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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Frondes Agrestes + Readings in 'Modern Painters' + +Author: John Ruskin + +Release Date: January 22, 2010 [EBook #31045] +Last Updated: February 12, 2019 + + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRONDES AGRESTES *** + + + + +Etext produced by Paul Murray, Chandra Friend and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + +HTML file produced by David Widger + + + + +</pre> + <div style="height: 8em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + FRONDES AGRESTES. + </h1> + <h3> + READINGS IN 'MODERN PAINTERS.' + </h3> + <h2> + By John Ruskin + </h2> + <h4> + Chosen At Her Pleasure, By The Author's Friend, The Younger Lady Of The + Thwaite, Coniston. + </h4> + <h3> + <i>'Spargit agrestes tibi silva frondes.'</i> + </h3> + <h5> + Thirty-Eighth Thousand. + </h5> + <h4> + London: George Allen, 156, Charing Cross Road. 1902. + </h4> + <h4> + Printed By Ballantyne, Hanson & Co. At the Ballantyne Press + </h4> + <hr /> + <p> + <b>CONTENTS</b> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> FRONDES AGRESTES. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> SECTION I. — PRINCIPLES OF ART. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> SECTION II. — POWER AND OFFICE OF + IMAGINATION. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> SECTION III. — ILLUSTRATIVE: THE SKY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> SECTION IV. — ILLUSTRATIVE: STREAMS AND + SEA. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> SECTION V. — ILLUSTRATIVE: MOUNTAINS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> SECTION VI. — ILLUSTRATIVE: STONES. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> SECTION VII. — ILLUSTRATIVE: PLANTS AND + FLOWERS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> SECTION VIII. — EDUCATION. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> SECTION IX. — MORALITIES. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PREFACE. + </h2> + <p> + I have been often asked to republish the first book of mine which the + public noticed, and which, hitherto, remains their favourite, in a more + easily attainable form than that of its existing editions. I am, however, + resolved never to republish the book as a whole; some parts of it being, + by the established fame of Turner, rendered unnecessary; and others having + been always useless, in their praise of excellence which the public will + never give the labour necessary to discern. But, finding lately that one + of my dearest friends, who, in advanced age, retains the cheerfulness and + easily delighted temper of bright youth, had written out, for her own + pleasure, a large number of passages from 'Modern Painters,' it seemed to + me certain that what such a person felt to be useful to herself, could not + but be useful also to a class of readers whom I much desired to please, + and who would sometimes enjoy, in my early writings, what I never should + myself have offered them. I asked my friend, therefore, to add to her own + already chosen series, any other passages she thought likely to be of + permanent interest to general readers; and I have printed her selections + in absolute submission to her judgment, merely arranging the pieces she + sent me in the order which seemed most convenient for the reciprocal + bearing of their fragmentary meanings, and adding here and there an + explanatory note; or, it may be, a deprecatory one, in cases where my mind + had changed. That she did me the grace to write every word with her own + hands, adds, in my eyes, and will, I trust, in the readers' also, to the + possible claims of the little book on their sympathy; and although I hope + to publish some of the scientific and technical portions of the original + volumes in my own large editions, the selections here made by my friend + under her quiet woods at Coniston—the Unter-Walden of England—will, + I doubt not, bring within better reach of many readers, for whom I am not + now able myself to judge or choose, such service as the book was ever + capable of rendering, in the illustration of the powers of nature, and + intercession for her now too often despised and broken peace. + </p> + <p> + Herne Hill, + </p> + <p> + 5th December, 1874. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + FRONDES AGRESTES. + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SECTION I. — PRINCIPLES OF ART. + </h2> + <p> + 1. Perfect taste is the faculty of receiving the greatest possible + pleasure from those material sources which are attractive to our moral + nature in its purity and perfection; but why we receive pleasure from some + forms and colours, and not from others, is no more to be asked or answered + than why we like sugar and dislike wormwood. + </p> + <p> + 2. The temper by which right taste is formed is characteristically + patient. It dwells upon what is submitted to it. It does not trample upon + it,—lest it should be pearls, even though it look like husks. It is + good ground, penetrable, retentive; it does not send up thorns of unkind + thoughts, to choke the weak seed; it is hungry and thirsty too, and drinks + all the dew that falls on it. It is an honest and good heart, that shows + no too ready springing before the sun be up, but fails not afterwards; it + is distrustful of itself, so as to be ready to believe and to try all + things; and yet so trustful of itself, that it will neither quit what it + has tried, nor take anything without trying. And the pleasure which it has + in things that it finds true and good, is so great, that it cannot + possibly be led aside by any tricks of fashion, or diseases of vanity; it + cannot be cramped in its conclusions by partialities and hypocrisies; its + visions and its delights are too penetrating,—too living,—for + any whitewashed object or shallow fountain long to endure or supply. It + clasps all that it loves so hard that it crushes it if it be hollow. + </p> + <p> + 3. It is the common consent of men that whatever branch of any pursuit + ministers to the bodily comforts, and regards material uses, is ignoble, + and whatever part is addressed to the mind only, is noble; and that + geology does better in reclothing dry bones and revealing lost creations, + than in tracing veins of lead and beds of iron; astronomy better in + opening to us the houses of heaven, than in teaching navigation; botany + better in displaying structure than in expressing juices; surgery better + in investigating organization than in setting limbs.—Only it is + ordained that, for our encouragement, every step we make in the more + exalted range of science adds something also to its practical + applicabilities; that all the great phenomena of nature, the knowledge of + which is desired by the angels only, by us partly, as it reveals to + farther vision the being and the glory of Him in whom they rejoice and we + live, dispense yet such kind influences and so much of material blessing + as to be joyfully felt by all inferior creatures, and to be desired by + them with such single desire as the imperfection of their nature may + admit; that the strong torrents, which, in their own gladness, fill the + hills with hollow thunder, and the vales with winding light, have yet + their bounden charge of field to feed, and barge to bear; that the fierce + flames to which the Alp owes its upheaval and the volcano its terror, + temper for us the metal vein, and warm the quickening spring; and that for + our incitement, I say, not our reward,—for knowledge is its own + reward,—herbs have their healing, stones their preciousness, and + stars their times. + </p> + <p> + 4. Had it been ordained by the Almighty{1} that the highest pleasures of + sight should be those of most difficult attainment, and that to arrive at + them it should be necessary to accumulate gilded palaces, tower over + tower, and pile artificial mountains around insinuated lakes, there would + never have been a direct contradiction between the unselfish duties and + the inherent desires of every individual. But no such contradiction exists + in the system of Divine Providence; which, leaving it open to us, if we + will, as creatures in probation, to abuse this sense like every other, and + pamper it with selfish and thoughtless vanities, as we pamper the palate + with deadly meats, until the appetite of tasteful cruelty is lost in its + sickened satiety, incapable of pleasure unless, Caligula like, it + concentrates the labour of a million of lives into the sensation of an + hour,—leaves it also open to us, by humble and loving ways, to make + ourselves susceptible of deep delight, which shall not separate us from + our fellows, nor require the sacrifice of any duty or occupation, but + which shall bind us closer to men and to God, and be with us always, + harmonized with every action, consistent with every claim, unchanging and + eternal. + </p> + <p> + {1} The reader must observe, that having been thoroughly disciplined in + the Evangelical schools, I supposed myself, at four-and-twenty, to know + all about the ordinances of the Almighty. Nevertheless, the practical + contents of the sentence are good; if only they are intelligible, which I + doubt. + </p> + <p> + 5. A great Idealist never can be egotistic. The whole of his power depends + upon his losing sight and feeling of his own existence, and becoming a + mere witness and mirror of truth, and a scribe of visions,—always + passive in sight, passive in utterance, lamenting continually that he + cannot completely reflect nor clearly utter all he has seen,—not by + any means a proud state for a man to be in. But the man who has no + invention is always setting things in order,{2} and putting the world to + rights, and mending, and beautifying, and pluming himself on his doings, + as supreme in all ways. + </p> + <p> + {2} I am now a comic illustration of this sentence, myself. I have not a + ray of invention in all my brains; but am intensely rational and orderly, + and have resolutely begun to set the world to rights. + </p> + <p> + 6. So far as education does indeed tend to make the senses delicate, and + the perceptions accurate, and thus enables people to be pleased with quiet + instead of gaudy colour, and with graceful instead of coarse form; and by + long acquaintance with the best things, to discern quickly what is fine + from what is common—so far acquired taste is an honourable faculty, + and it is true praise of anything to say it is "in good taste." But,{3} so + far as this higher education has a tendency to narrow the sympathies and + harden the heart, diminishing the interest of all beautiful things by + familiarity, until even what is best can hardly please, and what is + brightest hardly entertain,—so far as it fosters pride, and leads + men to found the pleasure they take in anything, not on the worthiness of + the thing, but on the degree in which it indicates some greatness of their + own, (as people build marble porticoes, and inlay marble floors, not so + much because they like the colours of marble, or find it pleasant to the + foot, as because such porches and floors are costly, and separated in all + human eyes from plain entrances of stone and timber);—so far as it + leads people to prefer gracefulness of dress, manner, and aspect, to value + of substance and heart, liking a well-<i>said</i> thing better than a true + thing, and a well-trained manner better than a sincere one, and a + delicately-formed face better than a good-natured one,—and in all + other ways and things setting custom and semblance above everlasting + truth;—so far, finally, as it induces a sense of inherent + distinction between class and class, and causes everything to be more or + less despised which has no social rank, so that the affection, pleasure, + and grief of a clown are looked upon as of no interest compared with the + affection and grief of a well-bred man;—just so far, in all these + several ways, the feeling induced by what is called "a liberal education" + is utterly adverse to the understanding of noble art. + </p> + <p> + {3} Nobody need begin this second volume sentence unless they are breathed + like the Græme:— + </p> + <p> + "Right up Ben Ledi could he press, And not a sob his toil confess." + </p> + <p> + 7. He who habituates himself in his daily life to seek for the stern facts + in whatever he hears or sees, will have these facts again brought before + him by the involuntary imaginative power, in their noblest associations; + and he who seeks for frivolities and fallacies, will have frivolities and + fallacies again presented to him in his dreams.{4} + </p> + <p> + {4} Very good. Few people have any idea how much more important the + government of the mind is, than the force of its exertion. Nearly all the + world flog their horses, without ever looking where they are going. + </p> + <p> + 8. All the histories of the Bible are yet waiting to be painted. Moses has + never been painted; Elijah never; David never (except as a mere ruddy + stripling); Deborah never; Gideon never; Isaiah never.{5} What single + example does the reader remember of painting which suggested so much as + the faintest shadow of their deeds? Strong men in armour, or aged men with + flowing beards, he <i>may</i> remember, who, when he looked at his Louvre + or Uffizi catalogue, he found were intended to stand for David, or Moses. + But does he suppose that, if these pictures had suggested to him the + feeblest image of the presence of such men, he would have passed on, as he + assuredly did, to the next picture, representing, doubtless, Diana and + Actæon, or Cupid and the Graces, or a gambling quarrel in a pothouse—with + no sense of pain or surprise? Let him meditate over the matter, and he + will find ultimately that what I say is true, and that religious art at + once complete and sincere never yet has existed. + </p> + <p> + {5} I knew nothing, when I wrote this passage, of Luini, Filippo Lippi, or + Sandro Botticelli; and had not capacity to enter into the deeper feelings, + even of the men whom I was chiefly studying,—Tintoret and Fra + Angelico. But the British public is at present as little acquainted with + the greater Florentines as I was then, and the passage, for <i>them</i>, + remains true. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SECTION II. — POWER AND OFFICE OF IMAGINATION. + </h2> + <p> + 9. What are the legitimate uses of the imagination,—that is to say, + of the power of perceiving, or conceiving with the mind, things which + cannot be perceived by the senses? Its first and noblest use is,{6} to + enable us to bring sensibly to our sight the things which are recorded as + belonging to our future state, or invisibly surrounding us in this. It is + given us, that we may imagine the cloud of witnesses, in heaven, and + earth, and sea, as if they were now present,—the souls of the + righteous waiting for us; that we may conceive the great army of the + inhabitants of heaven, and discover among them those whom we most desire + to be with for ever; that we may be able to vision forth the ministry of + angels beside us, and see the chariots of fire on the mountains that gird + us round; but, above all, to call up the scenes and facts in which we are + commanded to believe, and be present, as if in the body, at every recorded + event of the history of the Redeemer. Its second and ordinary use is, to + empower us to traverse the scenes of all other history, and to force the + facts to become again visible, so as to make upon us the same impression + which they would have made if we had witnessed them; and, in the minor + necessities of life, to enable us, out of any present good, to gather the + utmost measure of enjoyment, by investing it with happy associations, and, + in any present evil, to lighten it, by summoning back the images of other + hours; and also to give to all mental truths some visible type, in + allegory, simile, or personification, which shall most deeply enforce + them; and finally, when the mind is utterly outwearied, to refresh it with + such innocent play as shall be most in harmony with the suggestive voices + of natural things, permitting it to possess living companionship, instead + of silent beauty, and create for itself fairies in the grass, and naiads + in the wave. + </p> + <p> + {6} I should be glad if the reader who is interested in the question here + raised, would read, as illustrative of the subsequent statement, the + account of Tintoret's 'Paradise,' in the close of my Oxford lecture on + Michael Angelo and Tintoret, which I have printed separately to make it + generally accessible. + </p> + <p> + 10. Yet, because we thus reverence the power and art of imagination, let + none of us despise the power and art of memory. + </p> + <p> + Let the reader consider seriously what he would give at any moment to have + the power of arresting the fairest scenes, those which so often rise + before him only to vanish; to stay the cloud in its fading, the leaf in + its trembling, and the shadows in their changing; to bid the fitful foam + be fixed upon the river, and the ripples be everlasting upon the lake; and + then to bear away with him no darkness or feeble sun-stain, (though even + that is beautiful,) but a counterfeit which should seem no counterfeit—the + true and perfect image of life indeed. Or rather, (for the full majesty of + such a power is not thus sufficiently expressed,) let him consider that it + would be in effect nothing less than a capacity of transporting himself at + any moment into any scene—a gift as great as can be possessed by a + disembodied spirit; and suppose, also, this necromancy embracing not only + the present but the past, and enabling us seemingly to enter into the very + bodily presence of men long since gathered to the dust; to behold them in + act as they lived; but, with greater privilege than ever was granted to + the companions of those transient acts of life, to see them fastened at + our will in the gesture and expression of an instant, and stayed on the + eve of some great deed, in immortality of burning purpose.—Conceive, + so far as is possible, such power as this, and then say whether the art + which conferred it is to be spoken lightly of, or whether we should not + rather reverence, as half-divine, a gift which would go so far as to raise + us into the rank, and invest us with the felicities, of angels.{7} + </p> + <p> + {7} Passage written in opposition to the vulgar notion that the 'mere + imitation' of Nature is easy, and useless. + </p> + <p> + 11. I believe the first test of a truly great man is his humility. I do + not mean by humility, doubt of his own power, or hesitation of speaking + his opinions; but a right understanding of the relation between what <i>he</i> + can do and say, and the rest of the world's sayings and doings. All great + men not only know their business, but usually know that they know it; and + are not only right in their main opinions, but they usually know that they + are right in them; only they do not think much of themselves on that + account. Arnolfo knows he can build a good dome at Florence; Albert Durer + writes calmly to one who has found fault with his work,—"It cannot + be better done;" Sir Isaac Newton knows that he has worked out a problem + or two that would have puzzled anybody else; only they do not expect their + fellow-men, therefore, to fall down and worship them. They have a curious + under-sense of powerlessness, feeling that the greatness is not <i>in</i> + them, but <i>through</i> them—that they could not do or be anything + else than God made them; and they see something divine and God-made in + every other man they meet, and are endlessly, foolishly, incredibly + merciful. + </p> + <p> + 12. As far as I can observe, it is a constant law, that the greatest men, + whether poets or historians, live entirely in their own age, and the + greatest fruits of their work are gathered out of their own age. Dante + paints Italy in the thirteenth century; Chaucer, England in the + fourteenth; Masaccio, Florence in the fifteenth; Tintoret, Venice in the + sixteenth; all of them utterly regardless of anachronism and minor error + of every kind, but getting always vital truth out of the vital present. If + it be said that Shakespeare wrote perfect historical plays on subjects + belonging to the preceding centuries, I answer that they <i>are</i> + perfect plays, just because there is no care about centuries in them, but + a life which all men recognise for the human life of all time—and + this it is, not because Shakespeare sought to give universal truth, but + because painting, honestly and completely, from the men about him, he + painted that human nature which is indeed constant enough,—a rogue + in the fifteenth century being <i>at heart</i> what a rogue is in the + nineteenth, and was in the twelfth; and an honest or knightly man being in + like manner very similar to other such at any other time. And the work of + these great idealists is, therefore, always universal; not because it is + not <i>portrait</i>, but because it is <i>complete</i> portrait, down to + the heart, which is the same in all ages; and the work of the mean + idealists is <i>not</i> universal, not because it is portrait, but because + it is <i>half</i> portrait—of the outside, the manners and the + dress, not of the heart. Thus Tintoret and Shakespeare paint, both of + them, simply Venetian and English nature, as they saw it in their time, + down to the root; and it does for <i>all</i> time; but as for any care to + cast themselves into the particular ways and tones of thought, or custom, + of past time in their historical work, you will find it in neither of + them,{8} nor in any other perfectly great man that I know of. + </p> + <p> + {8} What vestige of Egyptian character is there, for instance, in + Cleopatra?—of Athenian in Theseus or Timon?—of old English in + Imogen or Cordelia?—of old Scottish in Macbeth?—or even of + mediæval Italian in Petruchio, the Merchant of Venice, or Desdemona? And + the Roman plays appear definitely Roman only because the strength of Rome + was the eternal strength of the world,—pure family life, sustained + by agriculture, and defended by simple and fearless manhood. + </p> + <p> + 13. I think it probable that many readers may be surprised at my calling + Scott the great representative of the mind of the age of literature. Those + who can perceive the intense penetrative depth of Wordsworth, and the + exquisite finish and melodious power of Tennyson, may be offended at my + placing in higher rank that poetry of careless glance and reckless rhyme + in which Scott poured out the fancies of his youth; and those who are + familiar with the subtle analysis of the French novelists, or who have in + any wise submitted themselves to the influence of German philosophy, may + be equally indignant at my ascribing a principality to Scott among the + literary men of Europe, in an age which has produced De Balzac, and + Goethe.{9} + </p> + <p> + {9} I knew nothing of Goethe when I put him with Balzac; but the + intolerable dulness which encumbers the depth of Wilhelm Meister, and the + cruel reserve which conceals from all but the intensest readers the + meaning of Faust, have made him, in a great degree, an evil influence in + European literature; and Evil is always second-rate. + </p> + <p> + But the mass of sentimental literature concerned with the analysis and + description of emotion, headed by the poetry of Byron, is altogether of + lower rank than the literature which merely describes what it saw. The + true seer feels as intensely as any one else; but he does not much + describe his feelings. He tells you whom he met, and what they said; + leaves you to make out, from that, what they feel, and what he feels, but + goes into little detail. And, generally speaking, pathetic writing and + careful explanation of passion are quite easy, compared with this plain + recording of what people said, and did; or with the right invention of + what they are likely to say and do; for this reason, that to invent a + story, or admirably and thoroughly tell any part of a story, it is + necessary to grasp the entire mind of every personage concerned in it, and + know precisely how they would be affected by what happens; which to do, + requires a colossal intellect; but to describe a separate emotion + delicately, it is only needed that one should feel it oneself; and + thousands of people are capable of feeling this or that noble emotion, for + one who is able to enter into all the feelings of somebody sitting on the + other side of the table. Even, therefore, where this sentimental + literature is first rate, as in passages of Byron, Tennyson, and Keats, it + ought not to be ranked so high as the creative; and though perfection even + in narrow fields is perhaps as rare as in the wider, and it may be as long + before we have another "In Memoriam" as another "Guy Mannering," I + unhesitatingly receive as a greater manifestation of power, the right + invention of a few sentences spoken by Pleydell and Mannering across their + supper-table, than the most tender and passionate melodies of the + self-examining verse. + </p> + <p> + 14. Fancy plays like a squirrel in its circular prison, and is happy; but + Imagination is a pilgrim on the earth—and her home is in heaven. + Shut her from the fields of the celestial mountains, bear her from + breathing their lofty, sun-warmed air; and we may as well turn upon her + the last bolt of the Tower of Famine, and give the keys to the keeping of + the wildest surge that washes Capraja and Gorgona.{10} + </p> + <p> + {10} I leave this passage, as my friend has chosen it; but it is + unintelligible without the contexts, which show how all the emotions + described in the preceding passages of this section, are founded on trust + in the beneficence and rule of an Omnipotent Spirit. + </p> + <p> + 15. In the highest poetry, there is no word so familiar, but a great man + will "bring good out of it, or rather, it will bring good to him, and + answer some end for which no other word would have done equally well. A + common person, for instance, would be mightily puzzled to apply the word + 'whelp' to anyone, with a view of flattering him. There is a certain + freshness and energy in the term, which gives it agreeableness, but it + seems difficult, at first hearing it, to use it complimentarily. If the + person spoken of be a prince, the difficulty seems increased; and when + farther he is at one and the same moment to be called a 'whelp' and + contemplated as a hero, it seems that a common idealist might well be + brought to a pause! But hear Shakespeare do it:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Awake his warlike spirit, + And your great uncle's, Edward the Black Prince, + Who on the French ground played a tragedy, + Making defeat on the full power of France, + While his most mighty father on a hill + Stood smiling, to behold his lion's whelp + Forage in blood of French nobility." +</pre> + <p> + 16. Although in all lovely nature there is, first, an excellent degree of + simple beauty, addressed to the eye alone, yet often what impresses us + most will form but a very small portion of that visible beauty. That + beauty may, for instance, be composed of lovely flowers, and glittering + streams, and blue sky and white clouds; and yet the thing that impresses + us most, and which we should be sorriest to lose, may be a thin grey film + on the extreme horizon, not so large, in the space of the scene it + occupies, as a piece of gossamer on a near-at-hand bush, nor in any wise + prettier to the eye than the gossamer; but because the gossamer is known + by us for a little bit of spider's work, and the other grey film is known + to mean a mountain ten thousand feet high, inhabited by a race of noble + mountaineers, we are solemnly impressed by the aspect of it, and yet all + the while the thoughts and knowledge which cause us to receive this + impression are so obscure that we are not conscious of them. + </p> + <p> + 17. Examine the nature of your own emotion, (if you feel it,) at the sight + of the Alps; and you find all the brightness of that emotion hanging, like + dew on a gossamer, on a curious web of subtle fancy and imperfect + knowledge. First you have a vague idea of its size, coupled with wonder at + the work of the great Builder of its walls and foundations; then an + apprehension of its eternity, a pathetic sense of its perpetualness, and + your own transientness, as of the grass upon its side;—then, and in + very sadness, a sense of strange companionship with past generations, in + seeing what they saw. They did not see the clouds that are floating over + your head, nor the cottage wall on the other side of the field, nor the + road by which you are travelling. But they saw <i>that</i>. The wall of + granite in the heavens was the same to them as to you. They have ceased to + look upon it; you will soon cease to look also, and the granite wall will + be for others. Then, mingled with these more solemn imaginations, come the + understandings of the gifts and glories of the Alp;—the fancying + forth of all the fountains that well from its rocky walls, and strong + rivers that are born out of its ice, and of all the pleasant valleys that + wind between its cliffs, and all the châlets that gleam among its clouds, + and happy farmsteads couched upon its pastures; while, together with the + thoughts of these, rise strange sympathies with all the unknown of human + life, and happiness, and death, signified by that narrow white flame of + the everlasting snow, seen so far in the morning sky. These images, and + far more than these, lie at the root of the emotion which you feel at the + sight of the Alps. You may not trace them in your heart, for there is a + great deal more in your heart, both of evil and good, than you can ever + trace; but they stir you and quicken you for all that. Assuredly, so far + as you feel more at beholding the snowy mountain than any other object of + the same sweet silvery grey, these are the kind of images which cause you + to do so; and observe, these are nothing more than a greater apprehension + of the <i>facts</i> of the thing. We call the power 'Imagination,' because + it imagines or conceives; but it is only noble imagination, if it imagines + or conceives the <i>truth</i>. And according to the degree of knowledge + possessed, and of sensibility to the pathetic or impressive character of + the things known, will be the degree of this imaginative delight. + </p> + <p> + 18. So natural is it to the human heart to fix itself in hope rather than + in present possession, and so subtle is the charm which the imagination + casts over what is distant or denied, that there is often a more touching + power in the scenes which contain far-away promises of something greater + than themselves, than in those which exhaust the treasures and powers of + nature in an unconquerable and excellent glory, leaving nothing more to be + by fancy pictured or pursued. I do not know that there is a district in + the world more calculated to illustrate this power of the expectant + imagination than that which surrounds the city of Fribourg in Switzerland, + extending from it towards Berne. It is of grey sandstone, considerably + elevated, but presenting no object of striking interest to the passing + traveller; so that as it is generally seen in the course of a hasty + journey from the Bernese Alps to those of Savoy, it is rarely regarded + with any other sensation than that of weariness, all the more painful + because accompanied with reaction from the high excitement caused by the + splendour of the Bernese Oberland. The traveller—foot-sore, + feverish, and satiated with glacier and precipice,—lies back in the + corner of the diligence, perceiving little more than that the road is + winding and hilly, and the country through which it passes, cultivated and + tame. Let him, however, only do this tame country the justice of staying + in it a few days, until his mind has recovered its tone, and take one or + two long walks through its fields, and he will have other thoughts of it. + It is, as I said, an undulating district of grey sandstone, never + attaining any considerable height, but having enough of the mountain + spirit to throw itself into continual succession of bold slope and dale; + elevated, also, just far enough above the sea to render the pine a + frequent forest tree along its irregular ridges. Through this elevated + tract the river cuts its way in a ravine some five or six hundred feet in + depth, which winds for leagues between the gentle hills, unthought of + until its edge is approached; and then, suddenly, through the boughs of + the firs, the eye perceives, beneath, the green and gliding stream, and + the broad walls of sandstone cliff that form its banks; hollowed out where + the river leans against them, at its turns, into perilous over-hanging; + and, on the other shore, at the same spots, leaving little breadths of + meadow between them and the water, half overgrown with thicket, deserted + in their sweetness, inaccessible from above, and rarely visited by any + curious wanderers along the hardly traceable footpath which struggles for + existence beneath the rocks. And there the river ripples and eddies and + murmurs in an outer solitude. It is passing through a thickly peopled + country; but never was a stream so lonely. The feeblest and most far-away + torrent among the high hills has its companions; the goats browse beside + it; and the traveller drinks from it, and passes over it with his staff; + and the peasant traces a new channel for it down to his mill-wheel. But + this stream has no companions; it flows on in an infinite seclusion, not + secret, nor threatening, but a quietness of sweet daylight and open air—a + broad space of tender and deep desolateness, drooped into repose out of + the midst of human labour and life; the waves plashing lowly, with none to + hear them; and the wild birds building in the boughs, with none to fray + them away; and the soft, fragrant herbs rising and breathing and fading, + with no hand to gather them;—and yet all bright and bare to the + clouds above, and to the fresh fall of the passing sunshine and pure rain. + But above the brows of these scarped cliffs, all is in an instant changed. + A few steps only beyond the firs that stretch their branches, angular, and + wild, and white, like forks of lightning, into the air of the ravine,—and + we are in an arable country of the most perfect richness; the swathes of + its corn glowing and burning from field to field: its pretty hamlets all + vivid with fruitful orchards, and flowery garden, and goodly with + steep-roofed storehouse and barn; its well-kept, hard, park-like roads + rising and falling from hillside to hillside, or disappearing among brown + banks of moss, and thickets of the wild raspberry and rose, or gleaming + through lines of tall trees, half glade, half avenue, where the gate + opens, or the gateless path turns trustedly aside, unhindered, into the + garden of some statelier house, surrounded in rural pride with its golden + hives, and carved granaries, and irregular domain of latticed and + espaliered cottages, gladdening to look upon in their delicate homeliness—delicate, + yet in some sort, rude; not like our English homes—trim, laborious, + formal, irreproachable in comfort—but with a peculiar carelessness + and largeness in all their detail, harmonizing with the outlawed + loveliness of their country. For there is an untamed strength even in all + that soft and habitable land. It is indeed gilded with corn, and fragrant + with deep grass, but it is not subdued to the plough or to the scythe. It + gives at its own free will; it seems to have nothing wrested from it, nor + conquered in it. It is not redeemed from desertness, but unrestrained in + fruitfulness,—a generous land, bright with capricious plenty, and + laughing from vale to vale in fitful fulness, kind and wild. Nor this + without some sterner element mingled in the heart of it. For, along all + its ridges stand the dark masses of innumerable pines,{11} taking no part + in its gladness; asserting themselves for ever as fixed shadows, not to be + pierced or banished even in the intensest sunlight; fallen flakes and + fragments of the night, stayed in their solemn squares in the midst of all + the rosy bendings of the orchard boughs and yellow effulgence of the + harvest, and tracing themselves in black network and motionless fringes + against the blanched blue of the horizon in its saintly clearness. And yet + they do not sadden the landscape, but seem to have been set there chiefly + to show how bright everything else is round them; and all the clouds look + of pure silver, and all the air seems filled with a whiter and more living + sunshine, where they are pierced by the sable points of the pines; and all + the pastures look of more glowing green where they run up between the + purple trunks; and the sweet field footpaths skirt the edges of the forest + for the sake of its shade, sloping up and down about the slippery roots, + and losing themselves every now and then hopelessly among the violets and + ground-ivy and brown sheddings of the fibrous leaves, and at last plunging + into some open aisle, where the light through the distant stems shows that + there is a chance of coming out again on the other side; and coming out + indeed in a little while from the scented darkness into the dazzling air + and marvellous landscape, which stretches still farther and farther in new + wilfulness of grove and garden, until at last the craggy mountains of the + Simmenthal rise out of it, sharp into the rolling of the southern clouds. + </p> + <p> + {11} Almost the only pleasure I have, myself, in rereading my old books, + is my sense of having at least done justice to the pine. Compare the + passage in this book, No. 47. + </p> + <p> + 19.{12} Although there are few districts of Northern Europe, however + apparently dull or tame, in which I cannot find pleasure; though the whole + of Northern France (except Champagne), dull as it seems to most + travellers, is to me a perpetual paradise; and, putting Lincolnshire, + Leicestershire, and one or two such other perfectly flat districts aside, + there is not an English county which I should not find entertainment in + exploring the cross-roads of, foot by foot,—yet all my best + enjoyment would be owing to the imagination of the hills, colouring with + their far-away memories every lowland stone and herb. The pleasant French + coteau, green in the sunshine, delights me either by what real mountain + character it has in itself, (for in extent and succession of promontory, + the flanks of the French valleys have quite the sublimity of true mountain + distances,) or by its broken ground and rugged steps among the vines, and + rise of the leafage above against the blue sky, as it might rise at Vevay + or Como. There is not a wave of the Seine, but is associated in my mind + with the first rise of the sandstones and forest pines of Fontainebleau; + and with the hope of the Alps, as one leaves Paris, with the horses' heads + to the southwest, the morning sun flashing on the bright waves at + Charenton. If there be no hope or association of this kind, and if I + cannot deceive myself into fancying that perhaps at the next rise of the + road there may be the film of a blue hill in the gleam of sky at the + horizon, the landscape, however beautiful, produces in me even a kind of + sickness and pain; and the whole view from Richmond Hill or Windsor + Terrace,—nay, the gardens of Alcinous, with their perpetual summer—or + of the Hesperides, (if they were flat, and not close to Atlas,) golden + apples and all, I would give away in an instant, for one mossy granite + stone a foot broad, and two leaves of lady fern. + </p> + <p> + {12} This, and the following passage, have nothing to do with the general + statements in the book. They occur with reference only to my own + idiosyncrasy. I was much surprised when I found first how individual it + was, by a Pre-Raphaelite painter's declaring a piece of unwholesome reedy + fen to be more beautiful than Benvenue. + </p> + <p> + 20. I cannot find words to express the intense pleasure I have always in + first finding myself, after some prolonged stay in England, at the foot of + the old tower of Calais Church. The large neglect, the noble unsightliness + of it; the record of its years written so visibly, yet without sign of + weakness or decay; its stern wasteness and gloom, eaten away by the + Channel winds, and overgrown with the bitter sea grasses; its slates and + tiles all shaken and rent, and yet not falling; its desert of brickwork, + full of bolts, and holes, and ugly fissures, and yet strong, like a bare + brown rock; its carelessness of what any one thinks or feels about it, + putting forth no claim, having no beauty, nor desirableness, pride, nor + grace; yet neither asking for pity; not, as ruins are, useless and + piteous, feebly or fondly garrulous of better days; but, useful still, + going through its own daily work,—as some old fisherman, beaten grey + by storm, yet drawing his daily nets: so it stands, with no complaint + about its past youth, in blanched and meagre massiveness and + serviceableness, gathering human souls together underneath it; the sound + of its bells for prayer still rolling through its rents; and the grey peak + of it seen far across the sea, principal of the three that rise above the + waste of surfy sand and hillocked shore,—the lighthouse for life, + and the belfry for labour, and this—for patience and praise. + </p> + <p> + I cannot tell the half of the strange pleasures and thoughts that come + about me at the sight of that old tower; for, in some sort, it is the + epitome of all that makes the continent of Europe interesting, as opposed + to new countries; and, above all, it completely expresses that agedness in + the midst of active life which binds the old and the new into harmony. We + in England have our new streets, our new inn, our green shaven lawn, and + our piece of ruin emergent from it—a mere <i>specimen</i> of the + Middle Ages put on a bit of velvet carpet, to be shown; and which, but for + its size, might as well be on a museum shelf at once, under cover;—but, + on the Continent, the links are unbroken between the past and present; + and, in such use as they can serve for, the grey-headed wrecks are + suffered to stay with men; while, in unbroken line, the generations of + spared buildings are seen succeeding, each in its place. And thus, in its + largeness, in its permitted evidence of slow decline, in its poverty, in + its absence of all pretence, of all show and care for outside aspect, that + Calais tower has an infinite of symbolism in it, all the more striking + because usually seen in contrast with English scenes expressive of + feelings the exact reverse of these.{13} + </p> + <p> + {13} My friend won't write out the reverse! Our book is to be all jelly, + and no powder, it seems. Well, I'm very thankful she likes the jelly,—at + any rate, it makes me sure that <i>it</i> is well made. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SECTION III. — ILLUSTRATIVE: THE SKY. + </h2> + <p> + 21. It is a strange thing how little in general people know about the sky. + It is the part of creation in which Nature has done more for the sake of + pleasing man—more for the sole and evident purpose of talking to + him, and teaching him—than in any other of her works; and it is just + the part in which we least attend to her. There are not many of her other + works in which some more material or essential purpose than the mere + pleasing of man is not answered by every part of their organization; but + every essential purpose of the sky might, so far as we know, be answered + if once in three days, or thereabouts, a great, ugly, black rain-cloud + were brought up over the blue, and everything well watered, and so all + left blue again till next time, with perhaps a film of morning and evening + mist for dew;—and instead of this, there is not a moment of any day + of our lives, when Nature is not producing scene after scene, picture + after picture, glory after glory, and working still upon such exquisite + and constant principles of the most perfect beauty, that it is quite + certain{14} it is all done for us, and intended for our perpetual + pleasure. And every man, wherever placed, however far from other sources + of interest or of beauty, has this doing for him constantly. The noblest + scenes of the earth can be seen and known but by few; it is not intended + that man should live always in the midst of them; he injures them by his + presence, he ceases to feel them if he is always with them; but the sky is + for all: bright as it is, it is not + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "too bright nor good + For human nature's daily food;" +</pre> + <p> + it is fitted in all its functions for the perpetual comfort and exalting + of the heart,—for soothing it, and purifying it from its dross and + dust. Sometimes gentle, sometimes capricious, sometimes awful—never + the same for two moments together; almost human in its passions, almost + spiritual in its tenderness, almost divine in its infinity, its appeal to + what is immortal in us is as distinct as its ministry of chastisement or + of blessing to what is mortal is essential. And yet we never attend to it, + we never make it a subject of thought, but as it has to do with our animal + sensations; we look upon all by which it speaks to us more clearly than to + brutes, upon all which bears witness to the intentions of the Supreme that + we are to receive more from the covering vault than the light and the dew + which we share with the weed and the worm, as only a succession of + meaningless and monotonous accident, too common and too vain to be worthy + of a moment of watchfulness, or a glance of admiration. If in our moments + of utter idleness and insipidity, we turn to the sky as a last resource, + which of its phenomena do we speak of? One says, it has been wet; and + another, it has been windy; and another, it has been warm. Who among the + whole chattering crowd can tell one of the forms and the precipices of the + chain of tall white mountains that girded the horizon at noon yesterday? + Who saw the narrow sunbeam that came out of the south, and smote upon + their summits until they melted and mouldered away in a dust of blue rain? + Who saw the dance of the dead clouds when the sunlight left them last + night, and the west wind blew them before it like withered leaves? All has + passed unregretted as unseen; or, if the apathy be ever shaken off even + for an instant, it is only by what is gross, or what is extraordinary. And + yet it is not in the broad and fierce manifestations of the elemental + energies, not in the clash of the hail, nor the drift of the whirlwind, + that the highest characters of the sublime are developed. God is not in + the earthquake, nor in the fire, but in the still, small voice. They are + but the blunt and the low faculties of our nature, which can only be + addressed through lamp-black and lightning. It is in quiet and subdued + passages of unobtrusive majesty, the deep and the calm, and the perpetual; + that which must be sought ere it is seen, and loved ere it is understood; + things which the angels work out for us daily, and yet vary eternally; + which are never wanting, and never repeated; which are to be found always, + yet each found but once;—it is through these that the lesson of + devotion is chiefly taught, and the blessing of beauty given. + </p> + <p> + {14} At least, I thought so, when I was four-and-twenty. At + five-and-fifty, I fancy that it is just possible there may be other + creatures in the universe to be pleased, or,—it may be,—displeased, + by the weather. + </p> + <p> + 22. We habitually think of the rain-cloud only as dark and grey; not + knowing that we owe to it perhaps the fairest, though not the most + dazzling, of the hues of heaven. Often in our English mornings, the + rain-clouds in the dawn form soft, level fields, which melt imperceptibly + into the blue; or, when of less extent, gather into apparent bars, + crossing the sheets of broader cloud above; and all these bathed + throughout in an unspeakable light of pure rose-colour, and purple, and + amber, and blue; not shining, but misty-soft; the barred masses, when seen + nearer, composed of clusters or tresses of cloud, like floss silk; looking + as if each knot were a little swathe or sheaf of lighted rain. + </p> + <p> + 23. Aqueous vapour or mist, suspended in the atmosphere, becomes visible + exactly as dust does in the air of a room. In the shadows, you not only + cannot see the dust itself, because unillumined, but you can see other + objects through the dust, without obscurity; the air being thus actually + rendered more transparent by a deprivation of light. Where a sunbeam + enters, every particle of dust becomes visible, and a palpable + interruption to the sight; so that a transverse sunbeam is a real obstacle + to the vision—you cannot see things clearly through it. In the same + way, wherever vapour is illuminated by transverse rays, there it becomes + visible as a whiteness more or less affecting the purity of the blue, and + destroying it exactly in proportion to the degree of illumination. But + where vapour is in shade, it has very little effect on the sky, perhaps + making it a little deeper and greyer than it otherwise would be, but not, + itself, unless very dense, distinguishable or felt as mist. + </p> + <p> + 24. Has the reader any distinct idea of what clouds are? + </p> + <p> + {15}That mist which lies in the morning so softly in the valley, level and + white, through which the tops of the trees rise as if through an + inundation—why is <i>it</i> so heavy, and why does it lie so low, + being yet so thin and frail that it will melt away utterly into splendour + of morning when the sun has shone on it but a few moments more? Those + colossal pyramids, huge and firm, with outlines as of rocks, and strength + to bear the beating of the high sun full on their fiery flanks,—why + are <i>they</i> so light, their bases high over our heads, high over the + heads of Alps? Why will these melt away, not as the sun <i>rises</i>, but + as he <i>descends</i>, and leave the stars of twilight clear; while the + valley vapour gains again upon the earth, like a shroud? Or that ghost of + a cloud, which steals by yonder clump of pines; nay, which does <i>not</i> + steal by them, but haunts them, wreathing yet round them, and yet,—and + yet,—slowly; now falling in a fair waved line like a woman's veil; + now fading, now gone; we look away for an instant, and look back, and it + is again there. What has it to do with that clump of pines, that it broods + by them, and weaves itself among their branches, to and fro? Has it hidden + a cloudy treasure among the moss at their roots, which it watches thus? Or + has some strong enchanter charmed it into fond returning, or bound it fast + within those bars of bough? And yonder filmy crescent, bent like an + archer's bow above the snowy summit, the highest of all the hills—that + white arch which never forms but over the supreme crest,—how is it + stayed there, repelled apparently from the snow,—nowhere touching + it, the clear sky seen between it and the mountain edge, yet never leaving + it—poised as a white bird hovers over its nest? Or those war clouds + that gather on the horizon, dragon-crested, tongued with fire,—how + is their barbed strength bridled? What bits are those they are champing + with their vapourous lips, flinging off flakes of black foam? Leagued + leviathans of the Sea of Heaven,—out of their nostrils goeth smoke, + and their eyes are like the eyelids of the morning; the sword of him that + layeth at them cannot hold the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon. Where + ride the captains of their armies? Where are set the measures of their + march? Fierce murmurers, answering each other from morning until evening—what + rebuke is this which has awed them into peace;—what hand has reined + them back by the way in which they came? + </p> + <p> + {15} This is a fifth volume bit, and worth more attention. + </p> + <p> + I know not if the reader will think at first that questions like these are + easily answered. So far from it, I rather believe that some of the + mysteries of the clouds never will be understood by us at all. "Knowest + thou the balancings of the clouds?" Is the answer ever to be one of pride? + The wondrous works of Him, who is perfect in knowledge? Is <i>our</i> + knowledge ever to be so?... + </p> + <p> + For my own part, I enjoy the mystery, and perhaps the reader may. I think + he ought. He should not be less grateful for summer rain, or see less + beauty in the clouds of morning, because they come to prove him with hard + questions; to which perhaps, if we look close at the heavenly scroll, we + may find also a syllable or two of answer, illuminated here and there.{16} + </p> + <p> + {16} Compare, in 'Sartor Resartus,' the boy's watching from the garden + wall. + </p> + <p> + And though the climates of the south and east may be <i>comparatively</i> + clear, they are no more absolutely clear than our own northern air. + Intense clearness, whether, in the north, after or before rain, or in some + moments of twilight in the south, is always, as far as I am acquainted + with natural phenomena, a <i>notable</i> thing. Mist of some sort, or + mirage, or confusion of light or of cloud, are the general facts; the + distance may vary in different climates at which the effects of mist + begin, but they are always present; and therefore, in all probability, it + is meant that we should enjoy them.... We surely need not wonder that mist + and all its phenomena have been made delightful to us, since our happiness + as thinking beings must depend on our being content to accept only partial + knowledge even in those matters which chiefly concern us. If we insist + upon perfect intelligibility and complete declaration in every moral + subject, we shall instantly fall into misery of unbelief. Our whole + happiness and power of energetic action depend upon our being able to + breathe and live in the cloud; content to see it opening here, and closing + there; rejoicing to catch through the thinnest films of it, glimpses of + stable and substantial things; but yet perceiving a nobleness even in the + concealment, and rejoicing that the kindly veil is spread where the + untempered light might have scorched us, or the infinite clearness + wearied. And I believe that the resentment of this interference of the + mist is one of the forms of proud error which are too easily mistaken for + virtues. To be content in utter darkness and ignorance is indeed unmanly, + and therefore we think that to love light and find knowledge must always + be right. Yet (as in all matters before observed,) wherever <i>pride</i> + has any share in the work, even knowledge and light may be ill pursued. + Knowledge is good, and light is good: yet man perished in seeking + knowledge, and moths perish in seeking light; and if we, who are crushed + before the moth, will not accept such mystery as is needful to us, we + shall perish in like manner. But, accepted in humbleness, it instantly + becomes an element of pleasure; and I think that every rightly constituted + mind ought to rejoice, not so much in knowing anything clearly, as in + feeling that there is infinitely more which it cannot know. None but proud + or weak men would mourn over this, for we may always know more, if we + choose, by working on; but the pleasure is, I think, to humble people, in + knowing that the journey is endless, the treasure inexhaustible,—watching + the cloud still march before them with its summitless pillar, and being + sure that, to the end of time, and to the length of eternity, the + mysteries of its infinity will still open farther and farther, their + dimness being the sign and necessary adjunct of their inexhaustibleness. I + know there are an evil mystery, and a deathful dimness,—the mystery + of the great Babylon—the dimness of the sealed eye and soul; but do + not let us confuse these with the glorious mystery of the things which the + "angels desire to look into," or with the dimness which, even before the + clear eye and open soul, still rests on sealed pages of the eternal + volume. + </p> + <p> + 25. On some isolated mountain at day-break,{17} when the night mists first + rise from off the plain, watch their white and lakelike fields, as they + float in level bays, and winding gulfs, about the islanded summits of the + lower hills, untouched yet by more than dawn, colder and more quiet than a + windless sea under the moon of midnight; watch when the first sunbeam is + sent upon the silver channels, how the foam of their undulating surface + parts, and passes away, and down under their depths the glittering city + and green pastures lie like Atlantis, between the white paths of winding + rivers; the flakes of light falling every moment faster and broader among + the starry spires, as the wreathed surges break and vanish above them, and + the confused crests and ridges of the dark hills shorten their grey + shadows upon the plain. Wait a little longer, and you shall see those + scattered mists rallying in the ravines, and floating up towards you, + along the winding valleys, till they crouch in quiet masses, iridescent + with the morning light, upon the broad breasts of the higher hills, whose + leagues of massy undulation will melt back, back into that robe of + material light, until they fade away, lost in its lustre, to appear again + above in the serene heaven like a wild, bright, impossible dream, + foundationless, and inaccessible, their very bases vanishing in the + unsubstantial and mocking blue of the deep lake below. Wait yet a little + longer, and you shall see those mists gather themselves into white towers, + and stand like fortresses along the promontories, massy and motionless, + only piled, with every instant, higher and higher into the sky, and + casting longer shadows athwart the rocks; and out of the pale blue of the + horizon you will see forming and advancing a troop of narrow, dark, + pointed vapours, which will cover the sky, inch by inch, with their grey + network, and take the light off the landscape with an eclipse which will + stop the singing of the birds, and the motion of the leaves, together;—and + then you will see horizontal bars of black shadow forming under them, and + lurid wreaths create themselves, you know not how, among the shoulders of + the hills; you never see them form, but when you look back to a place + which was clear an instant ago, there is a cloud on it, hanging by the + precipice, as a hawk pauses over his prey;—and then you will hear + the sudden rush of the awakened wind, and you will see those watch-towers + of vapour swept away from their foundations, and waving curtains of opaque + rain, let down to the valley, swinging from the burdened clouds in black + bending fringes, or, pacing in pale columns along the lake level, grazing + its surface into foam as they go. And then, as the sun sinks, you shall + see the storm drift for an instant from off the hills, leaving their broad + sides smoking and loaded yet with snow-white, torn, steam-like rags of + capricious vapour, now gone, now gathered again,—while the + smouldering sun, seeming not far away, but burning like a red-hot ball + beside you, and as if you could reach it, plunges through the rushing wind + and rolling cloud with headlong fall, as if it meant to rise no more, + dyeing all the air about it with blood;—and then you shall hear the + fainting tempest die in the hollow of the night, and you shall see a green + halo kindling on the summit of the eastern hills, brighter, brighter yet, + till the large white circle of the slow moon is lifted up among the barred + clouds, step by step, line by line; star after star she quenches with her + kindling light, setting in their stead an army of pale, penetrable, fleecy + wreaths in the heaven, to give light upon the earth, which move together + hand in hand, company by company, troop by troop, so measured in their + unity of motion that the whole heaven seems to roll with them, and the + earth to reel under them. And then wait yet for one hour, until the east + again becomes purple, and the heaving mountains, rolling against it in + darkness, like waves of a wild sea, are drowned one by one in the glory of + its burning; watch the white glaciers blaze in their winding paths about + the mountains, like mighty serpents with scales of fire; watch the + columnar peaks of solitary snow, kindling downwards chasm by chasm, each + in itself a new morning—their long avalanches cast down in keen + streams brighter than the lightning, sending each his tribute of driven + snow, like altar-smoke, up to heaven; the rose-light of their silent domes + flushing that heaven about them, and above them, piercing with purer light + through its purple lines of lifted cloud, casting a new glory on every + wreath, as it passes by, until the whole heaven, one scarlet canopy, is + interwoven with a roof of waving flame, and tossing vault beyond vault, as + with the drifted wings of many companies of angels; and then, when you can + look no more for gladness, and when you are bowed down with fear and love + of the Maker and Doer of this, tell me who has best delivered this His + message unto men! + </p> + <p> + {17} I forget now what all this is about. It seems to be a recollection of + the Rigi, with assumption that the enthusiastic spectator is to stand for + a day and night in observation; to suffer the effects of a severe + thunder-storm, and to get neither breakfast nor dinner. I have seen such a + storm on the Rigi, however, and more than one such sunrise; and I much + doubt if its present visitors by rail will see more. + </p> + <p> + 26.{18} The account given of the stages of creation in the first chapter + of Genesis is in every respect clear and intelligible to the simplest + reader, except in the statement of the work of the second day. I suppose + that this statement is passed over by careless readers without any + endeavour to understand it, and contemplated by simple and faithful + readers as a sublime mystery which was not intended to be understood. But + there is no mystery in any other part of the chapter, and it seems to me + unjust to conclude that any was intended here. And the passage ought to be + peculiarly interesting to us, as being the first in the Bible in which the + heavens are named, and the only one in which the word "Heaven," + all-important as that word is to our understanding of the most precious + promises of Scripture, receives a definite explanation. Let us therefore + see whether, by a little careful comparison of the verse with other + passages in which the word occurs, we may not be able to arrive at as + clear an understanding of this portion of the chapter as of the rest. In + the first place the English word, "Firmament," itself is obscure and + useless; because we never employ it but as a synonym of heaven, it conveys + no other distinct idea to us; and the verse, though from our familiarity + with it we imagine that it possesses meaning, has in reality no more point + nor value than if it were written, "God said, Let there be a something in + the midst of the waters, and God called the something, Heaven." But the + marginal reading, "Expansion," has definite value; and the statement that + "God said, Let there be an expansion in the midst of the waters, and God + called the expansion, Heaven," has an apprehensible meaning. Accepting + this expression as the one intended, we have next to ask what expansion + there is, between two waters, describable by the term "heaven." Milton + adopts the term "expanse," but he understands it of the whole volume of + the air which surrounds the earth. Whereas, so far as we can tell, there + is no water beyond the air, in the fields of space; and the whole + expression of division of waters from waters is thus rendered valueless. + Now with respect to this whole chapter, we must remember always that it is + intended for the instruction of all mankind, not for the learned reader + only; and that therefore the most simple and natural interpretation is the + likeliest in general to be the true one. An unscientific reader knows + little about the manner in which the volume of the atmosphere surrounds + the earth; but I imagine that he could hardly glance at the sky when rain + was falling in the distance, and see the level line of the bases of the + clouds from which the shower descended, without being able to attach an + instant and easy meaning to the words, "expansion in the midst of the + waters;" and if, having once seized this idea, he proceeded to examine it + more accurately, he would perceive at once, if he had ever noticed <i>anything</i> + of the nature of clouds, that the level line of their bases did indeed + most severely and stringently divide "waters from waters"—that is to + say, divide water in its collective and tangible state, from water in its + aërial state; or the waters which <i>fall</i>, and <i>flow</i>, from those + which <i>rise</i>, and <i>float</i>. Next, if we try this interpretation + in the theological sense of the word <i>heaven</i>, and examine whether + the clouds are spoken of as God's dwelling-place, we find God going before + the Israelites in a pillar of cloud; revealing Himself in a cloud on + Sinai; appearing in a cloud on the mercy-seat; filling the Temple of + Solomon with the cloud when its dedication is accepted; appearing in a + great cloud to Ezekiel; ascending into a cloud before the eyes of the + disciples on Mount Olivet; and in like manner returning to judgment: + "Behold He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him." "Then shall + they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and + great glory." While, further, the "clouds" and "heavens" are used as + interchangeable words in those psalms which most distinctly set forth the + power of God: "He bowed the heavens also, and came down; He made darkness + pavilions round about Him, dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies." + And again, "Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, and Thy faithfulness + reacheth unto the clouds." And again, "His excellency is over Israel, and + His strength is in the clouds." And again, "The clouds poured out water, + the skies sent out a sound, the voice of Thy thunder was in the heaven." + Again, "Clouds and darkness are round about Him, righteousness and + judgment are the habitation of His throne; the heavens declare His + righteousness, and all the people see His glory." In all these passages + the meaning is unmistakable if they possess definite meaning at all. We + are too apt to take them merely for sublime and vague imagery, and + therefore gradually to lose the apprehension of their life and power. The + expression, "He bowed the heavens," for instance, is, I suppose, received + by most readers as a magnificent hyperbole, having reference to some + peculiar and fearful manifestation of God's power to the writer of the + psalm in which the words occur. But the expression either has <i>plain</i> + meaning, or it has <i>no</i> meaning. Understand by the term "heavens" the + compass of infinite space around the earth, and the expression "bowed the + heavens," however sublime, is wholly without meaning: infinite space + cannot be bent or bowed. But understand by the "heavens" the veil of + clouds above the earth, and the expression is neither hyperbolical nor + obscure; it is pure, plain, accurate truth, and it describes God, not as + revealing Himself in any peculiar way to David, but doing what He is still + doing before our own eyes, day by day. By accepting the words in their + simple sense, we are thus led to apprehend the immediate presence of the + Deity, and His purpose of manifesting Himself as near us whenever the + storm-cloud stoops upon its course; while by our vague and inaccurate + acceptance of the words, we remove the idea of His presence far from us, + into a region which we can neither see nor know: and gradually, from the + close realization of a living God, who "maketh the clouds His chariot," we + define and explain ourselves into dim and distant suspicion of an inactive + God inhabiting inconceivable places, and fading into the multitudinous + formalisms of the laws of Nature. All errors of this kind—and in the + present day we are in constant and grievous danger of falling into them—arise + from the originally mistaken idea that man can, "by searching, find out + God—find out the Almighty to perfection"—that is to say, by + help of courses of reasoning and accumulations of science, apprehend the + nature of the Deity, in a more exalted and more accurate manner than in a + state of comparative ignorance; whereas it is clearly necessary, from the + beginning to the end of time, that God's way of revealing Himself to His + creatures should be a <i>simple</i> way, which <i>all</i> those creatures + may understand. Whether taught or untaught, whether of mean capacity or + enlarged, it is necessary that communion with their Creator should be + possible to all; and the admission to such communion must be rested, not + on their having a knowledge of astronomy, but on their having a human + soul. In order to render this communion possible, the Deity has stooped + from His throne, and has, not only in the person of the Son, taken upon + Him the veil of our human <i>flesh</i>, but, in the person of the Father, + taken upon Him the veil of our human <i>thoughts</i>, and permitted us, by + His own spoken authority, to conceive Him simply and clearly as a loving + father and friend; a being to be walked with and reasoned with, to be + moved by our entreaties, angered by our rebellion, alienated by our + coldness, pleased by our love, and glorified by our labour; and, finally, + to be beheld in immediate and active presence in all the powers and + changes of creation. This conception of God, which is the child's, is + evidently the only one which can be universal, and, therefore, the only + one which <i>for us</i> can be true. The moment that, in our pride of + heart, we refuse to accept the condescension of the Almighty, and desire + Him, instead of stooping to hold our hands, to rise up before us into His + glory, we hoping that, by standing on a grain of dust or two of human + knowledge higher than our fellows, we may behold the Creator as He rises,—God + takes us at our word. He rises into His own invisible and inconceivable + majesty; He goes forth upon the ways which are not our ways, and retires + into the thoughts which are not our thoughts; and we are left alone. And + presently we say in our vain hearts, "There is no God." + </p> + <p> + {18} This passage, to the end of the section, is one of the last, and + best, which I wrote in the temper of my youth; and I can still ratify it, + thus far, that the texts referred to in it must either be received as it + explains them, or neglected altogether. + </p> + <p> + I would desire, therefore, to receive God's account of His own creation as + under the ordinary limits of human knowledge and imagination it would be + received by a simple-minded man; and finding that "the heavens and the + earth" are spoken of always as having something like equal relation to + each other, ("Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the + host of them,") I reject at once all idea of the term "heavens" being + intended to signify the infinity of space inhabited by countless worlds; + for between those infinite heavens and the particle of sand, which not the + earth only, but the sun itself, with all the solar system, is, in relation + to them, no relation of equality or comparison could be inferred. But I + suppose the heavens to mean that part of creation which holds equal + companionship with our globe; I understand the "rolling of these heavens + together as a scroll," to be an equal and relative destruction with the + melting of the elements in fervent heat; and I understand the making of + the firmament to signify that, so far as man is concerned, most + magnificent ordinance of the clouds;—the ordinance that, as the + great plain of waters was formed on the face of the earth, so also a plain + of waters should be stretched along the height of air, and the face of the + cloud answer the face of the ocean; and that this upper and heavenly plain + should be of waters, as it were, glorified in their nature, no longer + quenching the fire, but now bearing fire in their own bosoms; no longer + murmuring only when the winds raise them or rocks divide, but answering + each other with their own voices, from pole to pole; no longer restrained + by established shores, and guided through unchanging channels, but going + forth at their pleasure like the armies of the angels, and choosing their + encampments upon the heights of the hills; no longer hurried downwards for + ever, moving but to fall, nor lost in the lightless accumulation of the + abyss, but covering the east and west with the waving of their wings, and + robing the gloom of the farther infinite with a vesture of diverse + colours, of which the threads are purple and scarlet, and the embroideries + flame. + </p> + <p> + This I believe is the ordinance of the firmament; and it seems to me that + in the midst of the material nearness of these heavens, God means us to + acknowledge His own immediate presence as visiting, judging, and blessing + us: "The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God." + "He doth set His bow in the clouds," and thus renews, in the sound of + every drooping swathe of rain, His promises of everlasting love. "In them + hath He set a <i>tabernacle</i> for the sun;" whose burning ball, which, + without the firmament, would be seen but as an intolerable and scorching + circle in the blackness of vacuity, is by that firmament surrounded with + gorgeous service, and tempered by mediatorial ministries: by the firmament + of clouds the temple is built, for his presence to fill with light at + noon; by the firmament of clouds the purple veil is closed at evening, + round the sanctuary of his rest; by the mists of the firmament his + implacable light is divided, and its separated fierceness appeased into + the soft blue that fills the depth of distance with its bloom, and the + flush with which the mountains burn, as they drink the overflowing of the + dayspring. And in this tabernacling of the unendurable sun with men, + through the shadows of the firmament, God would seem to set forth the + stooping of His own Majesty to men, upon the throne of the firmament. As + the Creator of all the worlds, and the Inhabiter of eternity, we cannot + behold Him; but as the Judge of the earth and the Preserver of men, those + heavens are indeed His dwelling-place: "Swear not, neither by heaven, for + it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool!" And all + those passings to and fro of fruitful showers and grateful shade, and all + those visions of silver palaces built about the horizon, and voices of + moaning winds and threatening thunders, and glories of coloured robe and + cloven ray, are but to deepen in our hearts the acceptance, and + distinctness, and dearness of the simple words, "Our Father, which art in + heaven." + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SECTION IV. — ILLUSTRATIVE: STREAMS AND SEA. + </h2> + <p> + 27. Of all inorganic substances, acting in their own proper nature, and + without assistance and combination, water is the most wonderful. If we + think of it as the source of all the changefulness and beauty which we + have seen in clouds,—then, as the instrument by which the earth we + have contemplated was modelled into symmetry, and its crags chiselled into + grace;—then, as in the form of snow, it robes the mountains it has + made with that transcendent light which we could not have conceived if we + had not seen;—then, as it exists in the foam of the torrent, in the + iris which spans it, in the morning mist which rises from it, in the deep + crystalline pools which mirror its hanging shore, in the broad lake and + glancing river;—finally, in that which is to all human minds the + best emblem of unwearied, unconquerable power the wild, various, + fantastic, tameless unity of the sea;—what shall we compare to this + mighty, this universal element, for glory and beauty? or how shall we + follow its eternal changefulness of feeling? It is like trying to paint a + soul! + </p> + <p> + 28. The great angel of the sea—rain; the angel, observe,—the + messenger sent to a special place on a special errand. Not the diffused, + perpetual presence of the burden of mist, but the going and returning of + the intermittent cloud. All turns upon that intermittence. Soft moss on + stone and rock; cave fern of tangled glen; wayside well—perennial, + patient, silent, clear, stealing through its square font of rough-hewn + stone; ever thus deep, no more;—which the winter wreck sullies not, + the summer thirst wastes not, incapable of stain as of decline;—where + the fallen leaf floats undecayed, and the insect darts undefiling: cressed + brook and ever-eddying river, lifted even in flood scarcely over its + stepping stones,—but through all sweet summer keeping tremulous + music with harp-strings of dark water among the silver fingering of the + pebbles. Far away in the south the strong river gods have all hasted, and + gone down to the sea. Wasted and burning, white furnaces of blasting sand, + their broad beds lie ghastly and bare; but here in the moss lands, the + soft wings of the sea angel droop still with dew, and the shadows of their + plumes falter on the hills; strange laughings and glitterings of silver + streamlets, born suddenly, and twined about the mossy heights in trickling + tinsel, answering to them as they wave. + </p> + <p> + 29. Stand for half an hour beside the fall of Schaffhausen, on the north + side, where the rapids are long, and watch how the vault of water first + bends unbroken, in pure polished velocity, over the arching rocks at the + brow of the cataract, covering them with a dome of crystal twenty feet + thick, so swift that its motion is unseen except when a foam globe from + above darts over it like a falling star; and how the trees are lighted + above it under all their leaves,{19} at the instant that it breaks into + foam; and how all the hollows of that foam burn with green fire like so + much shattering chrysoprase; and how, ever and anon startling you with its + white flash, a jet of spray leaps hissing out of the fall, like a rocket, + bursting in the wind and driven away in dust, filling the air with light; + and how through the curdling wreaths of the restless crashing abyss below, + the blue of the water, paled by the foam in its body, shows purer than the + sky through white rain-cloud, while the shuddering iris stoops in + tremulous stillness over all, fading and flushing alternately through the + choking spray and shattered sunshine, hiding itself at last among the + thick golden leaves which toss to and fro in sympathy with the wild water,—their + dripping masses lifted at intervals, like sheaves of loaded corn, by some + stronger gush from the cataract, and bowed again upon the mossy rocks as + its roar dies away,—the dew gushing from their thick branches + through drooping clusters of emerald herbage, and sparkling in white + threads along the dark rocks of the shore, feeding the lichens, which + chase and chequer them with purple and silver. + </p> + <p> + {19} Well noticed. The drawing of the fall of Schaffhausen, which I made + at the time of writing this study, was one of the very few, either by + other draughtsmen or myself, which I have seen Turner pause at with + serious attention. + </p> + <p> + 30. Close beside the path by which travellers ascend the Montanvert from + the valley of Chamouni, on the right hand, where it first begins to rise + among the pines, there descends a small stream from the foot of the + granite peak known to the guides as the Aiguille Charmoz. It is concealed + from the traveller by a thicket of alder, and its murmur is hardly heard, + for it is one of the weakest streams of the valley. But it is a constant + stream, fed by a permanent, though small, glacier; and continuing to flow + even to the close of summer, when more copious torrents, depending only on + the melting of the lower snows, have left their beds,—"stony + channels in the sun." The long drought which took place in the autumn of + 1854, sealing every source of waters except these perpetual ones, left the + torrent of which I am speaking, and such others, in a state peculiarly + favourable to observance of their <i>least</i> action on the mountains + from which they descend. They were entirely limited to their own ice + fountains, and the quantity of powdered rock which they brought down was, + of course, at its minimum, being nearly unmingled with any earth derived + from the dissolution of softer soil, or vegetable mould, by rains. At + three in the afternoon, on a warm day in September, when the torrent had + reached its average maximum strength for the day, I filled an ordinary + Bordeaux wine flask with the water where it was least turbid. From this + quart of water I obtained twenty-four grains of sand and sediment more or + less fine. I cannot estimate the quantity of water in the stream; but the + runlet of it at which I filled the flask was giving about two hundred + bottles a minute, or rather more, carrying down, therefore, about three + quarters of a pound of powdered granite every minute. This would be + forty-five pounds an hour; but allowing for the inferior power of the + stream in the cooler periods of the day, and taking into consideration, on + the other side, its increased power in rain, we may, I think, estimate its + average hour's work at twenty-eight or thirty pounds, or a hundredweight + every four hours. By this insignificant runlet, therefore, rather more + than two tons of the substance of the Mont Blanc are displaced and carried + down a certain distance every week; and as it is only for three or four + months that the flow of the stream is checked by frost, we may certainly + allow eighty tons for the mass which it annually moves. It is not worth + while to enter into any calculation of the relation borne by this runlet + to the great torrents which descend from the chain of Mont Blanc into the + valley of Chamouni.{20} I but take this quantity, eighty tons, as the + result of the labour of a scarcely noticeable runlet at the side of one of + them, utterly irrespective of all sudden falls of stones and of masses of + mountain (a single thunderbolt will sometimes leave a scar on the flank of + a soft rock looking like a trench for a railroad), and we shall then begin + to apprehend something of the operation of the great laws of change which + are the conditions of all material existence, however apparently enduring. + The hills, which, as compared with living beings, seem "everlasting," are + in truth as perishing as they; its veins of flowing fountain weary the + mountain heart, as the crimson pulse does ours; the natural force of the + iron crag is abated in its appointed time, like the strength of the sinews + in a human old age; and it is but the lapse of the longer years of decay + which, in the sight of its Creator, distinguishes the mountain range from + the moth and the worm. + </p> + <p> + {20} I have slightly modified and abridged what follows, being impatient + of its prolixity, as well as ashamed of what is truly called the ludicrous + under-estimate of the mass of the larger streams. + </p> + <p> + 31. Few people, comparatively, have ever seen the effect on the sea of a + powerful gale continued without intermission for three or four days and + nights; and to those who have not, I believe it must be unimaginable, not + from the mere force or size of surge, but from the complete annihilation + of the limit between sea and air. The water, from its prolonged agitation, + is beaten, not into mere creamy foam, but into masses of accumulated + yeast, which hang in ropes and wreaths from wave to wave; and where one + curls over to break, form a festoon like a drapery from its edge; these + are taken up by the wind, not in dissipating dust, but bodily, in + writhing, hanging, coiling masses, which make the air white, and thick as + with snow, only the flakes are a foot or two long each; the surges + themselves are full of foam in their very bodies, underneath, making them + white all through, as the water is under a great cataract,—and their + masses, being thus half water and half air, are torn to pieces by the wind + whenever they rise, and carried away in roaring smoke, which chokes and + strangles like actual water. Add to this, that when the air has been + exhausted of its moisture by long rain, the spray of the sea is caught by + it as described above, and covers its surface not merely with the smoke of + finely divided water, but with boiling mist: imagine also the low + rain-clouds brought down to the very level of the sea, as I have often + seen them, whirling and flying in rags and fragments from wave to wave; + and finally conceive the surges themselves in their utmost pitch of power, + velocity, vastness, and madness, lifting themselves in precipices and + peaks furrowed with their whirl of ascent, through all this chaos; and you + will understand that there is indeed no distinction left between the sea + and air; that no object, nor horizon, nor any landmark, or natural + evidence of position is left; that the heaven is all spray, and the ocean + all cloud, and that you can see no farther in any direction than you could + see through a cataract.{21} + </p> + <p> + {21} The whole of this was written merely to show the meaning of Turner's + picture of the steamer in distress, throwing up signals. It is a good + study of wild weather; but, separate from its aim, utterly feeble in + comparison to the few words by which any of the great poets will describe + sea, when they have got to do it. I am rather proud of the short sentence + in the 'Harbours of England,' describing a great breaker against rock:—"One + moment, a flint cave,—the next, a marble pillar,—the next, a + fading cloud." But there is nothing in sea-description, detailed, like + Dickens' storm at the death of Ham, in 'David Copperfield.' + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SECTION V. — ILLUSTRATIVE: MOUNTAINS. + </h2> + <p> + 32. The words which marked for us the purpose of the clouds are followed + immediately by those notable ones,—"And God said, Let the waters + which are under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let + the dry land appear." We do not, perhaps, often enough consider the deep + signification of this sentence. We are too apt to receive it as the + description of an event vaster only in its extent, not in its nature, than + the compelling of the Red Sea to draw back that Israel might pass by. We + imagine the Deity in like manner rolling the waves of the greater ocean + together on an heap, and setting bars and doors to them eternally. But + there is a far deeper meaning than this in the solemn words of Genesis, + and in the correspondent verse of the Psalm, "His hands prepared the dry + land." Up to that moment the earth had been <i>void</i>; for, it had been + <i>without</i> <i>form</i>. The command that the waters should be + gathered, was the command that the earth should be <i>sculptured</i>. The + sea was not driven to its place in suddenly restrained rebellion, but + withdrawn to its place in perfect and patient obedience. The dry land + appeared, not in level sands forsaken by the surges, which those surges + might again claim for their own; but in range beyond range of swelling + hill and iron rock, for ever to claim kindred with the firmament, and be + companioned by the clouds of heaven. + </p> + <p> + What space of time was in reality occupied by the "day" of Genesis, is not + at present of any importance for us to consider. By what furnaces of fire + the adamant was melted, and by what wheels of earthquake it was torn, and + by what teeth of glacier and weight of sea-waves it was engraven and + finished into its perfect form, we may, perhaps, hereafter endeavour to + conjecture; but here, as in few words the work is summed by the historian, + so in few broad thoughts it should be comprehended by us; and, as we read + the mighty sentence, "Let the dry land appear," we should try to follow + the finger of God as it engraved upon the stone tables of the earth the + letters and the law of its everlasting form, as gulf by gulf the channels + of the deep were ploughed; and cape by cape the lines were traced with + Divine foreknowledge of the shores that were to limit the nations; and + chain by chain the mountain walls were lengthened forth, and their + foundations fastened for ever; and the compass was set upon the face of + the depth, and the fields and the highest part of the dust of the world + were made; and the right hand of Christ first strewed the snow on Lebanon, + and smoothed the slopes of Calvary. + </p> + <p> + It is not, I repeat, always needful, in many respects it is not possible, + to conjecture the manner or the time in which this work was done; but it + is deeply necessary for all men to consider the magnificence of the + accomplished purpose, and the depth of the wisdom and love which are + manifested in the ordinances of the hills. For observe, in order to bring + the world into the form which it now bears, it was not mere <i>sculpture</i> + that was needed; the mountains could not stand for a day unless they were + formed of materials altogether different from those which constitute the + lower hills, and the surfaces of the valleys. A harder substance had to be + prepared for every mountain chain, yet not so hard but that it might be + capable of crumbling down into earth fit to nourish the Alpine forest, and + the Alpine flower; not so hard but that in the midst of the utmost majesty + of its enthroned strength there should be seen on it the seal of death, + and the writing of the same sentence that had gone forth against the human + frame, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." And with this + perishable substance the most majestic forms were to be framed that were + consistent with the safety of man; and the peak was to be lifted and the + cliff rent, as high and as steeply as was possible, in order yet to permit + the shepherd to feed his flocks upon the slopes, and the cottage to nestle + beneath their shadow. And observe, two distinct ends were to be + accomplished in doing this. It was, indeed, absolutely necessary that such + eminences should be created, in order to fit the earth in any wise for + human habitation; for without mountains the air could not be purified, nor + the flowing of the rivers sustained, and the earth must have become for + the most part plain, or stagnant marsh. But the feeding of the rivers and + the purifying of the winds, are the least of the services appointed to the + hills. To fill the thirst of the human heart for the beauty of God's + working—to startle its lethargy with the deep and pure agitation of + astonishment,—are their higher missions. They are as a great and + noble architecture, first giving shelter, comfort, and rest; and covered + also with mighty sculpture and painted legend. It is impossible to + examine, in their connected system, the features of even the most ordinary + mountain scenery, without concluding that it has been prepared in order to + unite as far as possible, and in the closest compass, every means of + delighting and sanctifying the heart of man: "as far as <i>possible</i>,"—that + is, as far as is consistent with the fulfilment of the sentence of + condemnation on the whole earth. Death must be upon the hills; and the + cruelty of the tempests smite them, and the briar and thorn spring up upon + them; but they so smite as to bring their rocks into the fairest forms, + and so spring as to make the very desert blossom as the rose. Even among + our own hills of Scotland and Cumberland, though often too barren to be + perfectly beautiful, and always too low to be perfectly sublime, it is + strange how many deep sources of delight are gathered into the compass of + their glens and vales; and how, down to the most secret cluster of their + far-away flowers, and the idlest leap of their straying streamlets, the + whole heart of Nature seems thirsting to give, and still to give, shedding + forth her everlasting beneficence with a profusion so patient, so + passionate, that our utmost observance and thankfulness are but, at last, + neglects of her nobleness, and apathy to her love. But among the true + mountains of the greater orders, the Divine purpose of appeal at once to + all the faculties of the human spirit becomes still more manifest. + Inferior hills ordinarily interrupt, in some degree, the richness of the + valleys at their feet; the grey downs of southern England and treeless + coteaux of central France, and grey swells of Scottish moor, whatever + peculiar charm they may possess in themselves, are at least destitute of + those which belong to the woods and fields of the lowlands. But the great + mountains <i>lift</i> the lowlands on <i>their sides</i>. Let the reader + imagine first the appearance of the most varied plain of some richly + cultivated country; let him imagine it dark with graceful woods, and soft + with deepest pastures; let him fill the space of it, to the utmost + horizon, with innumerable and changeful incidents of scenery and life; + leading pleasant streamlets through its meadows, strewing clusters of + cottages beside their banks, tracing sweet footpaths through its avenues, + and animating its fields with happy flocks, and slow wandering spots of + cattle; and when he has wearied himself with endless imagining, and left + no space without some loveliness of its own, let him conceive all this + great plain, with its infinite treasures of natural beauty, and happy + human life, gathered up in God's hands from one edge of the horizon to the + other, like a woven garment, and shaken into deep falling folds, as the + robes droop from a king's shoulders; all its bright rivers leaping into + cataracts along the hollows of its fall, and all its forests rearing + themselves aslant against its slopes, as a rider rears himself back when + his horse plunges, and all its villages nestling themselves into the new + windings of its glens, and all its pastures thrown into steep waves of + greensward, dashed with dew along the edges of their folds, and sweeping + down into endless slopes, with a cloud here and there lying quietly, half + on the grass, half in the air,—and he will have as yet, in all this + lifted world, only the foundation of one of the great Alps. And whatever + is lovely in the lowland scenery, becomes lovelier in this change; the + trees which grew heavily and stiffly from the level line of plain, assume + strange curves of strength and grace as they bend themselves against the + mountain side; they breathe more freely and toss their branches more + carelessly as each climbs higher, looking to the clear light above the + topmost leaves of its brother tree; the flowers which on the arable plain + fall before the plough, now find out for themselves unapproachable places + where year by year they gather into happier fellowship, and fear no evil; + and the streams which in the level land crept in dark eddies by + unwholesome banks, now move in showers of silver, and are clothed with + rainbows, and bring health and life wherever the glance of their waves can + reach.... + </p> + <p> + It may not, therefore, be altogether profitless or unnecessary to review + briefly the nature of the three great offices which mountain ranges are + appointed to fulfil, in order to preserve the health and increase the + happiness of mankind. Their first use is, of course, to give motion to + water. Every fountain and river, from the inch-deep streamlet that crosses + the village lane in trembling clearness, to the massy and silent march of + the everlasting multitude of waters in Amazon or Ganges, owe their play, + and purity, and power, to the ordained elevations of the earth. Gentle or + steep, extended or abrupt, some determined slope of the earth's surface is + of course necessary before any wave can so much as overtake one sedge in + its pilgrimage; and how seldom do we enough consider, as we walk beside + the margins of our pleasant brooks, how beautiful and wonderful is that + ordinance, of which every blade of grass that waves in their clear water + is a perpetual sign—that the dew and rain fallen on the face of the + earth shall find no resting-place; shall find, on the contrary, fixed + channels traced for them from the ravines of the central crests down which + they roar, in sudden ranks of foam, to the dark hollows beneath the banks + of lowland pasture, round which they must circle slowly among the stems + and beneath the leaves of the lilies; paths prepared for them by which, at + some appointed rate of journey, they must evermore descend, sometimes + slow, and sometimes swift, but never pausing; the daily portion of the + earth they have to glide over marked for them at each successive sunrise, + the place which has known them knowing them no more, and the gateways of + guarding mountains opened for them in cleft and chasm, none letting them + in their pilgrimage; and, from afar off, the great heart of the sea + calling them to itself! "Deep calleth unto deep." I know not which of the + two is the more wonderful,—that calm, gradated, invisible slope of + the champaign land, which gives motion to the stream; or that passage + cloven for it through the ranks of hill, which, necessary for the health + of the land immediately around them, would yet, unless so supernaturally + divided, have fatally intercepted the flow of the waters from far-off + countries. When did the great spirit of the river first knock at these + adamantine gates? When did the porter open to it, and cast his keys away + for ever, lapped in whirling sand? I am not satisfied—no one should + be satisfied—with that vague answer, The river cut its way. Not so. + The river <i>found</i> its way. {22}I do not see that rivers in their own + strength can do much in cutting their way; they are nearly as apt to choke + their channels up as to carve them out. Only give a river some little + sudden power in a valley, and see how it will use it. Cut itself a bed? + Not so, by any means, but fill up its bed; and look for another in a wild, + dissatisfied, inconsistent manner,—any way rather than the old one + will better please it; and even if it is banked up and forced to keep to + the old one, it will not deepen, but do all it can to raise it, and leap + out of it. And although wherever water has a steep fall it will swiftly + cut itself a bed deep into the rock or ground, it will not, when the rock + is hard, cut a wider channel than it actually needs; so that if the + existing river beds, through ranges of mountains, had in reality been cut + by the streams, they would be found, wherever the rocks are hard, only in + the form of narrow and profound ravines, like the well-known channel of + the Niagara, below the fall; not in that of extended valleys. And the + actual work of true mountain rivers, though often much greater in + proportion to their body of water than that of the Niagara, is quite + insignificant when compared with the area and depth of the valleys through + which they flow; so that, although in many cases it appears that those + larger valleys have been excavated at earlier periods by more powerful + streams, or by the existing stream in a more powerful condition, still the + great fact remains always equally plain, and equally admirable, that, + whatever the nature and duration of the agencies employed, the earth was + so shaped at first as to direct the currents of its rivers in the manner + most healthy and convenient for man. The valley of the Rhone may have been + in great part excavated, in early times, by torrents a thousand times + larger than the Rhone; but it could not have been excavated at all, unless + the mountains had been thrown at first into two chains, by which the + torrents were set to work in a given direction. And it is easy to conceive + how, under any less beneficent dispositions of their masses of hill, the + continents of the earth might either have been covered with enormous + lakes, as parts of North America actually are covered; or have become + wildernesses of pestiferous marsh; or lifeless plains, upon which the + water would have dried as it fell, leaving them for great part of the year + desert. Such districts do exist, and exist in vastness; the whole earth is + not prepared for the habitation of man; only certain small portions are + prepared for him,—the houses, as it were, of the human race, from + which they are to look abroad upon the rest of the world; not to wonder or + complain that it is not all house, but to be grateful for the kindness of + the admirable building, in the house itself, as compared with the rest. It + would be as absurd to think it an evil that all the world is not fit for + us to inhabit, as to think it an evil that the globe is no larger than it + is. As much as we shall ever need is evidently assigned to us for our + dwelling-place; the rest, covered with rolling waves or drifting sands, + fretted with ice or crested with fire, is set before us for contemplation + in an uninhabitable magnificence. And that part which we are enabled to + inhabit owes its fitness for human life chiefly to its mountain ranges, + which, throwing the superfluous rain off as it falls, collect it in + streams or lakes, and guide it into given places, and in given directions; + so that men can build their cities in the midst of fields which they know + will be always fertile, and establish the lines of their commerce upon + streams which will not fail. + </p> + <p> + {22} I attach great importance to the remaining contents of this passage, + and have had occasion to insist on them at great length in recent lectures + at Oxford. + </p> + <p> + Nor is this giving of motion to water to be considered as confined only to + the surface of the earth. A no less important function of the hills is in + directing the flow of the fountains and springs from subterranean + reservoirs. There is no miraculous springing up of water out of the ground + at our feet; but every fountain and well is supplied from reservoirs among + the hills, so placed as to involve some slight fall or pressure enough to + secure the constant flowing of the stream; and the incalculable blessing + of the power given to us, in most valleys, of reaching by excavation some + point whence the water will rise to the surface of the ground in perennial + flow, is entirely owing to the concave dispositions of the beds of clay or + rock raised from beneath the bosom of the valley into ranks of enclosing + hills. + </p> + <p> + The second great use of mountains is to maintain a constant change in the + currents and nature of the <i>air</i>. Such change would, of course, have + been partly caused by difference in soil and vegetation, even if the earth + had been level; but to a far less extent than it is now by the chains of + hills which—exposing on one side their masses of rock to the full + heat of the sun, (increased by the angle at which the rays strike on the + slope,) and on the other casting a soft shadow for leagues over the plains + at their feet—divide the earth not only into districts, but into + climates; and cause perpetual currents of air to traverse their passes in + a thousand different states; moistening it with the spray of their + waterfalls, sucking it down and beating it hither and thither in the pools + of their torrents, closing it within clefts and caves, where the sunbeams + never reach, till it is as cold as November mists; then sending it forth + again to breathe lightly across the slopes of velvet fields, or to be + scorched among sunburnt shales and grassless crags; then drawing it back + in moaning swirls through clefts of ice, and up into dewy wreaths above + the snow-fields; then piercing it with strange electric darts and flashes + of mountain fire, and tossing it high in fantastic storm-cloud, as the + dried grass is tossed by the mower, only suffering it to depart at last, + when chastened and pure, to refresh the faded air of the far-off plains. + </p> + <p> + The third great use of mountains is to cause perpetual change in the <i>soils</i> + of the earth. Without such provision the ground under cultivation would in + a series of years become exhausted, and require to be upturned laboriously + by the hand of man. But the elevations of the earth's surface provide for + it a perpetual renovation. The higher mountains suffer their summits to be + broken into fragments, and to be cast down in sheets of massy rock, full, + as we shall see presently, of every substance necessary for the + nourishment of plants; these fallen fragments are again broken by frost, + and ground by torrents, into various conditions of sand and clay—materials + which are distributed perpetually by the streams farther and farther from + the mountain's base. Every shower that swells the rivulet enables their + waters to carry certain portions of earth into new positions, and exposes + new banks of ground to be mined in their turn. That turbid foaming of the + angry water,—that tearing down of bank and rock along the flanks of + its fury,—are no disturbances of the kind course of nature; they are + beneficent operations of laws necessary to the existence of man, and to + the beauty of the earth. The process is continued more gently, but not + less effectively, over all the surface of the lower undulating country; + and each filtering thread of summer rain which trickles through the short + turf of the uplands is bearing its own appointed burden of earth to be + thrown down on some new natural garden in the dingles beneath. + </p> + <p> + I have not spoken of the local and peculiar utilities of mountains. I do + not count the benefit of the supply of summer streams from the moors of + the higher ranges,—of the various medicinal plants which are nested + among their rocks,—of the delicate pasturage which they furnish for + cattle,—of the forests in which they bear timber for shipping,—the + stones they supply for building, or the ores of metal which they collect + into spots open to discovery, and easy for working. All these benefits are + of a secondary or a limited nature. But the three great functions which I + have just described, those of giving motion and change to water, air, and + earth, are indispensable to human existence; they are operations to be + regarded with as full a depth of gratitude as the laws which bid the tree + bear fruit, or the seed multiply itself in the earth. And thus those + desolate and threatening ranges of dark mountain, which in nearly all ages + of the world men have looked upon with aversion, or with terror, and + shrunk back from as if they were haunted by perpetual images of death, are + in reality sources of life and happiness far fuller and more beneficent + than all the bright fruitfulness of the plain. The valleys only feed; the + mountains feed, and guard, and strengthen us. We take our idea of + fearlessness and sublimity alternately from the mountains and the sea; but + we associate them unjustly. The sea-wave, with all its beneficence, is yet + devouring and terrible; but the silent wave of the blue mountain is lifted + towards heaven in a stillness of perpetual mercy; and the one surge, + unfathomable in its darkness, the other unshaken in its faithfulness, for + ever bear the seal of their appointed symbolism:— + </p> + <p> + "Thy <i>righteousness</i> is like the great mountains; + </p> + <p> + "Thy <i>judgments</i> are a great deep." + </p> + <p> + 33. Mountains are to the rest of the body of the earth, what violent + muscular action is to the body of man. The muscles and tendons of its + anatomy are, in the mountain, brought out with force and convulsive + energy, full of expression, passion, and strength; the plains and the + lower hills are the repose and the effortless motion of the frame, when + its muscles lie dormant and concealed beneath the lines of its beauty,—yet + ruling those lines in their every undulation. This then is the first grand + principle of the truth of the earth. The spirit of the hills is action, + that of the lowlands repose; and between these there is to be found every + variety of motion and rest, from the inactive plain, sleeping like the + firmament, with cities for stars, to the fiery peaks, which, with heaving + bosoms and exulting limbs, with the clouds drifting like hair from their + bright foreheads, lift up their Titan heads to Heaven, saying, "I live for + ever." + </p> + <p> + 34. Where they are,{23} they seem to form the world; no mere bank of a + river here, or of a lane there, peeping out among the hedges or forests, + but from the lowest valley to the highest clouds, all is theirs,—one + adamantine dominion and rigid authority of rock. We yield ourselves to the + impression of their eternal unconquerable stubbornness of strength; their + mass seems the least yielding, least to be softened, or in anywise dealt + with by external force, of all earthly substance. And behold, as we look + further into it, it is all touched and troubled, like waves by a summer + breeze; rippled far more delicately than seas or lakes are rippled; <i>they</i> + only undulate along their surfaces—this rock trembles through its + every fibre, like the chords of an Eolian harp, like the stillest air of + spring, with the echoes of a child's voice. Into the heart of all those + great mountains, through every tossing of their boundless crests, and deep + beneath all their unfathomable defiles, flows that strange quivering of + their substance. Other and weaker things seem to express their subjection + to an Infinite Power only by momentary terrors: as the weeds bow down + before the feverish wind, and the sound of the going in the tops of the + taller trees passes on before the clouds, and the fitful opening of pale + spaces on the dark water, as if some invisible hand were casting dust + abroad upon it, gives warning of the anger that is to come, we may well + imagine that there is a fear passing upon the grass, and leaves, and + waters, at the presence of some great spirit commissioned to let the + tempest loose; but the terror passes, and their sweet rest is perpetually + restored to the pastures and the waves. Not so to the mountains. They, + which at first seem strengthened beyond the dread of any violence or + change, are yet also ordained to bear upon them the symbol of a perpetual + fear. The tremor which fades from the soft lake and gliding river is + sealed to all eternity upon the rock; and while things that pass visibly + from birth to death may sometimes forget their feebleness, the mountains + are made to possess a perpetual memorial of their infancy—that + infancy which the prophet saw in his vision,{24}—"I beheld the + earth, and lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they + had no light. I beheld the mountains, and lo, they <i>trembled</i>, and + all the hills moved <i>lightly</i>." + </p> + <p> + {23} Passage written after I had got by some years cooler and wiser than + when I wrote No. 33, describing however the undulation of the gneiss + rocks, which, 'where they are, seem, to form the world,' in terms more + fanciful than I now like. + </p> + <p> + {24} Utter misinterpretation of the passage. It is the old age, not the + childhood of earth, which Jeremiah describes in this passage. See its true + interpretation in 'Fors Clavigera,' Letter XLVI. — 35. The longer I + stayed among the Alps, and the more closely I examined them, the more I + was struck by the one broad fact of there being a vast Alpine plateau, or + mass of elevated land, upon which nearly all the highest peaks stood like + children set upon a table, removed, in most cases, far back from the edge + of the plateau,—as if for fear of their falling; while the most + majestic scenes in the Alps are produced, not so much by any violation of + this law, as by one of the great peaks having apparently walked to the + edge of the table to look over, and thus showing itself suddenly above the + valley in its full height. This is the case with the Wetterhorn and Eiger + at Grindelwald, and with the Grande Jorasse above the Col de Ferret. But + the raised bank or table is always intelligibly in existence, even in + these apparently exceptional cases; and for the most part, the great peaks + are not allowed to come to the edge of it, but remain like the keeps of + castles far withdrawn, surrounded, league beyond league, by comparatively + level fields of mountain, over which the lapping sheets of glacier writhe + and flow, foaming about the feet of the dark central crests like the surf + of an enormous sea-breaker hurled over a rounded rock, and islanding some + fragment of it in the midst. And the result of this arrangement is a kind + of division of the whole of Switzerland into an upper and lower mountain + world,—the lower world consisting of rich valleys, bordered by + steep, but easily accessible, wooded banks of mountain, more or less + divided by ravines, through which glimpses are caught of the higher Alps; + the upper world, reached after the first banks of 3,000 or 4,000 feet in + height have been surmounted, consisting of comparatively level but most + desolate tracts of moor and rock, half covered by glacier, and stretching + to the feet of the true pinnacles of the chain. It can hardly be necessary + to point out the perfect wisdom and kindness of this arrangement, as a + provision for the safety of the inhabitants of the high mountain regions. + If the great peaks rose at once from the deepest valleys, every stone + which was struck from their pinnacles, and every snow-wreath which slipped + from their ledges, would descend at once upon the inhabitable ground, over + which no year would pass without recording some calamity of earth-slip or + avalanche; while in the course of their fall both the stones and the snow + would strip the woods from the hillsides, leaving only naked channels of + destruction where there are now the sloping meadow and the chestnut glade. + Besides this, the masses of snow, cast down at once into the warmer air, + would all melt rapidly in the spring, causing furious inundation of every + great river for a month or six weeks. The snow being then all thawed, + except what lay upon the highest peaks in regions of nearly perpetual + frost, the rivers would be supplied during the summer only by fountains, + and the feeble tricklings on sunny days from the high snows. The Rhone, + under such circumstances, would hardly be larger, in summer, than the + Severn, and many Swiss valleys would be left almost without moisture. All + these calamities are prevented by the peculiar Alpine structure which has + been described. The broken rocks and the sliding snow of the high peaks, + instead of being dashed at once to the vales, are caught upon the desolate + shelves, or shoulders, which everywhere surround the central crests. The + soft banks which terminate these shelves, traversed by no falling + fragments, clothe themselves with richest wood, while the masses of snow + heaped upon the ledge above them, in a climate neither so warm as to thaw + them quickly in the spring, nor so cold as to protect them from all the + power of the summer sun, either form themselves into glaciers, or remain + in slowly wasting fields even to the close of the year,—in either + case supplying constant, abundant, and regular streams to the villages and + pastures beneath, and to the rest of Europe, noble and navigable rivers. + </p> + <p> + Now, that such a structure is the best and wisest possible,{25} is indeed + sufficient reason for its existence, and to many people it may seem + useless to question farther respecting its origin. But I can hardly + conceive any one standing face to face with one of these towers of central + rock, and yet not also asking himself, Is this indeed the actual first + work of the Divine Master, on which I gaze? Was the great precipice shaped + by His finger, as Adam was shaped out of the dust? Were its clefts and + ledges carved upon it by its Creator, as the letters were on the tables of + the law, and was it thus left to bear its eternal testimony to His + beneficence among these clouds of Heaven? Or is it the descendant of a + long race of mountains, existing under appointed laws of birth and + endurance, death and decrepitude? There can be no doubt as to the answer. + The rock itself answers audibly by the murmur of some falling stone or + rending pinnacle. It is <i>not</i> as it was once. Those waste leagues + around its feet are loaded with the wrecks of what it was. On these + perhaps, of all mountains, the characters of decay are written most + clearly; around these are spread most gloomily the memorials of their + pride, and the signs of their humiliation. + </p> + <p> + {25} Of course I had seen every other tried before giving this favourable + judgment. + </p> + <p> + What then were they once? The only answer is yet again—"Behold the + cloud!" + </p> + <p> + 36. There are many spots among the inferior ridges of the Alps, such as + the Col de Ferret, the Col d'Anterne, and the associated ranges of the + Buet, which, though commanding prospects of great nobleness, are + themselves very nearly types of all that is most painful to the human + mind. Vast wastes of mountain ground,{26} covered here and there with dull + grey grass or moss, but breaking continually into black banks of shattered + slate, all glistening and sodden with slow tricklings of clogged, + incapable streams; the snow-water oozing through them in a cold sweat, and + spreading itself in creeping stains among their dust; ever and anon a + shaking here and there, and a handful or two of their particles or flakes + trembling down, one sees not why, into more total dissolution, leaving a + few jagged teeth, like the edges of knives eaten away by vinegar, + projecting, through the half-dislodged mass, from the inner rock; keen + enough to cut the hand or foot that rests on them, yet crumbling as they + wound, and soon sinking again into the smooth, slippery, glutinous heap; + looking like a beach of black scales of dead fish cast ashore from a + poisonous sea, and sloping away into foul ravines, branched down + immeasurable slopes of barrenness, where the winds howl and wander + continually, and the snow lies in wasted and sorrowful fields covered with + sooty dust, that collects in streaks and stains at the bottom of all its + thawing ripples. + </p> + <p> + {26} This is a fourth volume passage,—and I will venture to say of + it, as Albert Dürer, when he was pleased with his work—that for what + it has to do, it cannot be much better done. It is a study on the Col de + Bon Homme. + </p> + <p> + I know of no other scenes so appalling as these in storm, or so woful in + sunshine. Where, however, these same rocks exist in more favourable + positions—that is to say, in gentler banks and at lower elevations—they + form a ground for the most luxuriant vegetation; and the valleys of Savoy + owe to them some of their loveliest solitudes—exquisitely rich + pastures, interspersed with arable and orchard land, and shaded by groves + of walnut and cherry. Scenes of this kind, and of that just described, so + singularly opposed, and apparently brought together as foils to each + other, are however peculiar to certain beds of the slaty coherents, which + are both vast in elevation, and easy of destruction. In Wales and Scotland + the same groups of rocks possess far greater hardness, while they attain + less elevation; and the result is a totally different aspect of scenery. + The severity of the climate, and the comparative durableness of the rock, + forbid the rich vegetation; but the exposed summits, though barren, are + not subject to laws of destruction so rapid and fearful as in Switzerland, + and the natural colour of the rock is oftener developed in the purples and + greys which, mingled with the heather, form the principal elements of the + deep and beautiful distant blue of the British hills. Their gentler + mountain streams also permit the beds of rock to remain in firm, though + fantastic, forms along their banks, and the gradual action of the cascades + and eddies upon the slaty cleavage produces many pieces of foreground + scenery to which higher hills can present no parallel. + </p> + <p> + 37. Unlike Chamouni Aiguilles, there is no aspect of destruction about the + Matterhorn cliffs. They are not torn remnants of separating spires, + yielding, flake by flake, and band by band, to the continual process of + decay. They are, on the contrary, an unaltered monument, seemingly + sculptured long ago, the huge walls retaining yet the forms into which + they were first engraven, and standing like an Egyptian temple;—delicately + fronted, softly coloured, the suns of uncounted ages rising and falling + upon it continually, but still casting the same line of shadows from east + to west; still, century after century, touching the same purple stains on + the lotus pillars; while the desert sand ebbs and flows about their feet, + as those autumn leaves of rock lie heaped and weak about the base of the + Cervin. + </p> + <p> + Is not this a strange type in the very heart and height of these + mysterious Alps—these wrinkled hills in their snowy, cold, + grey-haired old age, at first so silent, then, as we keep quiet at their + feet, muttering and whispering to us garrulously in broken and dreaming + fits, as it were, about their childhood,—is it not a strange type of + the things which "out of weakness are made strong"? If one of these little + flakes of mica sand, hurried in tremulous spangling along the bottom of + the ancient river, too light to sink, too faint to float, almost too small + for sight, could have had a mind given to it as it was at last borne down + with its kindred dust into the abysses of the stream, and laid, (might it + not have been thought?) for a hopeless eternity, in the dark ooze, the + most despised, forgotten, and feeble of all earth's atoms; incapable of + any use or change; not fit, down there in the diluvial darkness, so much + as to help an earth wasp to build its nest, or feed the first fibre of a + lichen; what would it have thought, had it been told that one day, knitted + into a strength as of imperishable iron, rustless by the air, infusible by + the flame, out of the substance of it, with its fellows, the axe of God + should hew that Alpine tower?—that against <i>it</i>—poor, + helpless mica flake!—the wild north winds should rage in vain; + beneath <i>it</i>—low-fallen mica flake!—the snowy hills + should lie bowed like flocks of sheep, and the kingdoms of the earth fade + away in unregarded blue; and around <i>it</i>—weak, wave-drifted + mica flake!—the great war of the firmament should burst in thunder + and yet stir it not; and the fiery arrows and angry meteors of the night + fall blunted back from it into the air; and all the stars in the clear + heaven should light, one by one as they rose, new cressets upon the points + of snow that fringed its abiding-place on the imperishable spire? + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SECTION VI. — ILLUSTRATIVE: STONES. + </h2> + <p> + 38. There are no natural objects out of which more can be learned than out + of stones. They seem to have been created especially to reward a patient + observer. Nearly all other objects in nature can be seen to some extent + without patience, and are pleasant even in being half seen. Trees, clouds, + and rivers are enjoyable even by the careless; but the stone under his + foot has, for carelessness, nothing in it but stumbling; no pleasure is + languidly to be had out of it, nor food, nor good of any kind; nothing but + symbolism of the hard heart, and the unfatherly gift. And yet, do but give + it some reverence and watchfulness, and there is bread of thought in it, + more than in any other lowly feature of all the landscape. For a stone, + when it is examined, will be found a mountain in miniature. The fineness + of Nature's work is so great, that into a single block, a foot or two in + diameter, she can compress as many changes of form and structure, on a + small scale, as she needs for her mountains on a large one; and taking + moss for forests, and grains of crystal for crags, the surface of a stone + in by far the plurality of instances is more interesting than the surface + of an ordinary hill; more fantastic in form, and incomparably richer in + colour. + </p> + <p> + 39. On a Highland hillside are multitudinous clusters of fern and heather; + on an Alpine one, multitudinous groves of chestnut and pine. The number of + the things may be the same, but the sense of infinity is in the latter + case far greater, because the number is of nobler things. Indeed, so far + as mere magnitude of space occupied on the field of the horizon is the + measure of objects, a bank of earth ten feet high may, if we stoop to the + foot of it, be made to occupy just as much of the sky as that bank of + mountain at Villeneuve; nay, in many respects, its little ravines and + escarpments, watched with some help of imagination, may become very + sufficiently representative to us of those of the great mountain; and in + classing all water-worn mountain ground under the general and humble term + of Banks, I mean to imply this relationship of structure between the + smallest eminences and the highest. But in this matter of superimposed <i>quantity</i>, + the distinctions of rank are at once fixed. The heap of earth bears its + few tufts of moss, or knots of grass; the Highland or Cumberland mountain, + its honeyed heathers or scented ferns; but the mass of the bank at + Martigny or Villeneuve has a vineyard in every cranny of its rocks, and a + chestnut grove on every crest of them.... The minute mounds and furrows + scattered up the side of that great promontory, when they are actually + approached after three or four hours' climbing, turn into independent + hills, with true <i>parks</i> of lovely pasture-land enclosed among them, + and avenue after avenue of chestnuts, walnuts, and pines bending round + their bases; while in the deeper dingles, populous villages, literally + bound down to the rock by enormous trunks of vine, which, first trained + lightly over the loose stone roofs, have in process of years cast their + fruitful net over the whole village, and fastened it to the ground under + their purple weight and wayward coils as securely as ever human heart was + fastened to earth by the net of the Flatterer. + </p> + <p> + 40. When a rock of any kind has lain for some time exposed to the weather, + Nature finishes it in her own way. First she takes wonderful pains about + its forms, sculpturing it into exquisite variety of dent and dimple, and + rounding or hollowing it into contours which for fineness no human hand + can follow; then she colours it; and every one of her touches of colour, + instead of being a powder mixed with oil, is a minute forest of living + trees, glorious in strength and beauty, and concealing wonders of + structure. + </p> + <p> + 41. On the broken rocks in the foreground in the crystalline groups, the + mosses seem to set themselves consentfully and deliberately to the task of + producing the most exquisite harmonies of colour in their power. They will + not conceal the form of the rock, but will gather over it in little brown + bosses, like small cushions of velvet, made of mixed threads of dark ruby + silk and gold, rounded over more subdued films of white and grey, with + lightly crisped and curled edges like hoar frost on fallen leaves, and + minute clusters of upright orange stalks with pointed caps, and fibres of + deep green, and gold, and faint purple passing into black, all woven + together, and following with unimaginable fineness of gentle growth the + undulation of the stone they cherish, until it is charged with colour so + that it can receive no more; and instead of looking rugged, or cold, or + stern, or anything that a rock is held to be at heart, it seems to be + clothed with a soft dark leopard's skin, embroidered with arabesque of + purple and silver. + </p> + <p> + 42. The colour of the white varieties of marble is of exquisite delicacy, + owing to the partial translucency of the pure rock; and it has always + appeared to me a most wonderful ordinance—one of the most <i>marked</i> + pieces of purpose in the creation—that all the variegated kinds + should be comparatively opaque, so as to set off the colour on the + surface, while the white, which, if it had been opaque, would have looked + somewhat coarse, (as for instance common chalk does,) is rendered just + translucent enough to give an impression of extreme purity, but not so + translucent as to interfere in the least with the distinctness of any + forms into which it is wrought. The colours of variegated marbles are also + for the most part very beautiful, especially those composed of purple, + amber, and green, with white; and there seems something notably attractive + to the human mind in the <i>vague</i> and veined labyrinths of their + arrangements. + </p> + <p> + 43. I have often had occasion to allude to the apparent connection of + brilliancy of colour with vigour of life or purity of substance. This is + pre-eminently the case in the mineral kingdom. The perfection with which + the particles of any substance unite in crystallization, corresponds in + that kingdom to the vital power in organic nature; and it is a universal + law, that according to the purity of any substance, and according to the + energy of its crystallization, is its beauty or brightness. Pure earths + are white when in powder; and the same earths, which are the constituents + of clay and sand, form, when crystallized, the emerald, ruby, sapphire, + amethyst, and opal. + </p> + <p> + 44. As we pass between the hills which have been shaken by earthquake and + torn by convulsion, we find that periods of perfect repose succeed those + of destruction. The pools of calm water lie clear beneath their fallen + rocks, the water-lilies gleam, and the reeds whisper among their shadows; + the village rises again over the forgotten graves, and its church tower, + white through the storm-light, proclaims a renewed appeal to His + protection in whose hand "are all the corners of the earth, and the + strength of the hills is His also." There is no loveliness of Alpine + valley that does not teach the same lesson. It is just where "the mountain + falling cometh to nought, and the rock is removed out of his place," that + in process of years the fairest meadows bloom between the fragments, the + clearest rivulets murmur from between their crevices among the flowers, + and the clustered cottages, each sheltered beneath some strength of mossy + stone, now to be removed no more, and with their pastured flocks around + them, safe from the eagle's stoop and the wolf's ravin, have written upon + their fronts, in simple words, the mountaineer's faith in the ancient + promise,—"Neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction, when it + cometh; for thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field, and the + beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee." + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SECTION VII. — ILLUSTRATIVE: PLANTS AND FLOWERS. + </h2> + <p> + 45. Wonderful, in universal adaptation to man's need, desire, and + discipline, God's daily preparation of the earth for him, with beautiful + means of life. First, a carpet, to make it soft for him; then a coloured + fantasy of embroidery thereon; then, tall spreading of foliage to shade + him from sun-heat, and shade also the fallen rain, that it may not dry + quickly back into the clouds, but stay to nourish the springs among the + moss. Stout wood to bear this leafage; easily to be cut, yet tough and + light, to make houses for him, or instruments (lance-shaft, or + plough-handle, according to his temper); useless it had been if harder; + useless if less fibrous; useless if less elastic. Winter comes, and the + shade of leafage falls away, to let the sun warm the earth; the strong + boughs remain, breaking the strength of winter winds. The seeds which are + to prolong the race, innumerable according to the need, are made beautiful + and palatable, varied into infinitude of appeal to the fancy of man, or + provision for his service; cold juice, or flowing spice, or balm, or + incense, softening oil, preserving resin, medicine of styptic, febrifuge, + or lulling charm; and all these presented in forms of endless change. + Fragility or force, softness and strength, in all degrees and aspects; + unerring uprightness, as of temple pillars, or unguided wandering of + feeble tendrils on the ground; mighty resistances of rigid arm and limb to + the storms of ages, or wavings to and fro with faintest pulse of summer + streamlet; roots cleaving the strength of rock, or binding the transience + of the sand; crests basking in sunshine of the desert, or hiding by + dripping spring and lightless cave; foliage far tossing in entangled + fields beneath every wave of ocean—clothing with variegated, + everlasting films the peaks of the trackless mountains, or ministering, at + cottage doors, to every gentlest passion and simplest joy of humanity. + </p> + <p> + 46. If ever in autumn a pensiveness falls upon us, as the leaves drift by + in their fading, may we not wisely look up in hope to their mighty + monuments? Behold how fair, how far prolonged in arch and aisle, the + avenues of the valleys, the fringes of the hills! so stately,—so + eternal; the joy of man, the comfort of all living creatures, the glory of + the earth,—they are but the monuments of those poor leaves that flit + faintly past us to die. Let them not pass, without our understanding their + last counsel and example: that we also, careless of monument by the grave, + may build it in the world—monument by which men may be taught to + remember, not where we died, but where we lived. + </p> + <p> + 47. The Pine. Magnificent! nay, sometimes almost terrible. Other trees, + tufting crag or hill, yield to the form and sway of the ground, clothe it + with soft compliance, are partly its subjects, partly its flatterers, + partly its comforters. But the pine rises in serene resistance, + self-contained; nor can I ever without awe stay long under a great Alpine + cliff, far from all house or work of men, looking up to its companies of + pines, as they stand on the inaccessible juts and perilous ledges of the + enormous wall, in quiet multitudes, each like the shadow of the one beside + it—upright, fixed, spectral, as troops of ghosts standing on the + walls of Hades, not knowing each other, dumb for ever. You cannot reach + them, cannot cry to them: those trees never heard human voice; they are + far above all sound but of the winds. No foot ever stirred fallen leaf of + theirs: all comfortless they stand, between the two eternities of the + Vacancy and the Rock; yet with such iron will, that the rock itself looks + bent and shattered beside them,—fragile, weak, inconsistent, + compared to their dark energy of delicate life, and monotony of enchanted + pride—unnumbered, unconquerable. + </p> + <p> + Then note farther their perfectness. The impression on most people's minds + must have been received more from pictures than reality, so far as I can + judge, so ragged they think the pine; whereas its chief character in + health is green and full <i>roundness</i>. It stands compact, like one of + its own cones, slightly curved on its sides, finished and quaint as a + carved tree in some Elizabethan garden; and instead of being wild in + expression, forms the softest of all forest scenery, for other trees show + their trunks and twisting boughs; but the pine, growing either in + luxuriant mass, or in happy isolation, allows no branch to be seen. Summit + behind summit rise its pyramidal ranges, or down to the very grass sweep + the circlets of its boughs; so that there is nothing but green cone, and + green carpet. Nor is it only softer, but in one sense more cheerful than + other foliage, for it casts only a pyramidal shadow. Lowland forest arches + overhead, and chequers the ground with darkness; but the pine, growing in + scattered groups, leaves the glades between emerald-bright. Its gloom is + all its own; narrowing into the sky, it lets the sunshine strike down to + the dew. And if ever a superstitious feeling comes over me among the pine + glades, it is never tainted with the old German forest fear, but it is + only a more solemn tone of the fairy enchantment that haunts our English + meadows; so that I have always called the prettiest pine-glade in + Chamouni, "Fairies' Hollow." It is in the glen beneath the steep ascent + above Pont Pelissier, and may be reached by a little winding path which + goes down from the top of the hill{27}—being indeed not truly a + glen, but a broad ledge of moss and turf, leaning in a formidable + precipice (which, however, the gentle branches hide) over the Arve. An + almost isolated rock promontory, many coloured, rises at the end of it. On + the other sides it is bordered by cliffs, from which a little cascade + falls, literally, down among the pines, for it is so light, shaking itself + into mere showers of seed pearl in the sun, that the pines don't know it + from mist, and grow through it without minding. Underneath, there is only + the mossy silence; and above, for ever, the snow of the nameless Aiguille. + </p> + <p> + {27} The new road to Chamouni has been carried right through it. A cascade + on the right, as you ascend, marks the place spoken of in the text,—once + as lonely as Corrie-nan-shian. + </p> + <p> + Other trees rise against the sky in dots and knots, but this, in fringes. + You never see the edges of it, so subtle are they; and for this reason,—it + alone of trees, so far as I know, is capable of the fiery change which has + been noticed by Shakespeare. When the sun rises behind a ridge crested + with pine, provided the ridge be at a distance of about two miles, and + seen clear, all the trees, for about three or four degrees on each side of + the sun, become trees of light, seen in clear flame against the darker + sky, and dazzling as the sun itself. I thought at first this was owing to + the actual lustre of the leaves; but I believe now it is caused by the + cloud-dew upon them—every minutest leaf carrying its diamond. It + seems as if these trees, living always among the clouds, had caught part + of their glory from them; and themselves, the darkest of vegetation, could + yet add splendour to the sun itself. + </p> + <p> + 48. The Swiss have certainly no feelings respecting their mountains in + anywise correspondent with ours. It was rather as fortresses of defence, + than as spectacles of splendour, that the cliffs of the Rothslock bare + rule over the destinies of those who dwelt at their feet; and the training + for which the mountain children had to thank the slopes of the + Muotta-Thal, was in soundness of breath, and steadiness of limb, far more + than in elevation of idea. But the point which I desire the reader to note + is, that the character of the scene which, if any, appears to have been + impressive to the inhabitant, is not that which we ourselves feel when we + enter the district. It was not from their lakes, nor their cliffs, nor + their glaciers—though these were all peculiarly their possessions—that + the three venerable cantons received their name. They were not called the + States of the Rock, nor the States of the Lake, but the States of the <i>Forest</i>. + And the one of the three which contains the most touching record of the + spiritual power of Swiss religion, in the name of the convent of the 'Hill + of Angels,' has, for its own, none but the sweet childish name of 'Under + the Woods.' + </p> + <p> + And indeed you may pass under them if, leaving the most sacred spot in + Swiss history, the Meadow of the Three Fountains, you bid the boatman row + southward a little way by the shore of the Bay of Uri. Steepest there on + its western side, the walls of its rocks ascend to heaven. Far in the blue + of evening, like a great cathedral pavement, lies the lake in its + darkness; and you may hear the whisper of innumerable falling waters + return from the hollows of the cliff, like the voices of a multitude + praying under their breath. From time to time the beat of a wave, slow + lifted where the rocks lean over the black depth, dies heavily as the last + note of a requiem. Opposite, green with steep grass, and set with châlet + villages, the Fron-Alp rises in one solemn glow of pastoral light and + peace; and above, against the clouds of twilight, ghostly on the gray + precipice, stand, myriad by myriad, the shadowy armies of the Unterwalden + pine. + </p> + <p> + 49. It had been wild weather when I left Rome, and all across the Campagna + the clouds were sweeping in sulphurous blue, with a clap of thunder or + two, and breaking gleams of sun along the Claudian aqueduct, lighting up + the infinity of its arches, like the bridge of Chaos. But as I climbed the + long slope of the Alban Mount, the storm swept finally to the north, and + the noble outline of the domes of Albano, and graceful darkness of its + ilex grove, rose against pure streaks of alternate blue and amber, the + upper sky gradually flushing through the last fragments of rain-cloud in + deep palpitating azure, half æther and half dew. The noonday sun came + slanting down the rocky slopes of La Riccia, and their masses of entangled + and tall foliage, whose autumnal tints were mixed with the wet verdure of + a thousand evergreens, were penetrated with it, as with rain. I cannot + call it colour,—it was conflagration. Purple, and crimson, and + scarlet, like the curtains of God's Tabernacle, the rejoicing trees sank + into the valley in showers of light, every separate leaf quivering with + buoyant and burning life; each, as it turned to reflect, or to transmit + the sunbeam, first a torch and then an emerald. Far up into the recesses + of the valley the green vistas arched like the hollows of mighty waves of + some crystalline sea, with the arbutus flowers dashed along their banks + for foam, and silver flakes of orange spray tossed into the air around + them, breaking over the grey walls of rock into a thousand separate stars, + fading and kindling alternately as the weak wind lifted and let them fall. + Every glade of grass burned like the golden floor of heaven, opening in + sudden gleams as the foliage broke, and closed above it, as + sheet-lightning opens in a cloud at sunset; the motionless masses of dark + rock, dark though flushed with scarlet lichen, casting their quiet shadows + across its restless radiance, the fountain underneath them filling its + marble hollow with blue mist and fitful sound; and, over all, the + multitudinous bars of amber and rose—the sacred clouds that have no + darkness, and only exist to illumine—were seen in fathomless + intervals between the solemn and orbed repose of the stone pines, passing + to lose themselves in the last, white, blinding lustre of the measureless + line where the Campagna melted into the blaze of the sea. + </p> + <p> + 50. Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity: children + love them; quiet, contented, ordinary people love them as they grow; + luxurious and disorderly people rejoice in them gathered; they are the + cottager's treasure; and in the crowded town, mark, as with a little + broken fragment of rainbow, the windows of the workers in whose hearts + rests the covenant of peace. + </p> + <p> + 51. Yet few people really care about flowers. Many, indeed, are fond of + finding a new shape of blossom, caring for it as a child cares about a + kaleidoscope. Many, also, like a fair service of flowers in the + greenhouse, as a fair service of plate on the table. Many are + scientifically interested in them, though even these in the nomenclature, + rather than the flowers; and a few enjoy their gardens.... But, the + blossoming time of the year being principally spring, I perceive it to be + the mind of most people, during that period, to stay in towns. A year or + two ago a keen-sighted and eccentrically-minded friend of mine, having + taken it into his head to violate this national custom, and go to the + Tyrol in spring, was passing through a valley near Landech with several + similarly headstrong companions. A strange mountain appeared in the + distance, belted about its breast with a zone of blue, like our English + Queen. Was it a blue cloud, a blue horizontal bar of the air that Titian + breathed in youth, seen now far away, which mortal might never breathe + again? Was it a mirage—a meteor? Would it stay to be approached?—(ten + miles of winding road yet between them and the foot of the mountain)—such + questioning had they concerning it. My keen-sighted friend, alone, + maintained it to be substantial;—whatever it might be, it was not + air, and would not vanish. The ten miles of road were overpast, the + carriage left, the mountain climbed. It stayed patiently, expanding still + into richer breath and heavenlier glow—a belt of gentians. Such + things may verily be seen among the Alps in spring, and in spring only; + which being so, I observe most people prefer going in autumn. + </p> + <p> + 52. Perhaps few people have ever asked themselves why they admire a rose + so much more than all other flowers. If they consider, they will find, + first, that red is, in a delicately gradated state, the loveliest of all + pure colours; and, secondly, that in the rose there is <i>no shadow</i>, + except what is composed of colour. All its shadows are fuller in colour + than its lights, owing to the translucency and reflective power of the + leaves. + </p> + <p> + 53. Has the reader ever considered the relations of commonest forms of + volatile substance? The invisible particles which cause the scent of a + rose-leaf, how minute, how multitudinous, passing richly away into the air + continually! + </p> + <p> + 54. In the range of inorganic nature I doubt if any object can be found + more perfectly beautiful, than a fresh, deep snow-drift, seen under warm + light. Its curves are of inconceivable perfection and changefulness; its + surface and transparency alike exquisite; its light and shade of + inexhaustible variety and inimitable finish,—the shadows sharp, + pale, and of heavenly colour, the reflected lights intense and + multitudinous, and mingled with the sweet occurrences of transmitted + light.... If, passing to the edge of a sheet of it upon the lower Alps, + early in May, we find, as we are nearly sure to find, two or three little + round openings pierced in it; and through these, emergent, a slender, + pensive, fragile flower,{28} whose small, dark, purple-fringed bell hangs + down and shudders over the icy cleft that it has cloven, as if partly + wondering at its own recent grave, and partly dying of very fatigue after + its hard-won victory; we shall be, or we ought to be, moved by a totally + different impression of loveliness from that which we receive among the + dead ice and the idle clouds: there is now uttered to us a call for + sympathy, now offered to us an image of moral purpose and achievement, + which, however unconscious or senseless the creature may indeed be that so + seems to call, cannot be heard without affection, nor contemplated without + worship, by any of us whose heart is rightly turned, or whose mind is + clearly and surely sighted. + </p> + <p> + {28} Soldanella Alpina. I think it is the only Alpine flower which + actually pierces snow, though I have seen gentians filling thawed + hoof-prints. Crocuses are languid till they have had sun for a day or two. + But the soldanella enjoys its snow, at first, and afterwards its fields. I + have seen it make a pasture look like a large lilac silk gown. + </p> + <p> + 55. It has been well shown by Dr. Herbert, that many plants are found + alone on a certain soil or sub-soil in a wild state, not because such soil + is favourable to them, but because they alone are capable of existing on + it, and because all dangerous rivals are by its inhospitality removed. Now + if we withdraw the plant from this position, which it hardly endures, and + supply it with the earth and maintain about it the temperature that it + delights in; withdrawing from it, at the same time, all rivals, which in + such conditions Nature would have thrust upon it, we shall indeed obtain a + magnificently developed example of the plant, colossal in size, and + splendid in organization; but we shall utterly lose in it that moral ideal + which is dependent on its right fulfilment of its appointed functions. It + was intended and created by the Deity for the covering of those lonely + spots where no other plant could live. It has been thereto endowed with + courage and strength, and capacities of endurance; its character and glory + are not therefore in the gluttonous and idle feeding of its own over + luxuriance, at the expense of other creatures utterly destroyed and rooted + out for its good alone; but in its right doing of its hard duty, and + forward climbing into those spots of forlorn hope where it alone can bear + witness to the kindness and presence of the Spirit that cutteth out rivers + among the rocks, as He covers the valleys with corn; and there, in its + vanward place, and only there, where nothing is withdrawn for it, nor hurt + by it, and where nothing can take part of its honour, nor usurp its + throne, are its strength and fairness, and price, and goodness in the + sight of God to be truly esteemed. The first time I saw the Soldanella + Alpina, before spoken of, it was growing of magnificent size on a sunny + Alpine pasture, among bleating of sheep, and lowing of cattle, associated + with a profusion of Geum Montanum, and Ranunculus Pyrenæus. I noticed it + only because new to me—nor perceived any peculiar beauty in its + cloven flower. Some days after, I found it alone, among the rack of the + higher clouds, and howling of glacier winds; and, as I described it, + piercing through an edge of avalanche which in its retiring had left the + new ground brown and lifeless, and as if burnt by recent fire. The plant + was poor and feeble, and seemingly exhausted with its efforts,—but + it was then that I comprehended its ideal character, and saw its noble + function and order of glory among the constellations of the earth. + </p> + <p> + 56. GRASSES.—Minute, granular, feathery, or downy seed-vessels, + mingling quaint brown punctuation, and dusty tremors of dancing grain, + with the bloom of the nearer fields; and casting a gossamered grayness and + softness of plumy mist along their surfaces far away; mysterious evermore, + not only with dew in the morning, or mirage at noon, but with the shaking + threads of fine arborescence, each a little belfry of grainbells, all + a-chime. + </p> + <p> + 57. Gather a single blade of grass, and examine for a minute quietly its + narrow sword-shaped strip of fluted green. Nothing, as it seems, there of + notable goodness or beauty. A very little strength and a very little + tallness, and a few delicate long lines meeting in a point,—not a + perfect point neither, but blunt and unfinished, by no means a creditable + or apparently much-cared-for example of Nature's workmanship, made, only + to be trodden on to-day, and to-morrow to be cast into the oven,—and + a little pale and hollow stalk, feeble and flaccid, leading down to the + dull brown fibres of roots. And yet, think of it well, and judge whether, + of all the gorgeous flowers that beam in summer air, and of all strong and + goodly trees, pleasant to the eyes, or good for food,—stately palm + and pine, strong ash and oak, scented citron, burdened vine—there be + any by man so deeply loved, by God so highly graced, as that narrow point + of feeble green. And well does it fulfil its mission. Consider what we owe + merely to the meadow grass, to the covering of the dark ground by that + glorious enamel, by the companies of those soft, and countless, and + peaceful spears. The fields! Follow forth but for a little time the + thoughts of all that we ought to recognise in these words. All spring and + summer is in them—the walks by silent, scented paths—the rests + in noonday heat,—the joy of herds and flocks,—the power of all + shepherd life and meditation,—the life of sunlight upon the world + falling in emerald streaks, and falling in soft blue shadows where else it + would have struck upon the dark mould, or scorching dust. Pastures beside + the pacing brooks, soft banks and knolls of lowly hills, thymy slopes of + down, overlooked by the blue line of lifted sea, crisp lawns, all dim with + early dew, or smooth in evening warmth of barred sunshine, dinted by happy + feet, and softening in their fall the sound of loving voices,—all + these are summed in those simple words; and these are not all. We may not + measure to the full the depth of this heavenly gift in our own land, + though still as we think of it longer, the infinite of that meadow + sweetness, Shakespeare's peculiar joy, would open on us more and more; yet + we have it but in part. Go out in the springtime among the meadows that + slope from the shores of the Swiss lakes to the roots of their lower + mountains. There, mingled with the taller gentians, and the white + narcissus, the grass grows deep and free; and as you follow the winding + mountain path, beneath arching boughs, all veiled with blossom—paths + that for ever droop and rise over the green banks and mounds sweeping down + in scented undulation steep to the blue water, studded here and there with + new-mown heaps filling all the air with fainter sweetness,—look up + towards the higher hills, where the waves of everlasting green roll + silently into their long inlets among the shadows of the pines; and we may + perhaps at last know the meaning of those quiet words of the 147th Psalm, + "He maketh grass to grow upon the mountains." + </p> + <p> + Assembling the images we have traced, and adding the simplest of all, from + Isaiah xl. 6, we find the grass and flowers are types, in their passing, + of the passing of human life, and in their excellence, of the excellence + of human life; and this in twofold way: first by their beneficence, and + then by their endurance—the grass of the earth, in giving the seed + of corn, and in its beauty under tread of foot and stroke of scythe; and + the grass of the waters, in giving its freshness for our rest, and in its + bending before the wave. But, understood in the broad human and Divine + sense, the "<i>herb</i> yielding seed"—(as opposed to the fruit tree + yielding fruit)—includes a third family of plants, and fulfils a + third office to the human race. It includes the great family of the lints + and flaxes, and fulfils thus the <i>three</i> offices of giving food, + raiment, and rest. Follow out this fulfilment; consider the association of + the linen garment and the linen embroidery with the priestly office and + the furniture of the tabernacle, and consider how the rush has been to all + time the first natural carpet thrown under the human foot. Then next + observe the three virtues definitely set forth by the three families of + plants—not arbitrarily or fancifully associated with them, but in + all the three cases marked for us by Scriptural words: 1st. Cheerfulness, + or joyful serenity; in the grass for food and beauty—"Consider the + lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin." + 2nd. Humility; in the grass for rest—"A bruised reed shall he not + break." 3rd. Love; in the grass for clothing, (because of its swift + kindling,)—"The smoking flax shall he not quench." And then finally + observe the confirmation of these last two images in, I suppose, the most + important prophecy, relating to the future state of the Christian Church, + which occurs in the Old Testament, namely that contained in the closing + chapters of Ezekiel. The measures of the Temple of God are to be taken; + and because it is only by charity and humility that those measures ever + can be taken, the angel has "a line of <i>flax</i> in his hand, and a + measuring reed." The use of the line was to measure the land, and of the + reed to take the dimensions of the buildings; so the buildings of the + church, or its labours, are to be measured by humility; and its territory, + or land, by love. + </p> + <p> + 58. LEAVES motionless. The strong pines wave above them, and the weak + grasses tremble beside them; but the blue stars rest upon the earth with a + peace as of heaven; and far along the ridges of iron rock, moveless as + they, the rubied crests of Alpine rose flush in the low rays of morning. + </p> + <p> + 59. MOSSES.—Meek creatures! the first mercy of the earth, veiling + with hushed softness its dintless rocks; creatures full of pity, covering + with strange and tender honour the scarred disgrace of ruin, laying quiet + finger on the trembling stones to teach them rest. No words, that I know + of, will say what these mosses are. None are delicate enough, none perfect + enough, none rich enough. How is one to tell of the rounded bosses of + furred and beaming green,—the starred divisions of rubied bloom, + fine-filmed, as if the rock spirits could spin porphyry as we do glass,—the + traceries of intricate silver, and fringes of amber, lustrous, + arborescent, burnished through every fibre into fitful brightness and + glossy traverses of silken change, yet all subdued and pensive, and framed + for simplest, sweetest offices of grace? They will not be gathered, like + the flowers, for chaplet, or love-token; but of these the wild bird will + make its nest, and the wearied child his pillow. + </p> + <p> + And as the earth's first mercy, so they are its last gift to us: when all + other service is vain, from plant and tree, the soft mosses and gray + lichen take up their watch by the headstone. The woods, the blossoms, the + gift-bearing grasses, have done their parts for a time; but these do + service for ever. Trees for the builder's yard, flowers for the bride's + chamber, corn for the granary, moss for the grave. + </p> + <p> + 60. LICHENS.—As in one sense the humblest, in another they are the + most honoured of the earth-children. Unfading as motionless, the worm + frets them not, and the autumn wastes not. Strong in loveliness, they + neither blanch in heat, nor pine in frost. To them, slow-fingered, + constant-hearted, is entrusted the weaving of the dark, eternal tapestries + of the hills; to them, slow-pencilled, iris-dyed, the tender framing of + their endless imagery. Sharing the stillness of the unimpassioned rock, + they share also its endurance; and while the winds of departing spring + scatter the white hawthorn blossom like drifted snow, and summer dims on + the parched meadow the drooping of its cowslip gold,—far above, + among the mountains, the silver lichen spots rest, star-like, on the + stone: and the gathering orange stain, upon the edge of yonder western + peak, reflects the sunsets of a thousand years. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SECTION VIII. — EDUCATION. + </h2> + <p> + 61. The most helpful and sacred work which can at present be done for + humanity, is to teach people (chiefly by example, as all best teaching + must be done) not how "to better themselves," but how to "satisfy + themselves." It is the curse of every evil nature and evil creature to eat + and <i>not</i> be satisfied. The words of blessing are, that they shall + eat and be satisfied; and as there is only one kind of water which + quenches all thirst, so there is only one kind of bread which satisfies + all hunger—the bread of justice or righteousness; which hungering + after, men shall always be filled, that being the bread of Heaven; but + hungering after the bread or wages of unrighteousness, shall not be + filled, that being the bread of Sodom. And in order to teach men how to be + satisfied, it is necessary fully to understand the art of joy and humble + life—this, at present, of all arts or sciences, being the one most + needing study. Humble life; that is to say, proposing to itself no future + exaltation, but only a sweet continuance: not excluding the idea of + foresight, but wholly of fore-sorrow, and taking no troublous thought for + coming days; so also not excluding the idea of providence or provision, + but wholly of accumulation;—the life of domestic affection and + domestic peace, full of sensitiveness to all elements of costless and kind + pleasure;—therefore chiefly to the loveliness of the natural world. + </p> + <p> + 62. We shall find that the love of nature, wherever it has existed, has + been a faithful and sacred element of feeling; that is to say, supposing + all the circumstances otherwise the same with respect to two individuals, + the one who loves nature most will be always found to have more capacity + for <i>faith</i> in God than the other. Nature-worship will be found to + bring with it such a sense of the presence and power of a Great Spirit as + no mere reasoning can either induce or controvert; and where that + nature-worship is innocently pursued—<i>i.e.</i>, with due respect + to other claims on time, feeling, and exertion, and associated with the + higher principles of religion,—it becomes the channel of certain + sacred truths, which by no other means can be conveyed. + </p> + <p> + 63. Instead of supposing the love of nature necessarily connected with the + faithlessness of the age, I believe it is connected properly with the + benevolence and liberty{29} of the age; that it is precisely the most + healthy element which distinctively belongs to us; and that out of it, + cultivated no longer in levity or ignorance, but in earnestness and as a + duty, results will spring of an importance at present inconceivable; and + lights arise, which, for the first time in man's history, will reveal to + him the true nature of his life, the true field for his energies, and the + true relations between him and his Maker. + </p> + <p> + {29} I forget, now, what I meant by 'liberty' in this passage; but I often + used the word in my first writings, in a good sense, thinking of Scott's + moorland rambles and the like. It is very wonderful to me, now, to see + what hopes I had once: but Turner was alive, then; and the sun used to + shine, and rivers to sparkle. + </p> + <p> + 64. To any person who has all his senses about him, a quiet walk, over not + more than ten or twelve miles of road a day, is the most amusing of all + travelling; and all travelling becomes dull in exact proportion to its + rapidity. + </p> + <p> + Going by railroad I do not consider as travelling at all; it is merely + "being sent" to a place, and very little different from becoming a parcel. + </p> + <p> + 65. I believe an immense gain in the bodily health and happiness of the + upper classes would follow on their steadily endeavouring, however + clumsily, to make the physical exertion they now necessarily exert in + amusements, definitely serviceable. It would be far better, for instance, + that a gentleman should mow his own fields, than ride over other people's. + </p> + <p> + 66. In order to define what is fairest, you must delight in what is fair; + and I know not how few or how many there may be who take such delight. + Once I could speak joyfully about beautiful things, thinking to be + understood; now I cannot, any more, for it seems to me that no one regards + them. Wherever I look or travel, in England or abroad, I see that men, + wherever they can reach, destroy all beauty. They seem to have no other + desire or hope but to have large houses, and be able to move fast. Every + perfect and lovely spot which they can touch, they defile. Thus the + railroad bridge over the fall of Schaffhausen, and that round the Clarens + shore of the lake of Geneva, have destroyed the power of two pieces of + scenery of which nothing can ever supply the place, in appeal to the + higher ranks of European mind. + </p> + <p> + 67. The first thing which I remember as an event in life, was being taken + by my nurse to the brow of Friar's Crag on Derwentwater. The intense joy, + mingled with awe, that I had in looking through the hollows in the mossy + roots, over the crag into the dark lake, has associated itself more or + less with all twining roots of trees ever since. Two other things I + remember as, in a sort, beginnings of life;—crossing Shap-fells, + being let out of the chaise to run up the hills; and going through + Glenfarg, near Kinross, on a winter's morning, when the rocks were hung + with icicles; these being culminating points in an early life of more + travelling than is usually indulged to a child. In such journeyings, + whenever they brought me near hills, and in all mountain ground and + scenery, I had a pleasure, as early as I can remember, and continuing till + I was eighteen or twenty, infinitely greater than any which has been since + possible to me in anything. + </p> + <p> + 68. A fool always wants to shorten space and time; a wise man wants to + lengthen both. A fool wants to kill space and time; a wise man, first to + gain them, then to animate them. + </p> + <p> + 69. I suspect that system-makers in general are not of much more use, each + in his own domain, than, in that of Pomona, the old women who tie cherries + upon sticks, for the more portableness of the same. To cultivate well, and + choose well, your cherries, is of some importance; but if they can be had + in their own wild way of clustering about their crabbed stalks, it is a + better connection for them than any others; and if they cannot, then so + that they be not bruised, it makes to a boy of practical disposition not + much difference whether he gets them by handfuls, or in beaded symmetry on + the exalting stick. + </p> + <p> + 70. Every great man is always being helped by everybody, for his gift is + to get good out of all things and all persons. + </p> + <p> + 71. God appoints to every one of His creatures a separate mission, and if + they discharge it honourably, if they quit themselves like men, and + faithfully follow the light which is in them, withdrawing from it all cold + and quenching influence, there will assuredly come of it such burning as, + in its appointed mode and measure, shall shine before men, and be of + service constant and holy. Degrees infinite of lustre there must always + be, but the weakest among us has a gift, however seemingly trivial, which + is peculiar to him, and which, worthily used, will be a gift also to his + race for ever. + </p> + <p> + 72. There is not any matter, nor any spirit, nor any creature, but it is + capable of a unity of some kind with other creatures; and in that unity is + its perfection and theirs, and a pleasure also for the beholding of all + other creatures that can behold. So the unity of spirits is partly in + their sympathy, and partly in their giving and taking, and always in their + love; and these are their delight and their strength; for their strength + is in their co-working and army fellowship, and their delight is in their + giving and receiving of alternate and perpetual good; their inseparable + dependency on each other's being, and their essential and perfect + depending on their Creator's. And so the unity of earthly creatures is + their power, and their peace; not like the dead and cold peace of + undisturbed stones and solitary mountains, but the living peace of trust, + and the living power of support; of hands that hold each other and are + still.{30} + </p> + <p> + {30} A long, affected, and obscure second volume sentence, written in + imitation of Hooker. One short sentence from Ecclesiastes is the sum of + it: "How can one be warm alone?" + </p> + <p> + 73. It is good to read of that kindness and humbleness of St. Francis of + Assisi, who spoke never to bird, nor to cicada, nor even to wolf and + beasts of prey, but as his brother;—and so we find are moved the + minds of all good and mighty men, as in the lesson that we have from the + 'Mariner' of Coleridge, and yet more truly and rightly taught in the + 'Hartleap Well'— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Never to blend our pleasure or our pride + With sorrow of the meanest thing that feels,"— +</pre> + <p> + and again in the 'White Doe' of Rylstone, with the added teaching, that + anguish of our own + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Is tempered and allayed by sympathies + Aloft ascending, and descending deep, + Even to the inferior kinds;"— +</pre> + <p> + so that I know not of anything more destructive of the whole theoretic + faculty, not to say of the Christian character and human intellect,{31} + than those accursed sports in which man makes of himself cat, tiger, + leopard, and alligator in one; and gathers into one continuance of + cruelty, for his amusement, all the devices that brutes sparingly and at + intervals use against each other for their necessities. + </p> + <p> + {31} I am more and more grieved, as I re-read this and other portions of + the most affected and weak of all my books, (written in a moulting time of + my life,)—the second volume of 'Modern Painters,'—at its + morbid violence of passion and narrowness of thought. Yet, at heart, the + book was, like my others, honest; and in substance it is mostly good; but + all boiled to rags. + </p> + <p> + 74. He who loves not God, nor his brother, cannot love the grass beneath + his feet, nor the creatures which live not for his uses, filling those + spaces in the universe which he needs not: while, on the other hand, none + can love God, nor his human brother, without loving all things which his + Father loves; nor without looking upon them every one as in that respect + his brethren also, and perhaps worthier than he, if, in the under concords + they have to fill, their part is touched more truly.{32} + </p> + <p> + {32} Morbidly Franciscan, again! and I am really compelled to leave out + one little bit my friend liked,—as all kindly and hopeful women + would,—about everything turning out right, and being to some good + end. For we have no business whatever with the ends of things, but with + their beings; and their beings are often entirely bad. + </p> + <p> + 75. Things may always be seen truly by candid people, though never <i>completely</i>. + No human capacity ever yet saw the whole of a thing; but we may see more + and more of it the longer we look. Every individual temper will see + something different in it; but supposing the tempers honest, all the + differences are there. Every advance in our acuteness of perception will + show us something new; but the old and first-discerned thing will still be + there, not falsified, only modified and enriched by the new perceptions, + becoming continually more beautiful in its harmony with them, and more + approved as a part of the infinite truth. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SECTION IX. — MORALITIES. + </h2> + <p> + 76. When people read, "The law came by Moses, but grace and truth by + Christ," do they suppose it means that the law was ungracious and untrue? + The law was given for a foundation; the grace (or mercy) and truth for + fulfilment;—the whole forming one glorious Trinity of judgment, + mercy, and truth.{33} And if people would but read the text of their + Bibles with heartier purpose of understanding it, instead of + superstitiously, they would see that throughout the parts which they are + intended to make most personally their own, (the Psalms,) it is always the + Law which is spoken of with chief joy. The Psalms respecting mercy are + often sorrowful, as in thought of what it cost; but those respecting the + Law are always full of delight. David cannot contain himself for joy in + thinking of it,—he is never weary of its praise: "How love I Thy + law! it is my meditation all the day. Thy testimonies are my delight and + my counsellors; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb." + </p> + <p> + {33} A great deal of the presumption and narrowness caused by my having + been bred in the Evangelical schools, and which now fill me with shame and + distress in re-reading 'Modern Painters,' is, to my present mind, atoned + for by the accurate thinking by which I broke my way through to the great + truth expressed in this passage, which all my later writings, without + exception, have been directed to maintain and illustrate. + </p> + <p> + 77. I suppose there is no event in the whole life of Christ to which, in + hours of doubt or fear, men turn with more anxious thirst to know the + close facts of it, or with more earnest and passionate dwelling upon every + syllable of its recorded narrative, than Christ's showing Himself to His + disciples at the Lake of Galilee. There is something pre-eminently open, + natural, full fronting our disbelief, in this manifestation. The others, + recorded after the resurrection, were sudden, phantom-like, occurring to + men in profound sorrow and wearied agitation of heart; not, it might seem, + safe judges of what they saw. But the agitation was now over. They had + gone back to their daily work, thinking still their business lay + net-wards, unmeshed from the literal rope and drag. "Simon Peter saith + unto them, I go a-fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee." True + words enough, and having far echo beyond those Galilean hills. That night + they caught nothing; but when the morning came, in the clear light of it, + behold! a figure stood on the shore. They were not thinking of anything + but their fruitless hauls. They had no guess who it was. It asked them + simply if they had caught anything. They say, No, and it tells them to + cast again. And John shades his eyes from the morning sun with his hand to + look who it is; and though the glistening of the sea, too, dazzles him, he + makes out who it is at last; and poor Simon, not to be outrun this time, + tightens his fisher's coat about him, and dashes in over the nets. One + would have liked to see him swim those hundred yards, and stagger to his + knees upon the beach. + </p> + <p> + Well, the others get to the beach, too, in time, in such slow way as men + in general do get in this world to its true shore, much impeded by that + wonderful "dragging the net with fishes"; but they get there—seven + of them in all; first the Denier, and then the slowest believer, and then + the quickest believer, and then the two throne-seekers, and two more, we + know not who. + </p> + <p> + They sit down on the shore, face to face with Him, and eat their broiled + fish as He bids. And then to Peter, all dripping still, shivering, and + amazed, staring at Christ in the sun, on the other side of the coal-fire,—thinking + a little perhaps of what happened by another coal-fire, when it was + colder, and having had no word changed with him by his Master, since that + look of His,—to him so amazed, comes the question, "Simon, lovest + thou Me?" Try to feel that a little; and think of it till it is true to + you: and then take up that infinite monstrosity and hypocrisy,—Raphael's + cartoon of the charge to Peter. Note first the bold fallacy—the + putting <i>all</i> the Apostles there, a mere lie to serve the Papal + heresy of the Petric supremacy, by putting them all in the background + while Peter receives the charge, and making them all witnesses to it. Note + the handsomely curled hair and neatly tied sandals of the men who had been + out all night in the sea-mists, and on the slimy decks; note their + convenient dresses for going a-fishing, with trains that lie a yard along + the ground, and goodly fringes—all made to match;—an apostolic + fishing costume. Note how Peter especially, (whose chief glory was in his + wet coat <i>girt</i> about him, and naked limbs,) is enveloped in folds + and fringes, so as to kneel and hold his keys with grace. No fire of coals + at all, nor lonely mountain shore, but a pleasant Italian landscape, full + of villas and churches, and a flock of sheep to be pointed at; and the + whole group of Apostles, not round Christ, as they would have been + naturally, but straggling away in a line, that they may be shown. The + simple truth is, that the moment we look at the picture we feel our belief + of the whole thing taken away. There is visibly no possibility of that + group even having existed, in any place, or on any occasion. It is all a + mere mythic absurdity, and faded concoction of fringes, muscular arms, and + curly heads of Greek philosophers. + </p> + <p> + 78. Among the children of God, there is always that fearful and bowed + apprehension of His majesty, and that sacred dread of all offence to Him + which is called the Fear of God; yet of real and essential fear there is + not any, but clinging of confidence to Him as their Rock, Fortress, and + Deliverer; and perfect love, and casting out of fear; so that it is not + possible that, while the mind is rightly bent on Him, there should be + dread of anything earthly or supernatural; and the more dreadful seems the + height of His majesty, the less fear they feel that dwell in the shadow of + it. "Of whom shall I be afraid?" + </p> + <p> + 79. If for every rebuke that we utter of men's vices, we put forth a claim + upon their hearts; if for every assertion of God's demands from them, we + could substitute a display of His kindness to them; if side by side with + every warning of death, we could exhibit proofs and promises of + immortality; if, in fine, instead of assuming the being of an awful Deity, + which men, though they cannot, and dare not deny, are always unwilling, + sometimes unable to conceive, we were to show them a near, visible, + inevitable, but all beneficent Deity, whose presence makes the earth + itself a heaven, I think there would be fewer deaf children sitting in the + market-place. + </p> + <p> + 80. If not by sympathy discovered, it is not in words explicable with what + divine lines and light the exercise of godliness and charity will mould + and gild the hardest and coldest countenance, neither to what darkness + their departure will consign the loveliest. For there is not any virtue + the exercise of which, even momentarily, will not impress a new fairness + upon the features. + </p> + <p> + 81. The love of the human race is increased by their individual + differences, and the unity of the creature, made perfect by each having + something to bestow and to receive, bound to the rest by a thousand + various necessities and various gratitudes; humility in each rejoicing to + admire in his fellow that which he finds not in himself, and each being in + some respect the complement of his race. + </p> + <p> + 82. They who are as the angels of God in heaven, yet cannot be conceived + as so assimilated that their different experiences and affections upon + earth shall then be forgotten and effectless: the child, taken early to + his place, cannot be imagined to wear there such a body, nor to have such + thoughts, as the glorified apostle who had finished his course and kept + the faith on earth. And so, whatever perfections and likeness of love we + may attribute to either the tried or the crowned creatures, there is the + difference of the stars in glory among them yet; differences of original + gifts, though not of occupying till their Lord come; different + dispensations of trial and of trust, of sorrows and support, both in their + own inward, variable hearts, and in their positions of exposure or of + peace; of the gourd shadow and the smiting sun, of calling at heat of day, + or eleventh hour, of the house unroofed by faith, or the clouds opened by + revelation; differences in warning, in mercies, in sickness, in signs, in + time of calling to account; alike only they all are by that which is not + of them, but the gift of God's unchangeable mercy: "I will give unto this + last even as unto thee." + </p> + <p> + 83. The desire of rest planted in the heart is no sensual, no unworthy + one; but a longing for renovation, and for escape from a state whose every + phase is mere preparation for another equally transitory, to one in which + permanence shall have become possible through perfection. Hence the great + call of Christ to men, that call on which St. Augustine fixed as the + essential expression of Christian hope, is accompanied by the promise of + rest; and the death bequest of Christ to men, is peace. + </p> + <p> + 84. He who has once stood beside the grave, to look back upon the + companionship which has been for ever closed, feeling how impotent, there, + are the wild love, and the keen sorrow, to give one instant's pleasure to + the pulseless heart, or atone in the lowest measure to the departed + spirit, for the hour of unkindness, will scarcely for the future incur + that debt to the heart, which can only be discharged to the dust. But the + lessons which men receive as individuals, they do not learn as nations. + Again and again they have seen their noblest descend into the grave, and + have thought it enough to garland the tombstone when they had not crowned + the brow, and to pay the honour to the ashes, which they had denied to the + spirit. Let it not displease them that they are bidden, amidst the tumult + and the dazzle of their busy life, to listen for the few voices, and watch + for the few lamps, which God has toned and lighted to charm and to guide + them, that they may not learn their sweetness by their silence, nor their + light by their decay. + </p> + <p> + 85. In the Cathedral of Lucca, near the entrance door of the north + transept, there is a monument by Jacopo della Quercia to Ilaria di + Caretto, the wife of Paolo Guinigi. I name it not as more beautiful or + perfect than other examples of the same period; but as furnishing an + instance of the exact and right mean between the rigidity and rudeness of + the earlier monumental effigies, and the morbid imitation of life, sleep, + or death, of which the fashion has taken place in modern times. She is + lying on a simple couch, with a hound at her feet; not on the side, but + with the head laid straight and simply on the hard pillow, in which, let + it be observed, there is no effort at deceptive imitation of pressure.—It + is understood as a pillow, but not mistaken for one. The hair is bound in + a flat braid over the fair brow, the sweet and arched eyes are closed, the + tenderness of the loving lips is set and quiet; there is that about them + which forbids breath; something which is not death nor sleep, but the pure + image of both. The hands are not lifted in prayer, neither folded, but the + arms are laid at length upon the body, and the hands cross as they fall. + The feet are hidden by the drapery, and the form of the limbs concealed, + but not their tenderness. + </p> + <p> + 86. I do not know any district possessing a more pure or uninterrupted + fulness of mountain character, (and that of the highest order,) or which + appears to have been less disturbed by foreign agencies, than that which + borders the course of the Trient between Valorsine and Martigny. The paths + which lead to it out of the valley of the Rhone, rising at first in steep + circles among the walnut trees, like winding stairs among the pillars of a + Gothic tower, retire over the shoulders of the hills into a valley almost + unknown, but thickly inhabited by an industrious and patient population. + Along the ridges of the rocks, smoothed by old glaciers into long, dark, + billowy swellings, like the backs of plunging dolphins, the peasant + watches the slow colouring of the tufts of moss and roots of herb, which + little by little gather a feeble soil over the iron substance; then, + supporting the narrow slip of clinging ground with a few stones, he + subdues it to the spade; and in a year or two a little crest of corn is + seen waving upon the rocky casque. The irregular meadows run in and out + like inlets of lake among these harvested rocks, sweet with perpetual + streamlets that seem always to have chosen the steepest places to come + down for the sake of the leaps, scattering their handfuls of crystal this + way and that, as the wind takes them with all the grace, but with none of + the formalism, of fountains; dividing into fanciful change of dash and + spring, yet with the seal of their granite channels upon them, as the + lightest play of human speech may bear the seal of past toil, and closing + back out of their spray to lave the rigid angles, and brighten with silver + fringes and glassy films each lower and lower step of sable stone; until + at last, gathered altogether again,—except perhaps some chance drops + caught on the apple blossom, where it has budded a little nearer the + cascade than it did last spring,—they find their way down to the + turf, and lose themselves in that, silently; with quiet depth of clear + water furrowing among the grass-blades, and looking only like their + shadows but presently emerging again in little startled gushes and + laughing hurries, as if they had remembered suddenly that the day was too + short for them to get down the hill. Green field, and glowing rock, and + glancing streamlet, all slope together in the sunshine towards the brows + of ravines, where the pines take up their own dominion of saddened shade; + and with everlasting roar, in the twilight, the stronger torrents thunder + down, pale from the glaciers, filling all the chasms with enchanted cold, + beating themselves to pieces against the great rocks that they have + themselves cast down, and forcing fierce way beneath their ghastly poise. + The mountain paths stoop to those glens in forky zigzags, leading to some + grey and narrow arch, all fringed under its shuddering curve with the + ferns that fear the light; a cross of rough-hewn pine, iron-bound to its + parapet, standing dark against the lurid fury of the foam. Far up the + glen, as we pause beside the cross, the sky is seen through the openings + in the pines thin with excess of light; and, in its clear consuming flame + of white space, the summits of the rocky mountains are gathered into + solemn crowns and circlets, all flushed in that strange faint silence of + possession by the sunshine, which has in it so deep a melancholy, full of + power, yet as frail as shadows; lifeless, like the walls of a sepulchre, + yet beautiful in tender fall of crimson folds, like the veil of some sea + spirit, that lives and dies as the foam flashes; fixed on a perpetual + throne, stern against all strength, lifted above all sorrows, and yet + effaced and melted utterly into the air by that last sunbeam that has + crossed to them from between the two golden clouds. + </p> + <p> + High above all sorrow? Yes; but not unwitnessing to it. The traveller on + his happy journey, as his foot springs from the deep turf, and strikes the + pebbles gaily over the edge of the mountain road, sees with a glance of + delight the clusters of nut-brown cottages that nestle along those sloping + orchards, and glow beneath the boughs of the pines. Here, it may well seem + to him, if there be sometimes hardship, there must be at least innocence + and peace, and fellowship of the human soul with nature. It is not so. The + wild goats that leap along those rocks have as much passion of joy in all + that fair work of God as the men that toil among them,—perhaps more. + Enter the street of one of those villages, and you will find it foul with + that gloomy foulness that is suffered only by torpor, or by anguish of + soul. Here, it is torpor—not absolute suffering—not starvation + or disease; but darkness of calm enduring: the spring, known only as the + time of the scythe, and the autumn as the time of the sickle, and the sun + only as a warmth, the wind as a chill, and the mountains as a danger. They + do not understand so much as the name of beauty, or of knowledge. They + understand dimly that of virtue. Love, patience, hospitality, faith—these + things they know. To glean their meadows side by side, so happier; to bear + the burden up the breathless mountain flank unmurmuringly; to bid the + stranger drink from their vessel of milk; to see at the foot of their low + death-beds a pale figure upon a cross, dying, also patiently;—in + this they are different from the cattle and from the stones; but, in all + this, unrewarded, as far as concerns the present life. For them, there is + neither hope nor passion of spirit; for them, neither advance nor + exultation. Black bread, rude roof, dark night, laborious day, weary arm + at sunset; and life ebbs away. No books, no thoughts, no attainments, no + rest,—except only sometimes a little sitting in the sun under the + church wall, as the bell tolls thin and far in the mountain air; a + pattering of a few prayers, not understood, by the altar-rails of the + dimly gilded chapel,—and so, back to the sombre home, with the cloud + upon them still unbroken—that cloud of rocky gloom, born out of the + wild torrents and ruinous stones, and unlightened even in their religion, + except by the vague promise of some better thing unknown, mingled with + threatening, and obscured by an unspeakable horror—a smoke, as it + were, of martyrdom, coiling up with the incense; and amidst the images of + tortured bodies and lamenting spirits in hurtling flames, the very cross, + for them, dashed more deeply than for others with gouts of blood. + </p> + <p> + 87. A Highland scene is beyond doubt pleasant enough in its own way; but, + looked close at, has its shadows.{34} Here, for instance, is the very fact + of one—as pretty as I can remember,—having seen many. It is a + little valley of soft turf, enclosed in its narrow oval by jutting rocks, + and broad flakes of nodding fern. From one side of it to the other winds, + serpentine, a clear brown stream, drooping into quicker ripple as it + reaches the end of the oval field, and then, first islanding a purple and + white rock with an amber pool, it dashes away into a narrow fall of foam + under a thicket of mountain ash and alder. The autumn sun, low, but clear, + shines on the scarlet ash-berries and on the golden birch-leaves, which, + fallen here and there, when the breeze has not caught them, rest quiet in + the crannies of the purple rock. Beside the rock, in the hollow under the + thicket, the carcase of a ewe, drowned in the last flood, lies nearly bare + to the bone, its white ribs protruding through the skin, raven-torn; and + the rags of its wool still flickering from the branches that first stayed + it as the stream swept it down. A little lower, the current plunges, + roaring, into a circular chasm like a well, surrounded on three sides by a + chimney-like hollowness of polished rock, down which the foam slips in + detached snow-flakes. Round the edges of the pool beneath, the water + circles slowly like black oil; a little butterfly lies on its back, the + wings glued to one of the eddies, its limbs feebly quivering; a fish + arises, and it is gone. Lower down the stream, I can see over a knoll the + green and damp turf roofs of four or five hovels, built at the edge of a + morass, which is trodden by the cattle into a black Slough of Despond at + their doors, and traversed by a few ill-set stepping stones, with here and + there a flat slab on the tops, where they have sunk out of sight;—and + at the turn of the brook I see a man fishing, with a boy and a dog—a + picturesque and pretty group enough certainly, if they had not been there + all day starving. I know them, and I know the dog's ribs also, which are + nearly as bare as the dead ewe's; and the child's wasted shoulders, + cutting his old tartan jacket through, so sharp are they. + </p> + <p> + {34} Passage written to be opposed to an exuberant description, by an + amiable Scottish pastor, of everything flattering to Scotchmen in the + Highlands. I have put next to it, a little study of the sadness of Italy. + </p> + <p> + 88. Perhaps there is no more impressive scene on earth than the solitary + extent of the Campagna of Rome under evening light. Let the reader imagine + himself for a moment withdrawn from the sounds and motion of the living + world, and sent forth alone into this wild and wasted plain. The earth + yields and crumbles beneath his foot, tread he never so lightly, for its + substance is white, hollow, and carious, like the dusty wreck of the bones + of men. The long knotted grass waves and tosses feebly in the evening + wind, and the shadows of its motion shake feverishly along the banks of + ruin that lift themselves to the sunlight. Hillocks of mouldering earth + heave around him, as if the dead beneath were struggling in their sleep. + Scattered blocks of black stone, four-square remnants of mighty edifices, + not one left upon another, lie upon them to keep them down. A dull purple + poisonous haze stretches level along the desert, veiling its spectral + wrecks of massy ruins, on whose rents the red light rests, like dying fire + on defiled altars; the blue ridge of the Alban Mount lifts itself against + a solemn space of green, clear, quiet sky. Watch-towers of dark clouds + stand steadfastly along the promontories of the Apennines. From the plain + to the mountains, the shattered aqueducts, pier beyond pier, melt into the + darkness, like shadowy and countless troops of funeral mourners, passing + from a nation's grave. + </p> + <p> + 89. I was coming down one evening from the Rochers de Naye, above + Montreux, having been at work among the limestone rocks, where I could get + no water, and both weary and thirsty. Coming to a spring at the turn of + the path, conducted, as usual, by the herdsmen, into a hollowed pine + trunk, I stooped to it, and drank deeply. As I raised my head, drawing + breath heavily, some one behind me said, "Celui qui boira de cette eau-ci, + aura encore soif." I turned, not understanding for a moment what was + meant, and saw one of the hill peasants, probably returning to his châlet + from the market place at Vevay or Villeneuve. As I looked at him with an + uncomprehending expression, he went on with the verse: "Mais celui qui + boira de l'eau que je lui donnerai, n'aura jamais soif." + </p> + <p> + 90. It may perhaps be permitted me{35} to mark the significance of the + earliest mention of mountains in the Mosaic books; at least of those in + which some Divine appointment or command is stated respecting them. They + are first brought before us as refuges for God's people from the two + judgments of water and fire. The Ark rests upon the mountains of Ararat; + and man, having passed through the great Baptism unto death, kneels upon + the earth first where it is nearest heaven, and mingles with the mountain + clouds the smoke of his sacrifice of thanksgiving. Again; from the midst + of the first judgment by fire, the command of the Deity to His servant is, + "Escape to the mountain;" and the morbid fear of the hills, which fills + any human mind after long stay in places of luxury and sin, is strangely + marked in Lot's complaining reply, "I cannot escape to the mountain, lest + some evil take me." The third mention, in way of ordinance, is a far more + solemn one: "Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off." "The + Place," the mountain of myrrh, or of bitterness, chosen to fulfil to all + the seed of Abraham, far off and near, the inner meaning of promise + regarded in that vow: "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from + whence cometh mine help." And the fourth is the delivery of the law on + Sinai. It seemed then to the monks that the mountains were appointed by + their Maker to be to man refuges from judgment, signs of redemption, and + altars of sanctification and obedience; and they saw them afterwards + connected, in the manner the most touching and gracious, with the death, + after his task had been accomplished, of the first anointed Priest; the + death, in like manner, of the first inspired Lawgiver; and lastly, with + the assumption of His office, by the Eternal Priest, Lawgiver, and + Saviour. + </p> + <p> + {35} With reference to the choice of mountain dwellings by the greater + monastic orders. + </p> + <p> + Observe the connection of these three events. Although the <i>time</i> of + the deaths of Aaron and Moses was hastened by God's displeasure, we have + not, it seems to me, the slightest warrant for concluding that the <i>manner</i> + of their deaths was intended to be grievous or dishonourable to them. Far + from this, it cannot, I think, be doubted that in the denial of the + permission to enter the Promised Land, the whole punishment of their sin + was included; and that, as far as regarded the manner of their deaths, it + must have been appointed for them by their Master, in all tenderness and + love, and with the full purpose of ennobling the close of their service + upon the earth. It might have seemed to <i>us</i> more honourable that + both should have been permitted to die beneath the shadow of the + Tabernacle, the congregation of Israel watching by their side; and all + whom they loved gathered together to receive the last message from the + lips of the meek lawgiver, and the last blessing from the prayer of the + anointed priest. But it was not thus they were permitted to die. Try to + realize that going forth of Aaron from the midst of the congregation. He + who had so often done sacrifice for their sin, going forth now to offer up + his own spirit. He who had stood among them between the dead and the + living, and had seen the eyes of all that great multitude turned to him, + that by his intercession their breath might yet be drawn a moment more, + going forth now to meet the angel of death face to face, and deliver + himself into his hand. Try if you cannot walk in thought with those two + brothers, and the son, as they passed the outmost tents of Israel, and + turned, while yet the dew lay round about the camp, towards the slopes of + Mount Hor; talking together for the last time, as step by step they felt + the steeper rising of the rocks, and hour after hour, beneath the + ascending sun, the horizon grew broader as they climbed, and all the + folded hills of Idumea, one by one subdued, showed, amidst their hollows + in the haze of noon, the windings of that long desert journey, now at last + to close. But who shall enter into the thoughts of the High Priest as his + eye followed those paths of ancient pilgrimage; and through the silence of + the arid and endless hills, stretching even to the dim peak of Sinai, the + whole history of those forty years was unfolded before him, and the + mystery of his own ministries revealed to him; and that other Holy of + Holies, of which the mountain peaks were the altars, and the mountain + clouds the veil, the firmament of his Father's dwelling, opened to him + still more brightly and infinitely as he drew nearer his death?—until + at last, on the shadeless summit, from him on whom sin was to be laid no + more, from him on whose heart the names of sinful nations were to press + their graven fire no longer, the brother and the son took breastplate and + ephod, and left him to his rest. There is indeed a secretness in this calm + faith, and deep restraint of sorrow, into which it is difficult for us to + enter; but the death of Moses himself is more easily to be conceived, and + had in it circumstances still more touching as regards the influence of + the external scene. For forty years Moses had not been alone. The care and + burden of all the people, the weight of their woe, and guilt, and death, + had been upon him continually. The multitude had been laid upon him as if + he had conceived them; their tears had been his meat night and day, until + he had felt as if God had withdrawn His favour from him, and he had prayed + that he might be slain, and not see his wretchedness. And now at last the + command came, "Get thee up into this mountain." The weary hands, that had + been so long stayed up against the enemies of Israel, might lean again + upon the shepherd's staff, and fold themselves for the shepherd's prayer—for + the shepherd's slumber. Not strange to his feet, though forty years + unknown, the roughness of the bare mountain path, as he climbed from ledge + to ledge of Abarim; not strange to his aged eyes the scattered clusters of + the mountain herbage, and the broken shadows of the cliffs, indented far + across the silence of uninhabited ravines; scenes such as those among + which, as now, with none beside him but God, he had led his flocks so + often; and which he had left, how painfully! taking upon him the appointed + power to make of the fenced city a wilderness, and to fill the desert with + songs of deliverance. It was not to embitter the last hours of his life + that God restored to him for a day the beloved solitudes he had lost, and + breathed the peace of the perpetual hills around him, and cast the world + in which he had laboured, and sinned, far beneath his feet in that mist of + dying blue;—all sin, all wandering, soon to be forgotten for ever. + The Dead Sea—a type of God's anger understood by him, of all men, + most clearly, who had seen the earth open her mouth, and the sea his + depth, to overwhelm the companies of those who contended with his Master—laid + waveless beneath him; and beyond it the fair hills of Judah, and the soft + plains and banks of Jordan, purple in the evening light as with the blood + of redemption, and fading in their distant fulness into mysteries of + promise and of love. There, with his unabated strength, his undimmed + glance, lying down upon the utmost rocks, with angels waiting near to + contend for the spoils of his spirit, he put off his earthly armour. We do + deep reverence to his companion prophet, for whom the chariot of fire came + down from heaven; but was his death less noble whom his Lord Himself + buried in the vales of Moab, keeping, in the secrets of the eternal + counsels, the knowledge of a sepulchre, from which he was to be called in + the fulness of time, to talk with that Lord upon Hermon of the death that + He should accomplish at Jerusalem? + </p> + <p> + And lastly, let us turn our thoughts for a few moments to the cause of the + resurrection of these two prophets. We are all of us too much in the habit + of passing it by, as a thing mystical and inconceivable, taking place in + the life of Christ for some purpose not by us to be understood, or, at the + best, merely as a manifestation of His divinity by brightness of heavenly + light, and the ministering of the spirits of the dead, intended to + strengthen the faith of His three chosen apostles. And in this, as in many + other events recorded by the Evangelists, we lose half the meaning, and + evade the practical power upon ourselves, by never accepting in its + fulness the idea that our Lord was "perfect man,"—"tempted in all + things like as we are." Our preachers are continually trying, in all + manner of subtle ways, to explain the union of the Divinity with the + Manhood—an explanation which certainly involves first their being + able to describe the nature of Deity itself, or, in plain words, to + comprehend God. They never can explain, in any one particular, the union + of the natures; they only succeed in weakening the faith of their hearers + as to the entireness of either. The thing they have to do is precisely the + contrary of this—to insist upon the <i>entireness</i> of both. We + never think of Christ enough as God, never enough as Man; the instinctive + habit of our minds being always to miss of the Divinity, and the reasoning + and enforced habit to miss of the humanity. We are afraid to harbour in + our own hearts, or to utter in the hearing of others, any thought of our + Lord as hungering, tired, sorrowful, having a human soul, a human will, + and affected by events of human life, as a finite creature is: and yet one + half of the efficiency of His atonement, and the whole of the efficiency + of His example, depend on His having been this to the full. Consider, + therefore, the Transfiguration as it relates to the human feelings of our + Lord. It was the first definite preparation for His death. He had foretold + it to His disciples six days before; then takes with Him the three chosen + ones into "an high mountain apart." From an exceeding high mountain, at + the first taking on Him the ministry of life, He had beheld and rejected + the kingdoms of the earth, and their glory: now, on a high mountain, He + takes upon Him the ministry of death. Peter and they that were with Him, + as in Gethsemane, were heavy with sleep. Christ's work had to be done + alone. + </p> + <p> + The tradition is that the Mount of Transfiguration was the summit of + Tabor; but Tabor is neither a high mountain, nor was it in any sense a + mountain "<i>apart</i>," being in those years both, inhabited and + fortified. All the immediately preceding ministries of Christ had been at + Cesarea Philippi. There is no mention of travel southward in the six days + that intervened between the warning given to His disciples and the going + up into the hill. What other hill could it be than the southward slope of + that goodly mountain, Hermon, which is indeed the centre of all the + Promised Land, from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt; the + mount of fruitfulness, from which the springs of Jordan descended to the + valleys of Israel? Along its mighty forest avenues, until the grass grew + fair with the mountain lilies, His feet dashed in the dew of Hermon, He + must have gone to pray His first recorded prayer about death; and from the + steep of it, before He knelt, could see to the south all the dwellings of + the people that had sat in darkness, and seen the great light, the land of + Zabulon and of Naphtali, Galilee of the nations,—could see, even + with His human sight, the gleam of that lake by Capernaum and Chorazin, + and many a place loved by Him, and vainly ministered to, whose house was + now left unto them desolate; and chief of all, far in the utmost blue, the + hills above Nazareth, sloping down to His old home; hills on which yet the + stones lay loose that had been taken up to cast at Him when He left them + for ever. + </p> + <p> + "And as He prayed, two men stood by Him." Among the many ways in which we + miss the help and hold of Scripture, none is more subtle than our habit of + supposing that, even as man, Christ was free from the fear of death. How + could He then have been tempted as we are?—since among all the + trials of the earth, none spring from the dust more terrible than that + fear. It had to be borne by Him, indeed, in a unity which we can never + comprehend, with the foreknowledge of victory,—as His sorrow for + Lazarus with the consciousness of His power to restore him; but it <i>had</i> + to be borne, and that in its full earthly terror; and the presence of it + is surely marked for us enough by the rising of those two at His side. + When, in the desert, He was girding Himself for the work of life, angels + of life came and ministered to Him; now in the fair world, when He is + girding Himself for the work of death, the ministrants come to Him from + the grave. But, from the grave, conquered. One from that tomb under + Abarim, which His own hand had sealed long ago; the other, from the rest + into which he had entered without seeing corruption. "There stood by Him + Moses and Elias, and spake of His decease." Then, when the prayer is + ended, the task accepted, first, since the star paused over Him at + Bethlehem, the full glory falls upon Him from heaven, and the testimony is + borne to His everlasting Sonship and power. "Hear ye Him." + </p> + <p> + If, in their remembrance of these things, and in their endeavour to follow + in the footsteps of their Master, religious men of bygone days, closing + themselves in the hill solitudes, forgot sometimes, and sometimes feared, + the duties they owed to the active world, we may perhaps pardon them more + easily than we ought to pardon ourselves, if we neither seek any influence + for good, nor submit to it unsought, in scenes to which thus all the men + whose writings we receive as inspired, together with their Lord, retired + whenever they had any task or trial laid upon them needing more than their + usual strength of spirit. Nor perhaps should we have unprofitably entered + into the mind of the earlier ages, if among our other thoughts, as we + watch the chains of the snowy mountains rise on the horizon, we should + sometimes admit the memory of the hour in which their Creator, among their + solitudes, entered on His travail for the salvation of our race; and + indulge the dream, that as the flaming and trembling mountains of the + earth seem to be the monuments of the manifesting of His terror on Sinai, + these pure and white hills, near to the heaven, and sources of all good to + the earth, are the appointed memorials of that light of His mercy, that + fell, snowlike, on the Mount of Transfiguration. + </p> + <h3> + FINIS. + </h3> + <p> + Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. + </p> + <p> + Edinburgh & London + </p> + <div style="height: 6em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Frondes Agrestes, by John Ruskin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRONDES AGRESTES *** + +***** This file should be named 31045-h.htm or 31045-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/0/4/31045/ + +Produced by Paul Murray, Chandra Friend and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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