But I wish to speak neither of the æsthetic value of blue in relation
to arts and industries, nor of the optical significance of blue as the
product of six hundred and fifty billion oscillations of the luminous
ether per second. I only want to say something about the psychology of
the color,--about its subjective evolutional history.
Certainly the same apparition of blue will bestir in different
minds different degrees of feeling, and will set in motion, through
memory-revival of unlike experiences, totally dissimilar operations
of fancy. But independently of such psychological variation--mainly
personal and superficial,--there can be no doubt that the color evokes
in the _general_ mind one common quality of pleasurable feeling,--a
vivacious thrill,--a tone of emotional activity unmistakably related to
the higher zones of sentiency and of imagination.
* * * * *
In my own case the sight of vivid blue has always been accompanied by an
emotion of vague delight--more or less strong according to the luminous
intensity of the color. And in one experience of travel,--sailing to the
American tropics,--this feeling rose into ecstasy. It was when I beheld
for the first time the grandest vision of blue in this world,--the glory
of the Gulf-Stream: a magical splendor that made me doubt my senses,--a
flaming azure that looked as if a million summer skies had been
condensed into pure fluid color for the making of it. The captain of the
ship leaned over the rail with me; and we both watched the marvellous
sea for a long time in silence. Then he said:--
* * * * *
“Fifteen years ago I took my wife with me on this trip--just after we
were married, it was;--and she wondered at the water. She asked me to
get her a silk dress of the very same color. I tried in ever so many
places; but I never could get just what she wanted till a chance took me
to Canton. I went round the Chinese silk-shops day after day, looking
for that color. It wasn’t easy to find; but I did get it at last. Wasn’t
she glad, though, when I brought it home to her!... She’s got it
yet....”
* * * * *
Still, at times, in sleep, I sail southward again over the wonder of
that dazzling surging azure;--then the dream shifts suddenly across
the world, and I am wandering with the Captain through close dim queer
Chinese streets,--vainly seeking a silk of the Blue of the Gulf-Stream.
And it was this memory of tropic days that first impelled me to think
about the reason of the delight inspired by the color.