on three sides, and the colour in
favour of its proprietor at present is a topazy yellow. But then with
what colour to relieve it? For a little work-room of my own at the back
I should rather like to see some patterns of unglossy--well, I'll be
hanged if I can describe this red. It's not Turkish, and it's not Roman,
and it's not Indian; but it seems to partake of the last two, and yet it
can't be either of them, because it ought to be able to go with
vermilion. Ah, what a tangled web we weave! Anyway, with what brains you
have left choose me and send me some--many--patterns of the exact
shade."

[Footnote 1: Vailima Letters, Oct. 8, 1902.]

(1) Where could be found a more delightful cry for some rational way to
describe color? He wants "a topazy yellow" and a red that is not Turkish
nor Roman nor Indian, but that "seems to partake of the last two, and
yet it can't be either of them." As a cap to the climax comes his demand
for "patterns of the exact shade." Thus one of the clearest and most
forceful writers of English finds himself unable to describe the color
he wants. And why? Simply because popular language does not clearly
state a single one of the three qualities united in every color, and
which must be known before one may even hope to convey his color
conceptions to another.

(2) The incongruous and bizarre nature of our present color names must
appear to any thoughtful person. Baby blue, peacock blue, Nile green,
apple green, lemon yellow, straw yellow, rose pink, heliotrope, royal
purple, Magenta, Solferino, plum, and automobile are popular terms,
conveying different ideas to different persons and utterly failing to
define colors. The terms used for a single hue, such as pea green, sea
green, olive green, grass green, sage green, evergreen, invisible green,
are not to be trusted in ordering a piece of cloth. They invite mistakes
and disappointment. Not only are they inaccurate: they are
inappropriate. Can we imagine musical tones called lark, canary,
cockatoo, crow, cat, dog, or mouse, because they bear some distant
resemblance to the cries of those animals? See paragraph 131.

+Color needs a system.+

(3) Music is equipped with a system by which it defines each sound in
terms of its pitch, intensify, and duration, without dragging in loose
allusions to the endlessly varying sounds of nature. So should color be
supplied with an appropriate system, based on the hue, value, and
chroma[2] of our sensat