ABSTRACT
I HAVE no doubt that a very profound and original paper could be written on the theory of theories in general: the subject has not yet been adequately treated, and in a scientific world where theories are constantly being constructed, it is of great importance that the general principles which govern their efficiency—if such there be—should be thoroughly understood. So also in the more limited subject of the theory of colour-theories, I doubt not that there is ground for a discussion going very deep into the fundamental principle of knowledge. But I shall not attempt a discussion of this character to-day, because there is not, in this case, any occasion for discussion of a recondite kind. The crimes which the current theories of colour commit against fundamental principles are so patent, so flagrant, so open to the comprehension of the simplest intelligence, when once it gives its attention to the subject, that a discussion of any profundity regarding these principles would be wholly thrown away.
