l--and except with the
intention of producing startling effects, they did not mix them. They
felt that each was harmonious as a whole, and, unlike the Egyptians,
they studied harmony. They arranged their scales according to the
materials from which they were extracted, and kept those from
different chemical sources apart, as being discordant.[314] One scale
was that of the iodine colours, of and from the sea. Marine products
are mostly iridescent. To comprehend this, think of the harmonious
interchange of delicate tints, called by the ancients "purple," on a
string of pearls. Shells and shell-fish, sea-weeds and fish, furnished
these dyes. They were called "conchiliata."

The chemistry of the arts of bleaching was not unknown to the
ancients; but they reserved and regulated it for certain purposes,
preferring to retain at least a part of the original colouring, as
shades of grounding which served, as a surface glaze does in painting,
to connect and harmonize the superinduced tints.

Experiments with the object of reviving this mode of producing
harmonious combinations, have been made lately at the Wilton Carpet
Works, by dyeing shades of colour on unbleached goat's and camel's
hair, and sheep's wool; and the tones produced are beautifully soft
and rich.

M. Edouard Charton ascribes the great change in the modern scales of
colours to the discovery by the French, in the Gobelins, of a pure
scarlet dye, the use of which made it necessary to raise the tone of
all other colours. He says that scarlet was formerly represented by
the dye called kermes, which indeed was not scarlet, but altered from
crimson to something approaching it by the addition of narsingar, of
which the bright yellow gave the scarlet effect.

M. Chevreul, director of the dyeing department of the Gobelins, has
succeeded in composing the chromatic prism, to which I have already
alluded, containing 4420 different tones. We may take it for granted,
that from these may be selected any possible scale of tints required
for decorative work. This vast area for choice of our material will
impose on the artist of the future fresh responsibilities.

In the typical Oriental colouring, the whole arrangement was
traditional, and it was irreligious to depart from what had been fixed
by statute many centuries before, and only perfected by the experience
of many generations of men; and this veneration for traditional custom
has hitherto been prevalent in European art