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Repton, Humphry, 1752-1818 / Fragments on the theory and practice of landscape gardening: including some remarks on Grecian and Gothic architecture, collected from various manuscripts, in the possession of the different noblemen and gentlemen, for whose use they were originally written; the whole tending to establish fixed principles in the respective arts
(1816)
Fragment XII. Concerning colors, pp. [49]-50
Page [49]
FRAGMENT XII.
CONCERNING COLOURS.
ADDRESSED TO WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, ESQ. M. P.
SIR,
MANY years have elapsed since you first called
my attention to that Theory of Colours, which your learned
friend, Dr. Milner, permitted me to publish in his own words
in 1803. During this interval frequent opportunities have oc-
curred to confirm the truth of his remarks.
Dr. Milner properly observes, that there are only three pri-
mary colours, red, blue, and yellow; although Sir Isaac Newton
also mentions orange, green, indigo, and violet: but these are
compounds of the other three; and whether in the rainbow, or
theprism, they appear to melt gradually into each other; and I
have always failed in every experiment to fix the precise limits
of each tint; but in the course of some late investigations, I have
accidentally discovered certain appearances, from which I have
derived some facility in colouring Landscape.
Having placed a piece of dark cloth on a wall opposite to the
light, I fastened a sheet of white paper in the middle of it; this
I looked at through a prism held across my eyes a little above
tH
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