and it
should differ not only in intensity, but actually in tint. If it is
necessary, on account of personal preference, to use yellow in a sunny
room, it should be lemon, instead of ochre or gold-coloured yellow,
because the latter would repeat sunlight. There are certain shades of
yellow, where white has been largely used in the mixture, which are
capable of greenish reflections. This is where the white is of so pure a
quality as to suggest blue, and consequently under the influence of
yellow to suggest green. We often find yellow dyes in silks the shadows
of which are positive fawn colour or even green, instead of orange as we
might expect; still, even with modifications, yellow should properly be
reserved for sunless rooms, where it acts the part almost of the blessed
sun itself in giving cheerfulness and light. Going from a sun-lighted
atmosphere, or out of actual sunlight into a yellow room, one would miss
the sense of shelter which is so grateful to eyes and senses a little
dazzled by the brilliance of out-of-door lights; whereas a room darkened
or shaded by a piazza, or somewhat chilled by a northern exposure and
want of sun, would be warmed and comforted by tints of gold-coloured
yellow.

Interiors with a southern exposure should be treated with cool, light
colours, blues in various shades, water-greens, and silvery tones which
will contrast with the positive yellow of sunlight.

It is by no means a merely arbitrary rule. Colours are actually warm or
cold in temperature, as well as in effect upon the eye or the
imagination, in fact the words cover a long-tested fact. I remember
being told by a painter of his placing a red sunset landscape upon the
flat roof of a studio building to dry, and on going to it a few hours
afterward he found the surface of it so warm to the touch--so sensibly
warmer than the gray and blue and green pictures around it--that he
brought a thermometer to test it, and found it had acquired and retained
heat. It was actually warmer by degrees than the gray and blue pictures
in the same sun exposure.

We instinctively wear warm colours in winter and dispense with them in
summer, and this simple fact may explain the art which allots what we
call warm colour to rooms without sun. When we say warm colours, we mean
yellows, reds with all their gradations, gold or sun browns, and dark
browns and black. When we say cool colours--whites, blues, grays, and
cold greens--for greens may be warm or