oppose tints into compositions
which charm the eye and satisfy the sense. Even among painters it is by
no means a common gift. It is almost more rare to find a picture
distinguished for its harmony and beauty of colour, than to see a room
in which nothing jars and everything works together for beauty. It seems
strange that this should be a rarer personal gift than the musical
sense, since nature apparently is far more lavish of her lessons for the
eye than for the ear; and it is curious that colour, which at first
sight seems a more apparent and simple fact than music, has not yet been
written. Undoubtedly there is a colour scale, which has its sharps and
flats, its high notes and low notes, its chords and discords, and it is
not impossible that in the future science may make it a means of
regulated and written harmonies:--that some master colourist who has