7. The theory which brings out of a ray of sunshine the disunited prismatic colors carries with it the deduction that before separation these colors constitute white light; but it must be manifest to even the superficial reader that such colors are mere spectrum colors--vision colors--and any amalgamation of material or pigment colors, so far from producing white, produces almost black.
8. The theory that red and yellow make orange, and that a red and blue make violet, is correct; but if one attempts to demonstrate the theory with pigments, one is confronted not only by the lack of standard manufactured colors but by impurities, adulterations and chemical reaction in the pigments. The adulteration may not be perceptible in one primary color, but it is manifest when that color is brought into action with another primary, for it is seldom that a pure secondary results.
9. Color nomenclature includes primary, secondary and tertiary colors, and innumerable hues, shades and tints. All these colors bear relations to one another, either relations of analogy, or relations of contrast. (See ¶ 18 and ¶ 19.)
The Circle Diagram I shows the manner in which the various colors are formed. (See also Diagram III.)
The third circle shows how slate, citrine and russet are made. For instance, slate is one part of violet and one part of green. Hence, a tertiary color is made of equal parts of two secondaries.
The outer circle, buff, sage and plum, can be analyzed in the same way.
This Diagram I is arranged to show not only component parts of a color, but the parts that properly harmonize.
10. In music it is an established fact that certain notes used in pleasing combination produce sounds we call harmonies. The moment that more than one note is struck, there is danger of discord, and when ten notes resound to the touch of the player, they must be the right notes, or they jar upon the sensibilities. In the use of color the same immutable law applies.
11. In Circle Diagram II the letters RV mean reddish violet, being a violet having more red than blue in its composition. BV means bluish violet, being a violet having more blue than red in its composition. BG means bluish green, being a green having more blue than yellow in its composition. YG means yellow green, being a green having more yellow than blue in its composition. YO means yellowish orange, being an orange having more yellow than red in its composition. RO means reddish orange, being an orange having more red than yellow in its composition. Thus we may advance from red to yellow by graduations almost imperceptible, by the addition of yellow, to a reddish orange, and so on gradually to orange, continuing on to yellowish orange, finally revealing pure yellow.