The morning times., 1896-10-11

y NE new consideration which of late has
| Interested every student of lItera
- ture. is color. It's relations and value
in thought, language, association and
character appears upon study to be
moi only definite but considerable. An in
teresline article in this connection ap-
peared not long ago in the Contemporary
Review. 1t was written by one Haveioch
Ellis. Mr. EIi!s has evidently given his sub
ject extended and Intelligent consideration
for ne writes not only with authority. nut
elSilv discernibe veracity as Well. There
are three things, according 10 HIM, cUior III
literature describes or symbolizcs: nature
man and ina gination. These three cover
the wnole ground. The predcmtnance of
green or blue the colDrs OF vegetation the
sSy and the ssa means tEattne pocy Is pre-
dominantly poet Of nature. If red and its
synonyms are supreme, au observing IN
terest in man and woman may be assured,
Tor these are the coiors of blood and of
love the two main pivuts of human affairs,
at all events in poetry Where there is a
predominauce C of black, white nd yellow,the
colurs that are rare in the world, aud the
color OF golden impossibilities, Mr. Ellis
finds that the poet is singing with. as II
were closed eyes intent on his own inner
vision.
As to the assignments which he makes of
the poets to the various classes, lie points
out that Wordsworth and Shelley belonged
largely to the first class. Chaucer and Whit
manlargely to the second, Homer, Marlowe,
Blake. Poe and Rossetti largely Ia the
third. We cannot. Of course, expect any
great degree of precision In the natter.
Green among the earlier writers Is COM
monty used Of garments; blue often refers
tu eyes and veins; it is chiefly by ttcir
tone that black, white and yellow reveal
the imaginative instincts, and red refers
to hum an things in only 80 per cent of the
cases i'll which it occurs. But the general
tendency remains distinct. According to
Prof. Earl Barnes, who has tested many
hundred American boys and girls, pref
erencc for red indicates a certain degree
of maturity, younger children usually pre-
fcrring blue. A love for red is evidently
associated withthe passionate and sensuo9s
enjoyment of natural human things, as in
the "Wooing of Emer," in Chaucer, Shakes
peare Keats, TennysOn and D'AnnunZio.
Blue, and especially green, furnish, accord
Ing TO this Interesting student, the most
curious and instructive aesthetic history.
The say age rarely possessed words for either
color, and even the Greeks i'll the fourth
century had no specialized wopi for green.
The things we call blue they were content to
call dark or black, SO that for them the
Sky was of the same color as dark hair;
while the things we call green they were con-
tent to call yellow. the color of honey. The
aesthetic vision of the Greeks included black.
white, red and yellow. In SO remote 4
country as Brazil Won der Steinen found that
only these same coiors possessed distinct
words among every tribe. though all tribes
We're able TO distinguish green and blue.
The natives of India deny that the sky is
blue IN The same sense that indigo is blue;
they call ii ''sky-colored " The Chinese,
while they distinguish blue from green per-
Iectly and have words for both. call the
sky green. II is only recently that English
poets disCerned the real color OF the sea.
For Shakespeare the sea was green, as it
was for CUleridge and for most poets before
Shelley.
The color-type of The future can scarcely
I've forecast" says Mrs. Ellis. 1T is evil
dent. however, that the aesthetic value of
blue has not yet been fully developed in
English literature; and there are sigus that
the Englisli-speaking children of SUMMER
skies VIII find new scope in weaving into
their work the color of the sky and the sea.
and the ideas OF infinity and depth which
1t most naturally synibolizes. Many foolish
things tvve been written about the de
generaudn' OF latter-day art. The dcca-
dence. II anywhere, was at the cud of the last
century, and our own vision of the world
is fairly one with that of classic times. with
Chauccr's and with Shakespeare's. At the
end of the nineteenth century we can say
this for the first time since Shakespeare
died "
A RITE has arrived. Who's Artie? Yor
- Won't ask that in a couple of weeks
Artie viii have made the rounds, q nd
where he has been he's remembered
So you may know him when you hear
OF .iin or see hinl-and our advice is, look
him up. artie is q Chicago youth. He is
surpassed 10 bc indigenous to Chicago, bui
in reality Artic is very numerous Every
city has lis Artics and everybody who
knows anybody has an Artie or two among
his acquaiftanCes
1t was George Ado, n clever Chicago
press yritcr, discovered the literar,
possibilities OF Artic. Heretofore Artie
WnS snniinsr.rlI q h. Sr.rf,. v,,r.r.. man on