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MIXTURE & BALANCE

from the strong contrasts of light and shadow at noon to the hardly perceptible differences at twilight. The chroma of this sequence expands during the summer to strong colors, and contracts in winter to grays. Indeed, Nature, who would seem to be the source of our notions of color harmony, rarely repeats herself, yet is endlessly balancing inequalities of hue, value, and chroma by compensations of quantity.

(80) So subtle is this equilibrium that it is taken for granted and forgotten, except when some violent disturbance disarranges it, such as an earthquake or a thunder-storm.

The triple nature of color balance illustrated.

(81) The simplest idea of balance is the equilibrium of two halves of a stick supported at its middle point. If one end is heavier than the other, the support must be moved nearer to that end.

But, since color unites three qualities, we must seek some type of triple balance. The game of jackstraws illustrates this, when the disturbance of one piece involves the displacement of two others. The action of three children on a floating plank or the equilibrium of two acrobats carried on the shoulders of a third may also serve as examples.

(82) Triple balance may be graphically shown by three discs An image should appear at this position in the text. in contact. Two of them are suspended by their centres, while they remain in touch with a third supported on a pivot, as in Fig. 14. Let us call the lowest disc Hue (H), and the lateral discs Value (V) and Chroma (C). Any dip or rotation of the lower disc H will induce sympathetic action in the two lateral discs V and C. When H is inclined, both V