The Effects of Blackness Moderated
THOUGH the effects of black be painful originally, we must not think
they always continue so. Custom reconciles us to everything. After we
have been used to the sight of black objects, the terror abates, and
the smoothness and glossiness, or some agreeable accident, of bodies
so coloured, softens in some measure the horror and sternness of their
original nature; yet the nature of their original impression still continues.
Black will always have something melancholy in it, because the sensory
will always find the change to it from other colours too violent; or
if it occupy the whole compass of the sight, it will then be darkness;
and what was said of darkness will be applicable here. I do not purpose
to go into all that might be said to illustrate this theory of the effects
of light and darkness, neither will I examine all the different effects
produced by the various modifications and mixtures of these two causes.
If the foregoing observations have any foundation in nature, I conceive
them very sufficient to account for all the phenomena that can arise
from all the combinations of black with other colours. To enter into
every particular, or to answer every objection, would be an endless labour.
We have only followed the most leading roads; and we shall observe the
same conduct in our inquiry into the cause of beauty. |