Page [iv]

      CONCERNING CHOICE IN COLOR.
 THE pleasure-element in the cwise economy of nature is a strong and
      subtle one. Color ¢vas designed to afford a healthful degree of
excitement to the vision, and so to relieve the tension of the mind fixed
upon the problems of existence.  A  fine color-sense distinguishes the
civilized man from the savage, the cwell-developed adult from the child
and the feeble-minded: the highly-organized retina alone being sensitive
to subdivided gradations and complex harmonies.  To illustrate this point
it cwill only be necessary to recall the effect produced upon different classes
of individuats by the color-schemes of Pavis de Chavannes.   It has been
observed in France by competent judges that peasants show no interest in
the mural paintings of this master, although the subjects illustrated are
pastorals, miracles, allegories; all of cwhich make strong appeal to the
imagination. The explanation of the fact ties in the absence of primary
colors and such tones as etude the uneducated sense.: azure, cwhich among
the Greeks, ranked as no color; violet, cwhich in the color-scale corresponds
to the highest violin notes in sound; dark green, cwhich acts as an opiate
to the senses. In connection 'with the last named, it perhaps is not out
of
place to note that a modern Italian poet, 'with that scientific accuracy
so
often born of the acute artistic perception, has referred to the "divine
green silence of the plains. "
                       In follocwing snch thoughts as these it becomes
apparent that 'we o'we a not inconsiderable share of our happiness or of
our
discomfort to the objects by 'which 'we are surrounded; that 'we are dis-
turbed by the aggressiveness of material things, or that 'we may imagine
them as offering us a mild and pleasing sympathy.
                        To ensure the latter effect, the modern architect
puts forth his best efforts in the composition, structural and decorati?,e,
of
rooms that are habitually occupied or frequented by numbers of persons;
a case in point being offered by the illustration of a dining room, which
appears in the current number of" The Craftsman."
                        The room, situated in a country house by the sea,
repeats the green and gray of the scene upon 'which its 'windo'ws open. It
is finished in Mwhite'wood, 'which susceptible to subtle stains, here assumes
a beautiful soft green soliciting both the eye and the touch. The 'walls