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diff --git a/31623-8.txt b/31623-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c4695b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/31623-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14836 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Modern Painters, Volume IV (of V), by John Ruskin + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. 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: Modern Painters, Volume IV (of V) + +Author: John Ruskin + +Release Date: March 13, 2010 [EBook #31623] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MODERN PAINTERS, VOLUME IV (OF V) *** + + + + +Produced by Marius Masi, Juliet Sutherland and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected: they + are listed at the end of the text. + + Some section headings were originally constructed as side-notes. They + were placed here at the head of their respective paragraphs, and moved + to paragraph's start where given at paragraph's middle. See HTML + version for the original headers placement. + + Bold passages are enclosed by the '+' sign. + + + + +[Illustration: THE KAPELLBRÜCKE, LUCERNE + FROM A DRAWING BY + RUSKIN] + + + Library Edition + + THE COMPLETE WORKS + OF + + JOHN RUSKIN + + MODERN PAINTERS + + + VOLUME IV--OF MOUNTAIN BEAUTY + + /OF LEAF BEAUTY + VOLUME V < OF CLOUD BEAUTY + \OF IDEAS OF RELATION + + + NATIONAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION + NEW YORK CHICAGO + + + MODERN PAINTERS. + + VOLUME IV., + CONTAINING + PART V., + + OF MOUNTAIN BEAUTY. + + +[Illustration: The Gates of the Hills.] + + + + +PREFACE. + + +I was in hopes that this volume might have gone its way without preface; +but as I look over the sheets, I find in them various fallings short of +old purposes which require a word of explanation. + +Of which shortcomings, the chief is the want of reference to the +landscape of the Poussins and Salvator; my original intention having +been to give various examples of their mountain-drawing, that it might +be compared with Turner's. But the ten years intervening between the +commencement of this work and its continuation have taught me, among +other things, that Life is shorter and less availably divisible than I +had supposed: and I think now that its hours may be better employed than +in making facsimiles of bad work. It would have required the greatest +care, and prolonged labor, to give uncaricatured representations of +Salvator's painting, or of any other work depending on the free dashes +of the brush, so as neither to mend nor mar it. Perhaps in the next +volume I may give one or two examples associated with vegetation; but in +general, I shall be content with directing the reader's attention to the +facts in nature, and in Turner; leaving him to carry out for himself +whatever comparisons he may judge expedient. + +I am afraid, also, that disappointment may be felt at not finding plates +of more complete subject illustrating these chapters on mountain beauty. +But the analysis into which I had to enter required the dissection of +drawings, rather than their complete presentation; while, also, on the +scale of any readable page, no effective presentation of large drawings +could be given. Even my vignette, the frontispiece to the third volume, +is partly spoiled by having too little white paper about it; and the +fiftieth plate, from Turner's Goldau, necessarily omits, owing to its +reduction, half the refinements of the foreground. It is quite waste of +time and cost to reduce Turner's drawings at all; and I therefore +consider these volumes only as _Guides_ to them, hoping hereafter to +illustrate some of the best on their own scale. + +Several of the plates appear, in their present position, nearly +unnecessary; +14+ and +15+, for instance, in Vol. III. These are +illustrations of the chapters on the Firmament in the fifth volume; but +I should have had the plates disproportionately crowded at last, if I +had put all that it needed in that volume; and as these two bear +somewhat on various matters spoken of in the third, I placed them where +they are first alluded to. The frontispiece has chief reference to the +same chapters; but seemed, in its three divisions, properly introductory +to our whole subject. It is a simple sketch from nature, taken at sunset +from the hills near Como, some two miles up the eastern side of the lake +and about a thousand feet above it, looking towards Lugano. The sky is a +little too heavy for the advantage of the landscape below; but I am not +answerable for the sky. It was _there_.[A] + +In the multitudinous letterings and references of this volume there may +possibly be one or two awkward errata; but not so many as to make it +necessary to delay the volume while I look it over again in search of +them. The reader will perhaps be kind enough to note at once that in +page 182, at the first line of the text, the words "general truth" refer +to the angle-measurements, not to the diagrams; which latter are given +merely for reference, and might cause some embarrassment if the +statement of measured accuracy were supposed to refer to them. + +One or two graver misapprehensions I had it in my mind to warn the +reader against; but on the whole, as I have honestly tried to make the +book intelligible, I believe it will be found intelligible by any one +who thinks it worth a careful reading; and every day convinces me more +and more that no warnings can preserve from misunderstanding those who +have no desire to understand. + +Denmark Hill, March, 1856. + + +FOOTNOTES + + [A] Persons unacquainted with hill scenery are apt to forget that + the sky of the mountains is often close to the spectator. A black + thundercloud may literally be dashing itself in his face, while the + blue hills seen through its rents maybe thirty miles away. Generally + speaking, we do not enough understand the nearness of many clouds, + even in level countries, as compared with the land horizon. See also + the close of § 12 in Chap. III of this volume. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS. + + +PART V. + +OF MOUNTAIN BEAUTY. + + + PAGE + + CHAPTER I.--Of the Turnerian Picturesque. 1 + " II.--Of Turnerian Topography. 16 + " III.--Of Turnerian Light. 34 + " IV.--Of Turnerian Mystery: First, as Essential. 56 + " V.--Of Turnerian Mystery: Secondly, Wilful. 68 + " VI.--The Firmament. 82 + " VII.--The Dry Land. 89 + " VIII.--Of the Materials of Mountains: First, Compact + Crystallines. 99 + " IX.--Of the Materials of Mountains: Secondly, Slaty + Crystallines. 113 + " X.--Of the Materials of Mountains: Thirdly, Slaty + Coherents. 122 + " XI.--Of the Materials of Mountains: Fourthly, Compact + Coherents. 127 + " XII.--Of the Sculpture of Mountains: First, the Lateral + Ranges. 137 + " XIII.--Of the Sculpture of Mountains: Secondly, the Central + Peaks. 157 + " XIV.--Resulting Forms: First, Aiguilles. 173 + " XV.--Resulting Forms: Second, Crests. 195 + " XVI.--Resulting Forms: Third, Precipices. 228 + " XVII.--Resulting Forms: Fourthly, Banks. 262 + " XVIII.--Resulting Forms: Fifthly, Stones. 301 + " XIX.--The Mountain Gloom. 317 + " XX.--The Mountain Glory. 344 + + + APPENDIX. + + + I. Modern Grotesque. 385 + II. Rock Cleavage. 391 + III. Logical Education. 399 + + + + + LIST OF PLATES TO VOL. IV. + + + Drawn by Engraved by + + Frontispiece. + The Gates of the Hills _J. M. W. Turner_ J. COUSEN + + Plate Facing page + + 18. The Transition from _Ghirlandajo and + Ghirlandajo to Claude Claude_ J. H. LE KEUX 1 + 19. The Picturesque of _Stanfield and + Windmills Turner_ J. H. LE KEUX 7 + 20. The Pass of Faïdo. + 1. Simple Topography _The Author_ THE AUTHOR 22 + 21. The Pass of Faïdo + 2. Turnerian Topography _J. M. W. Turner_ THE AUTHOR 24 + 22. Turner's Earliest Nottingham _J. M. W. Turner_ T. BOYS 29 + 23. Turner's Latest Nottingham _J. M. W. Turner_ T. BOYS 30 + 24. The Towers of Fribourg _The Author_ J. C. ARMYTAGE 32 + 25. Things in General _The Author_ J. H. LE KEUX 32 + 26. The Law of Evanescence _The Author_ R. P. CUFF 71 + 27. The Aspen under Idealization _Turner, etc._ J. COUSEN 76 + 28. The Aspen Unidealized _The Author_ J. C. ARMYTAGE 77 + 29. Aiguille Structure _The Author_ J. C. ARMYTAGE 160 + 30. The Ideal of Aiguilles _The Author, etc._ R. P. CUFF 177 + 31. The Aiguille Blaitière _The Author_ J. C. ARMYTAGE 185 + 32. Aiguille-drawing _Turner, etc._ J. H. LE KEUX 191 + 33. Contours of Aiguille Bouchard _The Author_ R. P. CUFF 204 + 34. Cleavage of Aiguille Bouchard _The Author_ THE AUTHOR 211 + 35. Crests of La Côte and Taconay _The Author_ THE AUTHOR 212 + 36. Crest of La Côte _The Author_ T. LUPTON 213 + 37. Crests of the Slaty + Crystallines _J. M. W. Turner_ THE AUTHOR 222 + 38. The Cervin, from the East + and North-east _The Author_ J. C. ARMYTAGE 233 + 39. The Cervin from the + North-west _The Author_ J. C. ARMYTAGE 238 + 40. The Mountains of Villeneuve _The Author_ J. H. LE KEUX 246 + 12. A. The Shores of Wharfe _J. M. W. Turner_ THOS. LUPTON 251 + 41. The Rocks of Arona _The Author_ J. H. LE KEUX 255 + 42. Leaf Curvature Magnolia and + Laburnum _The Author_ R. P. CUFF 269 + 43. Leaf Curvature Dead Laurel _The Author_ R. P. CUFF 269 + 44. Leaf Curvature Young Ivy _The Author_ R. P. CUFF 269 + 45. Débris Curvature _The Author_ R. P. CUFF 285 + 46. The Buttresses of an Alp _The Author_ J. H. LE KEUX 286 + 47. The Quarry of Carrara _The Author_ J. H. LE KEUX 299 + 48. Bank of Slaty Crystallines _Daguerreotype_ J. C. ARMYTAGE 304 + 49. Truth and Untruth of Stones _Turner and Claude_ THOS. LUPTON 308 + 50. Goldau _J. M. W. Turner_ J. COUSEN 312 + +[Illustration: 18. The Transition from Ghirlandajo to Claude.] + + + + +PART V. + +OF MOUNTAIN BEAUTY. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +OF THE TURNERIAN PICTURESQUE. + + +§ 1. THE work which we proposed to ourselves, towards the close of the +last volume, as first to be undertaken in this, was the examination of +those peculiarities of system in which Turner either stood alone, even +in the modern school, or was a distinguished representative of modern, +as opposed to ancient practice. + +And the most interesting of these subjects of inquiry, with which, +therefore, it may be best to begin, is the precise form under which he +has admitted into his work the modern feeling of the picturesque, which, +so far as it consists in a delight in ruin, is perhaps the most +suspicious and questionable of all the characters distinctively +belonging to our temper, and art. + +It is especially so, because it never appears, even in the slightest +measure, until the days of the decline of art in the seventeenth +century. The love of neatness and precision, as opposed to all disorder, +maintains itself down to Raphael's childhood without the slightest +interference of any other feeling; and it is not until Claude's time, +and owing in great part to his influence, that the new feeling +distinctly establishes itself. + +Plate +18+ shows the kind of modification which Claude used to make on +the towers and backgrounds of Ghirlandajo; the old Florentine giving his +idea of Pisa, with its leaning tower, with the utmost neatness and +precision, and handsome youth riding over neat bridges on beautiful +horses; Claude reducing the delicate towers and walls to unintelligible +ruin, the well built bridge to a rugged stone one, the handsome rider to +a weary traveller, and the perfectly drawn leafage to confusion of +copse-wood or forest.[1] + +How far he was right in doing this; or how far the moderns are right in +carrying the principle to greater excess, and seeking always for +poverty-stricken rusticity or pensive ruin, we must now endeavor to +ascertain. + +The essence of picturesque character has been already defined[2] to be a +sublimity not inherent in the nature of the thing, but caused by +something external to it; as the ruggedness of a cottage roof possesses +something of a mountain aspect, not belonging to the cottage as such. +And this sublimity may be either in mere external ruggedness, and other +visible character, or it may lie deeper, in an expression of sorrow and +old age, attributes which are both sublime; not a dominant expression, +but one mingled with such familiar and common characters as prevent the +object from becoming perfectly pathetic in its sorrow, or perfectly +venerable in its age. + +§ 2. For instance, 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 labor, and this for +patience and praise. + +§ 3. 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 street, our new inn, our +green shaven lawn, and our piece of ruin emergent from it,--a mere +_specimen_ of the middle ages put on a bit of velvet carpet to be shown, +which, but for its size, might as well be on the 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. + +§ 4. And I am sorry to say that the opposition is most distinct in that +noble carelessness as to what people think of it. Once, on coming from +the Continent, almost the first inscription I saw in my native English +was this: + + +"TO LET, A GENTEEL HOUSE, UP THIS ROAD."+ + +And it struck me forcibly, for I had not come across the idea of +gentility, among the upper limestones of the Alps, for seven months; nor +do I think that the Continental nations in general _have_ the idea. +They would have advertised a "pretty" house or a "large" one, or a +"convenient" one; but they could not, by any use of the terms afforded +by their several languages, have got at the English "genteel." Consider, +a little, all the meanness that there is in that epithet, and then see, +when next you cross the Channel, how scornful of it that Calais spire +will look. + +§ 5. Of which spire the largeness and age are also opposed exactly to +the chief appearances of modern England, as one feels them on first +returning to it; that marvellous smallness both of houses and scenery, +so that a ploughman in the valley has his head on a level with the tops +of all the hills in the neighborhood; and a house is organized into +complete establishment,--parlor, kitchen, and all, with a knocker to its +door, and a garret window to its roof, and a bow to its second story,[3] +on a scale of twelve feet wide by fifteen high, so that three such at +least would go into the granary of an ordinary Swiss cottage: and also +our serenity of perfection, our peace of conceit, everything being done +that vulgar minds can conceive as wanting to be done; the spirit of +well-principled housemaids everywhere, exerting itself for perpetual +propriety and renovation, so that nothing is old, but only +"old-fashioned," and contemporary, as it were, in date and +impressiveness only with last year's bonnets. Abroad, a building of the +eighth or tenth century stands ruinous in the open street; the children +play round it, the peasants heap their corn in it, the buildings of +yesterday nestle about it, and fit their new stones into its rents, and +tremble in sympathy as it trembles. No one wonders at it, or thinks of +it as separate, and of another time; we feel the ancient world to be a +real thing, and one with the new: antiquity is no dream; it is rather +the children playing about the old stones that are the dream. But all is +continuous; and the words, "from generation to generation," +understandable there. Whereas here we have a living present, consisting +merely of what is "fashionable" and "old-fashioned;" and a past, of +which there are no vestiges; a past which peasant or citizen can no more +conceive; all equally far away; Queen Elizabeth as old as Queen +Boadicea, and both incredible. At Verona we look out of Can Grande's +window to his tomb; and if he does not stand beside us, we feel only +that he is in the grave instead of the chamber,--not that he is _old_, +but that he might have been beside us last night. But in England the +dead are dead to purpose. One cannot believe they ever were alive, or +anything else than what they are now--names in school-books. + +§ 6. Then that spirit of trimness. The smooth paving-stones; the +scraped, hard, even, rutless roads; the neat gates and plates, and +essence of border and order, and spikiness and spruceness. Abroad, a +country-house has some confession of human weakness and human fates +about it. There are the old grand gates still, which the mob pressed +sore against at the Revolution, and the strained hinges have never gone +so well since; and the broken greyhound on the pillar--still +broken--better so; but the long avenue is gracefully pale with fresh +green, and the courtyard bright with orange-trees; the garden is a +little run to waste--since Mademoiselle was married nobody cares much +about it; and one range of apartments is shut up--nobody goes into them +since Madame died. But with us, let who will be married or die, we +neglect nothing. All is polished and precise again next morning; and +whether people are happy or miserable, poor or prosperous, still we +sweep the stairs of a Saturday.[4] + +§ 7. Now, I have insisted long on this English character, because I want +the reader to understand thoroughly the opposite element of the noble +picturesque; its expression, namely, of _suffering_, of _poverty_, or +_decay_, nobly endured by unpretending strength of heart. Nor only +unpretending, but unconscious. If there be visible pensiveness in the +building, as in a ruined abbey, it becomes, or claims to become, +beautiful; but the picturesqueness is in the unconscious suffering,--the +look that an old laborer has, not knowing that there is anything +pathetic in his grey hair, and withered arms, and sunburnt breast; and +thus there are the two extremes, the consciousness of pathos in the +confessed ruin, which may or may not be beautiful, according to the kind +of it; and the entire denial of all human calamity and care, in the +swept proprieties and neatness of English modernism: and, between these, +there is the unconscious confession of the facts of distress and decay, +in by-words; the world's hard work being gone through all the while, and +no pity asked for, nor contempt feared. And this is the expression of +that Calais spire, and of all picturesque things, in so far as they have +mental or human expression at all. + +§ 8. I say, in so far as they have mental expression, because their +merely outward delightfulness--that which makes them pleasant in +painting, or, in the literal sense, picturesque--is their actual variety +of color and form. A broken stone has necessarily more various forms in +it than a whole one; a bent roof has more various curves in it than a +straight one; every excrescence or cleft involves some additional +complexity of light and shade, and every stain of moss on eaves or wall +adds to the delightfulness of color. Hence, in a completely picturesque +object, as an old cottage or mill, there are introduced, by various +circumstances not essential to it, but, on the whole, generally somewhat +detrimental to it as cottage or mill, such elements of sublimity--complex +light and shade, varied color, undulatory form, and so on--as can +generally be found only in noble natural objects, woods, rocks, or +mountains. This sublimity, belonging in a parasitical manner to the +building, renders it, in the usual sense of the word, "picturesque." + +[Illustration: 19. The Picturesque of Windmills. + 1. Pure Modern. 2. Turnerian.] + +§ 9. Now, if this outward sublimity be sought for by the painter, +without any regard for the real nature of the thing, and without any +comprehension of the pathos of character hidden beneath, it forms the +low school of the surface-picturesque; that which fills ordinary +drawing-books and scrap-books, and employs, perhaps, the most popular +living landscape painters of France, England, and Germany. But if these +same outward characters be sought for in subordination to the inner +character of the object, every source of pleasurableness being refused +which is incompatible with that, while perfect sympathy is felt at the +same time with the object as to all that it tells of itself in those +sorrowful by-words, we have the school of true or noble picturesque; +still distinguished from the school of pure beauty and sublimity, +because, in its subjects, the pathos and sublimity are all _by the way_, +as in Calais old spire,--not inherent, as in a lovely tree or mountain; +while it is distinguished still more from the schools of the lower +picturesque by its tender sympathy, and its refusal of all sources of +pleasure inconsistent with the perfect nature of the thing to be +studied. + +§ 10. The reader will only be convinced of the broad scope of this law +by careful thought, and comparison of picture with picture; but a single +example will make the principle of it clear to him. + +On the whole, the first master of the lower picturesque, among our +living artists, is Clarkson Stanfield; his range of art being, indeed, +limited by his pursuit of this character. I take, therefore, a windmill, +forming the principal subject in his drawing of Brittany, near Dol +(engraved in the Coast Scenery), Fig. 1, Plate +19+, and beside it I +place a windmill, which forms also the principal subject in Turner's +study of the Lock, in the Liber Studiorum. At first sight I dare say the +reader may like Stanfield's best; and there is, indeed, a great deal +more in it to attract liking. Its roof is nearly as interesting in its +ruggedness as a piece of the stony peak of a mountain, with a châlet +built on its side; and it is exquisitely varied in swell and curve. +Turner's roof, on the contrary, is a plain, ugly gable,--a windmill +roof, and nothing more. Stanfield's sails are twisted into most +effective wrecks, as beautiful as pine bridges over Alpine streams; only +they do not look as if they had ever been serviceable windmill sails; +they are bent about in cross and awkward ways, as if they were warped or +cramped; and their timbers look heavier than necessary. Turner's sails +have no beauty about them like that of Alpine bridges; but they have the +exact switchy sway of the sail that is always straining against the +wind; and the timbers form clearly the lightest possible framework for +the canvas,--thus showing the essence of windmill sail. Then the clay +wall of Stanfield's mill is as beautiful as a piece of chalk cliff, all +worn into furrows by the rain, coated with mosses, and rooted to the +ground by a heap of crumbled stone, embroidered with grass and creeping +plants. But this is not a serviceable state for a windmill to be in. The +essence of a windmill, as distinguished from all other mills, is, that +it should turn round, and be a spinning thing, ready always to face the +wind; as light, therefore, as possible, and as vibratory; so that it is +in no wise good for it to approximate itself to the nature of chalk +cliffs. + +Now observe how completely Turner has chosen his mill so as to mark this +great fact of windmill nature; how high he has set it; how slenderly he +has supported it; how he has built it all of wood; how he has bent the +lower planks so as to give the idea of the building lapping over the +pivot on which it rests inside; and how, finally, he has insisted on the +great leverage of the beam behind it, while Stanfield's lever looks more +like a prop than a thing to turn the roof with. And he has done all this +fearlessly, though none of these elements of form are pleasant ones in +themselves, but tend, on the whole, to give a somewhat mean and +spider-like look to the principal feature in his picture; and then, +finally, because he could not get the windmill dissected, and show us +the real heart and centre of the whole, behold, he has put a pair of old +millstones, _lying outside_, at the bottom of it. These--the first cause +and motive of all the fabric--laid at its foundation; and beside them +the cart which is to fulfil the end of the fabric's being, and take home +the sacks of flour. + +§ 11. So far of what each painter chooses to draw. But do not fail also +to consider the spirit in which it is drawn. Observe, that though all +this ruin has befallen Stanfield's mill, Stanfield is not in the least +sorry for it. On the contrary, he is delighted, and evidently thinks it +the most fortunate thing possible. The owner is ruined, doubtless, or +dead; but his mill forms an admirable object in our view of Brittany. So +far from being grieved about it, we will make it our principal +light;--if it were a fruit-tree in spring-blossom, instead of a desolate +mill, we could not make it whiter or brighter; we illume our whole +picture with it, and exult over its every rent as a special treasure and +possession. + +Not so Turner. _His_ mill is still serviceable; but, for all that, he +feels somewhat pensive about it. It is a poor property, and evidently +the owner of it has enough to do to get his own bread out from between +its stones. Moreover, there is a dim type of all melancholy human labor +in it,--catching the free winds, and setting them to turn grindstones. +It is poor work for the winds; better, indeed, than drowning sailors or +tearing down forests, but not their proper work of marshalling the +clouds, and bearing the wholesome rains to the place where they are +ordered to fall, and fanning the flowers and leaves when they are faint +with heat. Turning round a couple of stones, for the mere pulverization +of human food, is not noble work for the winds. So, also, of all low +labor to which one sets human souls. It is better than no labor; and, in +a still higher degree, better than destructive wandering of imagination; +but yet, that grinding in the darkness, for mere food's sake, must be +melancholy work enough for many a living creature. All men have felt it +so; and this grinding at the mill, whether it be breeze or soul that is +set to it, we cannot much rejoice in. Turner has no joy of his mill. It +shall be dark against the sky, yet proud, and on the hill-top; not +ashamed of its labor, and brightened from beyond, the golden clouds +stooping over it, and the calm summer sun going down behind, far away, +to his rest. + +§ 12. Now in all this observe how the higher condition of art (for I +suppose the reader will feel, with me, that Turner's _is_ the highest) +depends upon largeness of sympathy. It is mainly because the one painter +has communion of heart with his subject, and the other only casts his +eyes upon it feelinglessly, that the work of the one is greater than +that of the other. And, as we think farther over the matter, we shall +see that this is indeed the eminent cause of the difference between the +lower picturesque and the higher. For, in a certain sense, the lower +picturesque ideal is eminently a _heartless_ one: the lover of it seems +to go forth into the world in a temper as merciless as its rocks. All +other men feel some regret at the sight of disorder and ruin. He alone +delights in both; it matters not of what. Fallen cottage--desolate +villa--deserted village--blasted heath--mouldering castle--to him, so +that they do but show jagged angles of stone and timber, all are sights +equally joyful. Poverty, and darkness, and guilt, bring in their several +contributions to his treasury of pleasant thoughts. The shattered +window, opening into black and ghastly rents of wall, the foul rag or +straw wisp stopping them, the dangerous roof, decrepit floor and stair, +ragged misery or wasting age of the inhabitants,--all these conduce, +each in due measure, to the fulness of his satisfaction. What is it to +him that the old man has passed his seventy years in helpless darkness +and untaught waste of soul? The old man has at last accomplished his +destiny, and filled the corner of a sketch, where something of an +unshapely nature was wanting. What is it to him that the people fester +in that feverish misery in the low quarter of the town, by the river? +Nay, it is much to him. What else were they made for? what could they +have done better? The black timbers, and the green water, and the +soaking wrecks of boats, and the torn remnants of clothes hung out to +dry in the sun;--truly the fever-struck creatures, whose lives have been +given for the production of these materials of effect, have not died in +vain.[5] + +§ 13. Yet, for all this, I do not say the lover of the lower +picturesque is a monster in human form. He is by no means this, though +truly we might at first think so, if we came across him unawares, and +had not met with any such sort of person before. Generally speaking, he +is kind-hearted, innocent of evil, but not broad in thought; somewhat +selfish, and incapable of acute sympathy with others; gifted at the same +time with strong artistic instincts and capacities for the enjoyment of +varied form, and light, and shade, in pursuit of which enjoyment his +life is passed, as the lives of other men are, for the most part, in the +pursuit of what _they_ also like,--be it honor, or money, or indolent +pleasure,--very irrespective of the poor people living by the stagnant +canal. And, in some sort, the hunter of the picturesque is better than +many of these; inasmuch as he is simple-minded and capable of +unostentatious and economical delights, which, if not very helpful to +other people, are at all events utterly uninjurious, even to the victims +or subjects of his picturesque fancies; while to many others his work is +entertaining and useful. And, more than all this, even that delight +which he _seems_ to take in misery is not altogether unvirtuous. Through +all his enjoyment there runs a certain under current of tragical +passion,--a real vein of human sympathy;--it lies at the root of all +those strange morbid hauntings of his; a sad excitement, such as other +people feel at a tragedy, only less in degree, just enough, indeed, to +give a deeper tone to his pleasure, and to make him choose for his +subject the broken stones of a cottage wall, rather than of a roadside +bank, the picturesque beauty of form in each being supposed precisely +the same: and, together with this slight tragical feeling, there is also +a humble and romantic sympathy; a vague desire, in his own mind, to live +in cottages rather than in palaces; a joy in humble things, a +contentment and delight in makeshifts, a secret persuasion (in many +respects a true one) that there is in these ruined cottages a happiness +often quite as great as in kings' palaces, and a virtue and nearness to +God infinitely greater and holier than can commonly be found in any +other kind of place; so that the misery in which he exults is not, as he +sees it, misery, but nobleness,--"poor, and sick in body, and beloved by +the Gods."[6] And thus, being nowise sure that these things can be +mended at all, and very sure that he knows not how to mend them, and +also that the strange pleasure he feels in them _must_ have some good +reason in the nature of things, he yields to his destiny, enjoys his +dark canal without scruple, and mourns over every improvement in the +town, and every movement made by its sanitary commissioners, as a miser +would over a planned robbery of his chest; in all this being not only +innocent, but even respectable and admirable, compared with the kind of +person who has _no_ pleasure in sights of this kind, but only in fair +façades, trim gardens, and park palings, and who would thrust all +poverty and misery out of his way, collecting it into back alleys, or +sweeping it finally out of the world, so that the street might give +wider play for his chariot wheels, and the breeze less offence to his +nobility. + +§ 14. Therefore, even the love for the lower picturesque ought to be +cultivated with care, wherever it exists; not with any special view to +artistic, but to merely humane, education. It will never really or +seriously interfere with practical benevolence; on the contrary, it will +constantly lead, if associated with other benevolent principles, to a +truer sympathy with the poor, and better understanding of the right ways +of helping them; and, in the present stage of civilization, it is the +most important element of character, not directly moral, which can be +cultivated in youth; since it is mainly for the want of this feeling +that we destroy so many ancient monuments, in order to erect "handsome" +streets and shops instead, which might just as well have been erected +elsewhere, and whose effect on our minds, so far as they have any, is to +increase every disposition to frivolity, expense, and display. + +These, and such other considerations not directly connected with our +subject, I shall, perhaps, be able to press farther at the close of my +work; meantime, we turn to the immediate question, of the distinction +between the lower and higher picturesque, and the artists who pursue +them. + +§ 15. It is evident, from what has been advanced, that there is no +definite bar of separation between the two; but that the dignity of the +picturesque increases from lower to higher, in exact proportion to the +sympathy of the artist with his subject. And in like manner his own +greatness depends (other things being equal) on the extent of this +sympathy. If he rests content with narrow enjoyment of outward forms, +and light sensations of luxurious tragedy, and so goes on multiplying +his sketches of mere picturesque material, he necessarily settles down +into the ordinary "clever" artist, very good and respectable, +maintaining himself by his sketching and painting in an honorable way, +as by any other daily business, and in due time passing away from the +world without having, on the whole, done much for it. Such has been the +necessary, not very lamentable, destiny of a large number of men in +these days, whose gifts urged them to the practice of art, but who +possessing no breadth of mind, nor having met with masters capable of +concentrating what gifts they had towards nobler use, almost perforce +remained in their small picturesque circle; getting more and more +narrowed in range of sympathy as they fell more and more into the habit +of contemplating the one particular class of subjects that pleased them, +and recomposing them by rules of art. + +I need not give instances of this class, we have very few painters who +belong to any other; I only pause for a moment to _except_ from it a man +too often confounded with the draughtsmen of the lower picturesque;--a +very great man, who, though partly by chance, and partly by choice, +limited in range of subject, possessed for that subject the profoundest +and noblest sympathy--Samuel Prout. His renderings of the character of +old buildings, such as that spire of Calais, are as perfect and as +heartfelt as I can conceive possible; nor do I suppose that any one else +will ever hereafter equal them.[7] His early works show that he +possessed a grasp of mind which could have entered into almost any kind +of landscape subject; that it was only chance--I do not know if +altogether evil chance--which fettered him to stones; and that in +reality he is to be numbered among the true masters of the nobler +picturesque. + +§ 16. Of these, also, the ranks rise in worthiness, according to their +sympathy. In the noblest of them, that sympathy seems quite unlimited; +they enter with their whole heart into all nature; their love of grace +and beauty keeps them from delighting too much in shattered stones and +stunted trees, their kindness and compassion from dwelling by choice on +any kind of misery, their perfect humility from avoiding simplicity of +subject when it comes in their way, and their grasp of the highest +thoughts from seeking a lower sublimity in cottage walls and penthouse +roofs. And, whether it be home of English village thatched with straw +and walled with clay, or of Italian city vaulted with gold and roofed +with marble; whether it be stagnant stream under ragged willow, or +glancing fountain between arcades of laurel, all to them will bring +equal power of happiness, and equal field for thought. + +§ 17. Turner is the only artist who hitherto has furnished the entire +_type_ of this perfection. The attainment of it in all respects is, of +course, impossible to man; but the complete type of such a mind has once +been seen in him, and, I think, existed also in Tintoret; though, as far +as I know, Tintoret has not left any work which indicates sympathy with +the _humor_ of the world. Paul Veronese, on the other hand, had sympathy +with its humor, but not with its deepest tragedy or horror. Rubens wants +the feeling for grace and mystery. And so, as we pass through the list +of great painters, we shall find in each of them some local narrowness. +Now, I do not, of course, mean to say that Turner has accomplished all +to which his sympathy prompted him; necessarily, the very breadth of +effort involved, in some directions, manifest failure; but he has shown, +in casual incidents, and by-ways, a range of _feeling_ which no other +painter, as far as I know, can equal. He cannot, for instance, draw +children at play as well as Mulready; but just glean out of his works +the evidence of his sympathy with children;--look at the girl putting +her bonnet on the dog, in the foreground of the Richmond, Yorkshire; the +juvenile tricks and "marine dabblers" of the Liber Studiorum; the boys +scrambling after their kites in the woods of the Greta and +Buckfastleigh; and the notable and most pathetic drawing of the Kirkby +Lonsdale churchyard, with the schoolboys making a fortress of their +larger books on the tombstone, to bombard with the more projectile +volumes; and passing from these to the intense horror and pathos of the +Rizpah, consider for yourself whether there was ever any other painter +who could strike such an octave. Whether there has been or not, in other +walks of art, this power of sympathy is unquestionably in landscape +unrivalled; and it will be one of our pleasantest future tasks to +analyze in his various drawing the character it always gives; a +character, indeed, more or less marked in all good work whatever, but to +which, being preeminent in him, I shall always hereafter give the name +of the "_Turnerian Picturesque_." + + +FOOTNOTES + + [1] Ghirlandajo is seen to the greatest possible disadvantage in + this place, as I have been forced again to copy from Lasinio, who + leaves out all the light and shade, and vulgarizes every form; but + the points requiring notice here are sufficiently shown, and I will + do Ghirlandajo more justice hereafter. + + [2] Seven Lamps of Architecture, chap. vi. § 12. + + [3] The principal street of Canterbury has some curious examples of + this _tininess_. + + [4] This, however, is of course true only of insignificant duties, + necessary for appearance' sake. Serious duties, necessary for + kindness' sake, must be permitted in any domestic affliction, under + pain of shocking the English public. + + [5] I extract from my private diary a passage bearing somewhat on + the matter in hand:-- + + "Amiens, 11th May, 18--. I had a happy walk here this afternoon, + down among the branching currents of the Somme; it divides into five + or six,--shallow, green, and not over-wholesome; some quite narrow + and foul, running beneath clusters of fearful houses, reeling masses + of rotten timber; and a few mere stumps of pollard willow sticking + out of the banks of soft mud, only retained in shape of bank by + being shored up with timbers; and boats like paper boats, nearly as + thin at least, for the costermongers to paddle about in among the + weeds, the water soaking through the lath bottoms, and floating the + dead leaves from the vegetable-baskets with which they were loaded. + Miserable little back yards, opening to the water, with steep stone + steps down to it, and little platforms for the ducks; and separate + duck staircases, composed of a sloping board with cross bits of wood + leading to the ducks' doors, and sometimes a flower-pot or two on + them, or even a flower,--one group, of wallflowers and geraniums, + curiously vivid, being seen against the darkness of a dyer's back + yard, who had been dyeing black all day, and all was black in his + yard but the flowers, and they fiery and pure; the water by no means + so, but still working its way steadily over the weeds, until it + narrowed into a current strong enough to turn two or three + mill-wheels, one working against the side of an old flamboyant + Gothic church, whose richly traceried buttresses sloped into the + filthy stream;--all exquisitely picturesque, and no less miserable. + We delight in seeing the figures in these boats pushing them about + the bits of blue water, in Prout's drawings; but as I looked to-day + at the unhealthy face and melancholy mien of the man in the boat + pushing his load of peats along the ditch, and of the people, men as + well as women, who sat spinning gloomily at the cottage doors, I + could not help feeling how many suffering persons must pay for my + picturesque subject and happy walk." + + [6] Epitaph on Epictetus. + + [7] I believe when a thing is once _well done_ in this world, it + never can be done _over again_. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +OF TURNERIAN TOPOGRAPHY. + +§ 1. We saw, in the course of the last chapter, with what kind of +feeling an artist ought to regard the character of every object he +undertakes to paint. The next question is, what objects he _ought_ to +undertake to paint; how far he should be influenced by his feelings in +the choice of subjects; and how far he should permit himself to alter, +or, in the usual art language, improve, nature. For it has already been +stated (Vol. III. Chap. III. § 21.), that all great art must be +inventive; that is to say, its subject must be produced by the +imagination. If so, then great landscape art cannot be a mere copy of +any given scene; and we have now to inquire what else than this it may +be. + +§ 2. If the reader will glance over that twenty-first, and the following +three paragraphs of the same chapter, he will see that we there divided +art generally into "historical" and "poetical," or the art of relating +facts simply, and facts imaginatively. Now, with respect to landscape, +the historical art is simple topography, and the imaginative art is what +I have in the heading of the present chapter called Turnerian +topography, and must in the course of it endeavor to explain. + +Observe, however, at the outset, that, touching the duty or fitness of +altering nature at all, the quarrels which have so wofully divided the +world of art are caused only by want of understanding this simplest of +all canons,--"It is always wrong to draw what you don't see." This law +is inviolable. But then, some people see only things that exist, and +others see things that do not exist, or do not exist apparently. And if +they really _see_ these non-apparent things, they are quite right to +draw them; the only harm is when people try to draw non-apparent things, +who _don't_ see them, but think they can calculate or compose into +existence what is to them for evermore invisible. If some people really +see angels where others see only empty space, let them paint the angels; +only let not anybody else think _they_ can paint an angel, too, on any +calculated principles of the angelic. + +§ 3. If, therefore, when we go to a place, we see nothing else than is +there, we are to paint nothing else, and to remain pure topographical or +historical landscape painters. If, going to the place, we see something +quite different from what is there, then we are to paint that--nay, we +_must_ paint that, whether we will or not; it being, for us, the only +reality we can get at. But let us beware of pretending to see this +unreality if we do not. + +The simple observance of this rule would put an end to nearly all +disputes, and keep a large number of men in healthy work, who now +totally waste their lives; so that the most important question that an +artist can possibly have to determine for himself, is whether he has +invention or not. And this he can ascertain with ease. If visions of +unreal things present themselves to him with or without his own will, +praying to be painted, quite ungovernable in their coming or +going,--neither to be summoned if they do not choose to come, nor +banished if they do,--he has invention. If, on the contrary, he only +sees the commonly visible facts; and, should he not like them, and want +to alter them, finds that he must think of a _rule_ whereby to do so, he +has no invention. All the rules in the world will do him no good; and if +he tries to draw anything else than those materially visible facts, he +will pass his whole life in uselessness, and produce nothing but +scientific absurdities. + +§ 4. Let him take his part at once, boldly, and be content. Pure history +and pure topography are most precious things; in many cases more useful +to the human race than high imaginative work; and assuredly it is +intended that a large majority of all who are employed in art should +never aim at anything higher. It is _only_ vanity, never love, nor any +other noble feeling, which prompts men to desert their allegiance to the +simple truth, in vain pursuit of the imaginative truth which has been +appointed to be for evermore sealed to them. + +Nor let it be supposed that artists who possess minor degrees of +imaginative gift need be embarrassed by the doubtful sense of their own +powers. In general, when the imagination is at all noble, it is +irresistible, and therefore those who can at all resist it _ought_ to +resist it. Be a plain topographer if you possibly can; if Nature meant +you to be anything else, she will force you to it; but never try to be a +prophet; go on quietly with your hard camp-work, and the spirit will +come to you in the camp, as it did to Eldad and Medad, if you are +appointed to have it; but try above all things to be quickly perceptive +of the noble spirit in others, and to discern in an instant between its +true utterance and the diseased mimicries of it. In a general way, +remember it is a far better thing to find out other great men, than to +become one yourself: for you can but become _one_ at best, but you may +bring others to light in numbers. + +§ 5. We have, therefore, to inquire what kind of changes these are, +which must be wrought by the imaginative painter on landscape, and by +whom they have been thus nobly wrought. First, for the better comfort of +the non-imaginative painter, be it observed, that it is not possible to +find a landscape, which, if painted precisely as it is, will not make an +impressive picture. No one knows, till he has tried, what strange beauty +and subtle composition is prepared to his hand by Nature, wherever she +is left to herself; and what deep feeling may be found in many of the +most homely scenes, even where man has interfered with those wild ways +of hers. But, beyond this, let him note that though historical +topography forbids _alteration_, it neither forbids sentiment nor +choice. So far from doing this, the proper choice of subject[8] is an +absolute duty to the topographical painter: he should first take care +that it is a subject intensely pleasing to himself, else he will never +paint it well; and then also, that it shall be one in some sort +pleasurable to the general public, else it is not worth painting at all; +and lastly, take care that it be instructive, as well as pleasurable to +the public, else it is not worth painting with care. I should +particularly insist at present on this careful choice of subject, +because the Pre-Raphaelites, taken as a body, have been culpably +negligent in this respect, not in humble honor of Nature, but in morbid +indulgence of their own impressions. They happen to find their fancies +caught by a bit of an oak hedge, or the weeds at the sides of a +duck-pond, because, perhaps, they remind them of a stanza of Tennyson; +and forthwith they sit down to sacrifice the most consummate skill, two +or three months of the best summer time available for out-door work +(equivalent to some seventieth or sixtieth of all their lives), and +nearly all their credit with the public, to this duck-pond delineation. +Now it is indeed quite right that they should see much to be loved in +the hedge, nor less in the ditch; but it is utterly and inexcusably +wrong that they should neglect the nobler scenery which is full of +majestic interest, or enchanted by historical association; so that, as +things go at present, we have all the commonalty that may be seen +whenever we choose, painted properly; but all of lovely and wonderful, +which we cannot see but at rare intervals, painted vilely: the castles +of the Rhine and Rhone made vignettes of for the annuals; and the +nettles and mushrooms, which were prepared by Nature eminently for +nettle porridge and fish sauce, immortalized by art as reverently as if +we were Egyptians, and they deities. + +§ 6. Generally speaking, therefore, the duty of every painter at +present, who has not much invention, is to take subjects of which the +portraiture will be precious in after times; views of our abbeys and +cathedrals; distant views of cities, if possible chosen from some spot +in itself notable by association; perfect studies of the battle-fields +of Europe, of all houses of celebrated men, and places they loved, and, +of course, of the most lovely natural scenery. And, in doing all this, +it should be understood, primarily, whether the picture is topographical +or not: if topographical, then not a line is to be altered, not a stick +nor stone removed, not a color deepened, not a form improved; the +picture is to be, as far as possible, the reflection of the place in a +mirror; and the artist to consider himself only as a sensitive and +skilful reflector, taking care that no false impression is conveyed by +any error on his part which he might have avoided; so that it may be +for ever afterwards in the power of all men to lean on his work with +absolute trust, and to say: "So it was:--on such a day of June or July +of such a year, such a place looked like this; these weeds were growing +there, so tall and no taller; those stones were lying there, so many and +no more; that tower so rose against the sky, and that shadow so slept +upon the street." + +§ 7. Nor let it be supposed that the doing of this would ever become +mechanical, or be found too easy, or exclude sentiment. As for its being +easy, those only think so who never tried it; composition being, in +fact, infinitely easier to a man who can compose, than imitation of this +high kind to even the most able imitator; nor would it exclude +sentiment, for, however sincerely we may try to paint all we see, this +_cannot_, as often aforesaid, be ever done: all that is possible is a +certain selection, and more or less wilful assertion, of one fact in +preference to another; which selection ought always to be made under the +influence of sentiment. Nor will such topography involve an entire +submission to ugly accidents interfering with the impressiveness of the +scene. I hope, as art is better understood, that our painters will get +into the habit of accompanying all their works with a written statement +of their own reasons for painting them, and the circumstances under +which they were done; and, if in this written document they state the +omissions they have made, they may make as many as they think proper. +For instance, it is not possible now to obtain a view of the head of the +Lake of Geneva without including the "Hôtel Biron"--an establishment +looking like a large cotton factory--just above the Castle of Chillon. +This building ought always to be omitted, and the reason for the +omission stated. So the beauty of the whole town of Lucerne, as seen +from the lake, is destroyed by the large new hotel for the English, +which ought, in like manner, to be ignored, and the houses behind it +drawn as if it were transparent. + +§ 8. But if a painter has inventive power he is to treat his subject in +a totally different way; giving not the actual facts of it, but the +impression it made on his mind. + +And now, once for all, let it be clearly understood that an "impression +on the mind" does not mean a piece of manufacture. The way in which most +artists proceed to "invent," as they call it, a picture, is this: they +choose their subject, for the most part, well, with a sufficient +quantity of towers, mountains, ruined cottages, and other materials, to +be generally interesting; then they fix on some object for a principal +light; behind this they put a dark cloud, or, in front of it, a dark +piece of foreground; then they repeat this light somewhere else in a +less degree, and connect the two lights together by some intermediate +ones. If they find any part of the foreground uninteresting they put a +group of figures into it; if any part of the distance, they put +something there from some other sketch; and proceed to inferior detail +in the same manner, taking care always to put white stones near black +ones, and purple colors near yellow ones, and angular forms near round +ones;--all being as simply a matter of recipe and practice as cookery; +like that, not by any means a thing easily done well, but still having +no reference whatever to "impressions on the mind." + +§ 9. But the artist who has real invention sets to work in a totally +different way. First, he receives a true impression from the place +itself, and takes care to keep hold of that as his chief good; indeed, +he needs no care in the matter, for the distinction of his mind from +that of others consists in his instantly receiving such sensations +strongly, and being unable to lose them; and then he sets himself as far +as possible to reproduce that impression on the mind of the spectator of +his picture. + +Now, observe, this impression on the mind never results from the mere +piece of scenery which can be included within the limits of the picture. +It depends on the temper into which the mind has been brought, both by +all the landscape round, and by what has been seen previously in the +course of the day; so that no particular spot upon which the painter's +glance may at any moment fall, is then to him what, if seen by itself, +it will be to the spectator far away; nor is it what it would be, even +to that spectator, if he had come to the reality through the steps which +Nature has appointed to be the preparation for it, instead of seeing it +isolated on an exhibition wall. For instance, on the descent of the St. +Gothard, towards Italy, just after passing through the narrow gorge +above Faïdo, the road emerges into a little breadth of valley, which is +entirely filled by fallen stones and débris, partly disgorged by the +Ticino as it leaps out of the narrower chasm, and partly brought down +by winter avalanches from a loose and decomposing mass of mountain on +the left. Beyond this first promontory is seen a considerably higher +range, but not an imposing one, which rises above the village of Faïdo. +The etching, Plate 20, is a topographical outline of the scene, with the +actual blocks of rock which happened to be lying in the bed of the +Ticino at the spot from which I chose to draw it. The masses of loose +débris (which, for any permanent purpose, I had no need to draw, as +their arrangement changes at every flood) I have not drawn, but only +those features of the landscape which happen to be of some continual +importance. Of which note, first, that the little three-windowed +building on the left is the remnant of a gallery built to protect the +road, which once went on that side, from the avalanches and stones that +come down the "couloir"[9] in the rock above. It is only a ruin, the +greater part having been by said avalanches swept away, and the old +road, of which a remnant is also seen on the extreme left, abandoned, +and carried now along the hillside on the right, partly sustained on +rough stone arches, and winding down, as seen in the sketch, to a weak +wooden bridge, which enables it to recover its old track past the +gallery. It seems formerly (but since the destruction of the gallery) to +have gone about a mile farther down the river on the right bank, and +then to have been carried across by a longer wooden bridge, of which +only the two abutments are seen in the sketch, the rest having been +swept away by the Ticino, and the new bridge erected near the spectator. + +§ 10. There is nothing in this scene, taken by itself, particularly +interesting or impressive. The mountains are not elevated, nor +particularly fine in form, and the heaps of stones which encumber the +Ticino present nothing notable to the ordinary eye. But, in reality, the +place is approached through one of the narrowest and most sublime +ravines in the Alps, and after the traveller during the early part of +the day has been familiarized with the aspect of the highest peaks of +the Mont St. Gothard. Hence it speaks quite another language to him +from that in which it would address itself to an unprepared +spectator: the confused stones, which by themselves would be almost +without any claim upon his thoughts, become exponents of the fury of the +river by which he has journeyed all day long; the defile beyond, not in +itself narrow or terrible, is regarded nevertheless with awe, because it +is imagined to resemble the gorge that has just been traversed above; +and, although no very elevated mountains immediately overhang it, the +scene is felt to belong to, and arise in its essential characters out +of, the strength of those mightier mountains in the unseen north. + +[Illustration: 20. Pass of Faïdo. (1st. Simple Topography.)] + +§ 11. Any topographical delineation of the facts, therefore, must be +wholly incapable of arousing in the mind of the beholder those +sensations which would be caused by the facts themselves, seen in their +natural relations to others. And the aim of the great inventive +landscape painter must be to give the far higher and deeper truth of +mental vision, rather than that of the physical facts, and to reach a +representation which, though it may be totally useless to engineers or +geographers, and, when tried by rule and measure, totally unlike the +place, shall yet be capable of producing on the far-away beholder's mind +precisely the impression which the reality would have produced, and +putting his heart into the same state in which it would have been, had +he verily descended into the valley from the gorges of Airolo. + +§ 12. Now observe; if in his attempt to do this the artist does not +understand the sacredness of the truth of _Impression_, and supposes +that, once quitting hold of his first thought, he may by Philosophy +compose something prettier than he saw, and mightier than he felt, it is +all over with him. Every such attempt at composition will be utterly +abortive, and end in something that is neither true nor fanciful; +something geographically useless, and intellectually absurd. + +But if, holding fast his first thought, he finds other ideas insensibly +gathering to it, and, whether he will or not, modifying it into +something which is not so much the image of the place itself, as the +spirit of the place, let him yield to such fancies, and follow them +wherever they lead. For, though error on this side is very rare among us +in these days, it _is_ possible to check these finer thoughts by +mathematical accuracies, so as materially to impair the imaginative +faculty. I shall be able to explain this better after we have traced the +actual operation of Turner's mind on the scene under discussion. + +§ 13. Turner was always from his youth fond of stones (we shall see +presently why). Whether large or small, loose or embedded, hewn into +cubes or worn into boulders, he loved them as much as William Hunt loves +pineapples and plums. So that this great litter of fallen stones, which +to any one else would have been simply disagreeable, was to Turner much +the same as if the whole valley had been filled with plums and +pineapples, and delighted him exceedingly, much more than even the gorge +of Dazio Grande just above. But that gorge had its effect upon him also, +and was still not well out of his head when the diligence stopped at the +bottom of the hill, just at that turn of the road on the right of the +bridge; which favorable opportunity Turner seized to make what he called +a "memorandum" of the place, composed of a few pencil scratches on a bit +of thin paper, that would roll up with others of the sort and go into +his pocket afterwards. These pencil scratches he put a few blots of +color upon (I suppose at Bellinzona the same evening, certainly _not_ +upon the spot), and showed me this blotted sketch when he came home. I +asked him to make me a drawing of it, which he did, and casually told me +afterwards (a rare thing for him to do) that he liked the drawing he had +made. Of this drawing I have etched a reduced outline in Plate +21+. + +§ 14. In which, primarily, observe that the whole place is altered in +scale, and brought up to the general majesty of the higher forms of the +Alps. It will be seen that, in my topographical sketch, there are a few +trees rooted in the rock on this side of the gallery, showing by +comparison, that it is not above four or five hundred feet high. These +trees Turner cuts away, and gives the rock a height of about a thousand +feet, so as to imply more power and danger in the avalanche coming down +the couloir. + +Next, he raises, in a still greater degree, all the mountains beyond, +putting three or four ranges instead of one, but uniting them into a +single massy bank at their base, which he makes overhang the valley, and +thus reduces it nearly to such a chasm as that which he had just passed +through above, so as to unite the expression of this ravine with that +of the stony valley. A few trees, in the hollow of the glen, he feels to +be contrary in spirit to the stones, and fells them, as he did the +others; so also he feels the bridge in the foreground, by its +slenderness, to contradict the aspect of violence in the torrent; he +thinks the torrent and avalanches should have it all their own way +hereabouts; so he strikes down the nearer bridge, and restores the one +farther off, where the force of the stream may be supposed less. Next, +the bit of road on the right, above the bank, is not built on a wall, +nor on arches high enough to give the idea of an Alpine road in general; +so he makes the arches taller, and the bank steeper, introducing, as we +shall see presently, a reminiscence from the upper part of the pass. + +[Illustration: 21. Pass of Faïdo. (2d. Turnerian Topography.)] + +§ 15. I say he "_thinks_" this, and "introduces" that. But, strictly +speaking, he does not think at all. If he thought, he would instantly go +wrong; it is only the clumsy and uninventive artist who thinks. All +these changes come into his head involuntarily; an entirely imperative +dream, crying, "thus it must be," has taken possession of him; he can +see, and do, no otherwise than as the dream directs. + +This is especially to be remembered with respect to the next +incident--the introduction of figures. Most persons to whom I have shown +the drawing, and who feel its general character, regret that there is +any living thing in it; they say it destroys the majesty of its +desolation. But the dream said not so to Turner. The dream insisted +particularly upon the great fact of its having come by the road. The +torrent was wild, the stones were wonderful; but the most wonderful +thing of all was how we ourselves, the dream and I, ever got here. By +our feet we could not--by the clouds we could not--by any ivory gates we +could not--in no other wise could we have come than by the coach road. +One of the great elements of sensation, all the day long, has been that +extraordinary road, and its goings on, and gettings about; here, under +avalanches of stones, and among insanities of torrents, and overhangings +of precipices, much tormented and driven to all manner of makeshifts and +coils to this side and the other, still the marvellous road persists in +going on, and that so smoothly and safely, that it is not merely great +diligences, going in a caravanish manner, with whole teams of horses, +that can traverse it, but little postchaises with small postboys, and a +pair of ponies. And the dream declared that the full essence and soul of +the scene, and consummation of all the wonderfulness of the torrents and +Alps, lay in a postchaise, with small ponies and postboy, which +accordingly it insisted upon Turner's inserting, whether he liked it or +not, at the turn of the road. + +§ 16. Now, it will be observed by any one familiar with ordinary +principles of arrangement of form (on which principles I shall insist at +length in another place), that while the dream introduces these changes +bearing on the expression of the scene, it is also introducing other +changes, which appear to be made more or less in compliance with +received rules of composition,[10] rendering the masses broader, the +lines more continuous, and the curves more graceful. But the curious +part of the business is, that these changes seem not so much to be +wrought by imagining an entirely new condition of any feature, as by +_remembering_ something which will fit better in that place. For +instance, Turner felt the bank on the right ought to be made more solid +and rocky, in order to suggest firmer resistance to the stream, and he +turns it, as will be seen by comparing the etchings, into a kind of rock +buttress, to the wall, instead of a mere bank. Now, the buttress into +which he turns it is very nearly a facsimile of one which he had drawn +on that very St. Gothard road, far above, at the Devil's Bridge, at +least thirty years before, and which he had himself etched and engraved, +for the Liber Studiorum, although the plate was never published. Fig. 1 +is a copy of the bit of the etching in question. Note how the wall winds +over it, and observe especially the peculiar depression in the middle of +its surface, and compare it in those parts generally with the features +introduced in the later composition. Of course, this might be set down +as a mere chance coincidence, but for the frequency of the cases in +which Turner can be shown to have done the same thing, and to have +introduced, after a lapse of many years, memories of something which, +however apparently small or unimportant, had struck him in his earlier +studies. These instances, when I can detect them, I shall point out as I +go on engraving his works; and I think they are numerous enough to +induce a doubt whether Turner's composition was not universally an +arrangement of remembrances, summoned just as they were wanted, and set +each in its fittest place. It is this very character which appears to +me to mark it as so distinctly an act of dream-vision; for in a dream +there is just this kind of confused remembrance of the forms of things +which we have seen long ago, associated by new and strange laws. That +common dreams are grotesque and disorderly, and Turner's dream natural +and orderly, does not, to my thinking, involve any necessary difference +in the real species of act of mind. I think I shall be able to show, in +the course of the following pages, or elsewhere, that whenever Turner +really tried to _compose_, and made modifications of his subjects on +principle, he did wrong, and spoiled them; and that he only did right in +a kind of passive obedience to his first vision, that vision being +composed primarily of the strong memory of the place itself which he had +to draw; and secondarily, of memories of other places (whether +recognized as such by himself or not I cannot tell), associated, in a +harmonious and helpful way, with the new central thought. + +[Illustration: FIG. 1.] + +§ 17. The kind of mental chemistry by which the dream summons and +associates its materials, I have already endeavored, not to explain, for +it is utterly inexplicable, but to illustrate, by a well-ascertained +though equally inexplicable fact in common chemistry. That illustration +(§ 8. of chapter on Imaginative Association, Vol. II.) I see more and +more ground to think correct. How far I could show that it held with all +great inventors, I know not, but with all those whom I have carefully +studied (Dante, Scott, Turner, and Tintoret) it seems to me to hold +absolutely; their imagination consisting, not in a voluntary production +of new images, but an involuntary remembrance, exactly at the right +moment, of something they had actually seen. + +Imagine all that any of these men had seen or heard in the whole course +of their lives, laid up accurately in their memories as in vast +storehouses, extending, with the poets, even to the slightest +intonations of syllables heard in the beginning of their lives, and, +with the painters, down to the minute folds of drapery, and shapes of +loaves or stones; and over all this unindexed and immeasurable mass of +treasure, the imagination brooding and wandering, but dream-gifted, so +as to summon at any moment exactly such groups of ideas as shall justly +fit each other: this I conceive to be the real nature of the imaginative +mind, and this, I believe, it would be oftener explained to us as +being, by the men themselves who possess it, but that they have no idea +what the state of other persons' minds is in comparison; they suppose +every one remembers all that he has seen in the same way, and do not +understand how it happens that they alone can produce good drawings or +great thoughts. + +[Illustration: Turner. T. Boys. + 22. Turner's Earliest "Nottingham."] + +§ 18. Whether this be the case with all inventors or not, it was +assuredly the case with Turner to such an extent that he seems never to +have lost, or cared to disturb, the impression made upon him by any +scene,--even in his earliest youth. He never seems to have gone back to +a place to look at it again, but, as he gained power, to have painted +and repainted it as first seen, associating with it certain new thoughts +or new knowledge, but never shaking the central pillar of the old image. +Several instances of this have been already given in my pamphlet on +Pre-Raphaelitism; others will be noted in the course of our +investigation of his works; one, merely for the sake of illustration, I +will give here. + +§ 19. Plate +22+ is an outline of a drawing of the town and castle of +Nottingham, made by Turner for Walker's Itinerant, and engraved in that +work. The engraving (from which this outline was made, as I could not +discover the drawing itself) was published on the 28th of February, +1795, a period at which Turner was still working in a very childish way; +and the whole design of this plate is curiously stiff and commonplace. +Note, especially, the two formal little figures under the sail. + +In the year 1833, an engraving of Nottingham, from a drawing by Turner, +was published by Moon, Boys, and Graves, in the England and Wales +series. Turner certainly made none of the drawings for that series long +before they were wanted; and if, therefore, we suppose the drawing to +have been made so much as three years before the publication of the +plate, it will be setting the date of it as far back as is in the +slightest degree probable. We may assume therefore (and the conclusion +is sufficiently established, also, by the style of the execution), that +there was an interval of at least thirty-five years between the making +of those two drawings,--thirty-five years, in the course of which Turner +had become, from an unpractised and feeble draughtsman, the most +accomplished artist of his age, and had entirely changed his methods of +work and his habits of feeling. + +§ 20. On the page opposite to the etching of the first, I have given an +etching of the last Nottingham. The one will be found to be merely the +amplification and adornment of the other. _Every incident_ is preserved; +even the men employed about the log of wood are there, only now removed +far away (beyond the lock on the right, between it and the town), and so +lost in mist that, though made out by color in the drawing, they cannot +be made clear in the outline etching. The canal bridge and even the +stiff mast are both retained; only another boat is added, and the sail +dropped upon the higher mast is hoisted on the lower one; and the +castle, to get rid of its formality, is moved a little to the left, so +as to hide one side. But, evidently, no new sketch has been made. The +painter has returned affectionately to his boyish impression, and worked +it out with his manly power. + +§ 21. How far this manly power itself acted merely in the accumulation +of memories, remains, as I said, a question undetermined; but at all +events, Turner's mind is not more, in my estimation, distinguished above +others by its demonstrably arranging and ruling faculties, than by its +demonstrably retentive and submissive faculties; and the longer I +investigate it, the more this tenderness of perception and grasp of +memory seem to me the root of its greatness. So that I am more and more +convinced of what I had to state respecting the imagination, now many +years ago, viz., that its true force lies in its marvellous insight and +foresight--that it is, instead of a false and deceptive faculty, exactly +the most accurate and truth-telling faculty which the human mind +possesses; and all the more truth-telling, because, in _its_ work, the +vanity and individualism of the man himself are crushed, and he becomes +a mere instrument or mirror, used by a higher power for the reflection +to others of a truth which no effort of his could ever have ascertained; +so that all mathematical, and arithmetical, and generally scientific +truth, is, in comparison, truth of the husk and surface, hard and +shallow; and only the imaginative truth is precious. Hence, whenever we +want to know what are the chief facts of any case, it is better not to +go to political economists, nor to mathematicians, but to the great +poets; for I find they always see more of the matter than any one else: +and in like manner those who want to know the real facts of the world's +outside aspect, will find that they cannot trust maps, nor charts, nor +any manner of mensuration; the most important facts being always quite +immeasurable, and that (with only some occasional and trifling +inconvenience, if they form too definite anticipations as to the +position of a bridge here, or a road there) the Turnerian topography is +the only one to be trusted. + +[Illustration: Turner. T. Boys. + 23. Turner's Latest "Nottingham."] + +§ 22. One or two important corollaries may be drawn from these +principles, respecting the kind of fidelity which is to be exacted from +men who have no imaginative power. It has been stated, over and over +again, that it is not _possible_ to draw the whole of nature, as in a +mirror. Certain omissions must be made, and certain conventionalities +admitted, in all art. Now it ought to be the instinctive affection of +each painter which guides him to the omissions he is to make, or signs +he is to use; and his choice of this or the other fact for +representation, his insistence upon this or the other character in his +subject, as that which to him is impressive, constitutes, when it is +earnest and simple, part of the value of his work. This is the only +inspiration he is capable of, but it is a kind of inspiration still; and +although he may not have the memory or the associative power which would +enable him to compose a subject in the Turnerian manner, he may have +certain _affections_, perfectly expressible in his work, and of which he +ought to allow the influence to be seen.[11] + +§ 23. And this may especially be permitted in rapid sketching of effects +or scenes which, either in their speedy passing away, or for want of +time, it is impossible to draw faithfully. Generally, if leisure permit, +the detailed drawing of the object will be grander than any "impression +on the mind" of an unimaginative person; but if leisure do not permit, a +rapid sketch, marking forcibly the points that strike him, may often +have considerable interest in its way. The other day I sketched the +towers of the Swiss Fribourg hastily from the Hôtel de Zahringen. It was +a misty morning with broken sunshine, and the towers were seen by +flickering light through broken clouds,--dark blue mist filling the +hollow of the valley behind them. I have engraved the sketch on the +opposite page, adding a few details, and exaggerating the exaggerations; +for in drawing from nature, even at speed, I am not in the habit of +exaggerating enough to illustrate what I mean. The next day, on a clear +and calm forenoon, I daguerreotyped the towers, with the result given on +the next plate (+25+ Fig. 2); and this unexaggerated statement, with its +details properly painted, would not only be the more right, but +infinitely the grander of the two. But the first sketch nevertheless +conveys, in some respects, a truer idea of Fribourg than any other, and +has, therefore, a certain use. For instance, the wall going up behind +the main tower is seen in my drawing to bend very distinctly, following +the different slopes of the hill. In the daguerreotype this bend is +hardly perceptible. And yet the notablest thing in the town of Fribourg +is, that all its walls have got flexible spines, and creep up and down +the precipices more in the manner of cats than walls; and there is a +general sense of height, strength and grace, about its belts of tower +and rampart, which clings even to every separate and less graceful piece +of them when seen on the spot; so that the hasty sketch, expressing +this, has a certain veracity wanting altogether in the daguerreotype. + +Nay, sometimes, even in the most accurate and finished topography, a +slight exaggeration may be permitted; for many of the most important +facts in nature are so subtle, that they _must_ be slightly exaggerated, +in order to be made noticeable when they are translated into the +comparatively clumsy lines of even the best drawing,[12] and removed +from the associating circumstances which enhanced their influence, or +directed attention to them, in nature. + +[Illustration: 24. The Towers of Fribourg.] + +[Illustration: J. Ruskin J. H. Le Keux. + 25. Things in general.] + +§ 24. Still, in all these cases, the more unconscious the +draughtsman is of the changes he is making, the better. Love will +then do its own proper work; and the only true test of good or bad is, +ultimately, strength of affection. For it does not matter with what wise +purposes, or on what wise principles, the thing is drawn; if it be not +drawn for love of it, it will never be right; and if it _be_ drawn for +love of it, it will never be wrong--love's misrepresentation being truer +than the most mathematical presentation. And although all the reasonings +about right and wrong, through which we have been led in this chapter, +could never be brought to bear on the work at the moment of doing it, +yet this test of right holds always;--if the artist is in any wise +modifying or methodizing to exhibit himself and his dexterity, his work +will, in that precise degree, be abortive; and if he is working with +hearty love of the place, earnest desire to be faithful to it, and yet +an open heart for every fancy that Heaven sends him, in that precise +degree his work will be great and good. + + +FOOTNOTES + + [8] Observe, what was said in the second volume respecting the + spirit of choice as evil, refers only to young students, and to that + choice which assumes that any common subject is not good enough, nor + interesting enough, to be studied. But, though all is good for + study, and all is beautiful, some is better than the rest for the + help and pleasure of others; and this it is our duty always to + choose, if we have opportunity, being quite happy with what is + within our reach, if we have not. + + [9] "Couloir" is a good untranslateable Savoyard word, for a place + down which stones and water fall in storms; it is perhaps deserving + of naturalization. + + [10] I have just said, § 12, that if, _quitting hold_ of this + original impression, the artist tries to compose something prettier + than he saw, it is all over with him; but, retaining the first + impression, he will, nevertheless, if he has invention, + instinctively modify many lines and parts of it--possibly all parts + of it--for the better; sometimes making them individually more + pictorial, sometimes preventing them from interfering with each + other's beauty. For almost all natural landscapes are redundant + treasures of more or less confused beauty, out of which the human + instinct of invention can by just choice arrange, not a better + treasure, but one more fitted to human sight and emotion, infinitely + narrower, infinitely less lovely in detail, but having this great + virtue, that there shall be absolutely nothing which does not + contribute to the effect of the whole; whereas in the natural + landscape there is a redundancy which impresses only as redundance, + and often an occurrence of marring features; not of ugliness only, + but of ugliness _in the wrong place_. Ugliness has its proper virtue + and use; but ugliness occurring at the wrong time (as if the negro + servant, instead of standing behind the king, in Tintoret's picture, + were to thrust his head in front of the noble features of his + master) is justly to be disliked and withdrawn. + + "Why, this," exclaims the idealist, "is what _I_ have always been + saying, and _you_ have always been denying." No; I never denied + this. But I denied that painters in general, when they spoke of + improving Nature, knew what Nature was. Observe: before they dare as + much as to _dream_ of arranging her, they must be able to paint her + as she is; nor will the most skilful arrangement ever atone for the + slightest wilful failure in truth of representation; and I am + continually declaiming against arrangement, not because arrangement + is wrong, but because our present painters have for the most part + nothing to arrange. They cannot so much as paint a weed or a post + accurately; and yet they pretend to improve the forests and + mountains. + + [11] For instance, even in my topographical etching, Plate 20, I + have given only a few lines of the thousands which existed in the + scene. Those lines are what I considered the leading ones. Another + person might have thought other lines the leading ones, and his + representation might be equally true as far as it went; but which of + our representations went furthest would depend on our relative + degrees of knowledge and feeling about hills. + + [12] Or the best photograph. The question of the exact relation of + value between photography and good topographical drawing, I hope to + examine in another place. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +OF TURNERIAN LIGHT. + + +§ 1. Having in the preceding chapter seen the grounds on which to +explain and justify Turner's _choice_ of facts, we proceed to examine +finally those modes of _representing_ them introduced by him;--modes so +utterly at variance with the received doctrines on the subject of art, +as to cause his works to be regarded with contempt, or severe blame, by +all reputed judges, at the period of their first appearance. And, +chiefly, I must confirm and farther illustrate the general statements +made respecting light and shade in the chapters on Truth of Tone,[13] +and on Infinity,[14] deduced from the great fact (§ 5. chapter on Truth +of Tone) that "nature surpasses us in power of obtaining light as much +as the sun surpasses white paper." I found that this part of the book +was not well understood, because people in general have no idea how much +the sun _does_ surpass white paper. In order to know this practically, +let the reader take a piece of pure white drawing-paper, and place it in +the position in which a drawing is usually seen. This is, properly, +upright (all drawings being supposed to be made on vertical planes), as +a picture is seen on a room wall. Also, the usual place in which +paintings or drawings are seen is at some distance from a window, with a +gentle side light falling upon them, front lights being unfavorable to +nearly all drawing. Therefore the highest light an artist can ordinarily +command for his work is that of white paint, or paper, under a gentle +side light.[15] But if we wished to get as much light as possible, and +to place the artist under the most favorable circumstances, we should +take the drawing near the window. Put therefore your white paper +upright, and take it to the window. Let _ac_, _cd_, be two sides of +your room, with a window at _bb_. Under ordinary circumstances your +picture would be hung at _e_, or in some such position on the wall _cd_. +First, therefore, put your paper upright at _e_, and then bring it +gradually to the window, in the successive positions _f_, _g_, and +(opening the window) finally at _p_. You will notice that as you come +nearer the window the light gradually _increases_ on the paper; so that +in the position at _p_ it is far better lighted than it was at _e_. If, +however, the sun actually falls upon it at _p_, the experiment is +unfair, for the picture is not meant to be seen in sunshine, and your +object is to compare pure white paper, as ordinarily used, _with_ +sunshine. So either take a time when the sun does not shine at all, or +does not shine in the window where the experiment is to be tried; or +else keep the paper so far within the window that the sun may not touch +it. Then the experiment is perfectly fair, and you will find that you +have the paper at _p_ in full, serene, pictorial light, of the best +kind, and highest attainable power. + +[Illustration: FIG. 2.] + +§ 2. Now, leaning a little over the window sill, bring the edge of the +paper at _p_ against the sky, rather low down on the horizon (I suppose +you choose a fine day for the experiment, that the sun is high, and the +sky clear blue, down to the horizon). The moment you bring your white +paper against the sky you will be startled to find this bright white +paper suddenly appear in shade. You will draw it back, thinking you have +changed its position. But no; the paper is not in shade. It is as bright +as ever it was; brighter than under ordinary circumstances it ever can +be. But, behold, the blue sky of the horizon is far brighter. The one is +indeed blue, and the other white, but the _white_ is _darkest_,[16] and +by a great deal. And you will, though perhaps not for the first time in +your life, perceive that though black is not easily proved to be white, +white, may, under certain circumstances, be very nearly proved black, or +at all events brown. + +§ 3. When this fact is first show to them, the general feeling with most +people is, that, by being brought against the sky, the white paper is +somehow or other brought "into shade." But this is not so; the paper +remains exactly as it was; it is only compared with an actually brighter +hue, and looks darker by comparison. The circumstances are precisely +like those which affect our sensations of heat and cold. If, when by +chance we have one hand warm, and another cold, we feel, with each hand, +water warmed to an intermediate degree, we shall first declare the water +to be cold, and then to be warm; but the water has a definite heat +wholly independent of our sensations, and accurately ascertainable by a +thermometer. So it is with light and shade. Looking from the bright sky +to the white paper, we affirm the white paper to be "in shade,"--that +is, it produces on us a sensation of darkness, by comparison. But the +hue of the paper, and that of the sky, are just as fixed as temperatures +are; and the sky is actually a brighter thing than white paper, by a +certain number of degrees of light, scientifically determinable. In the +same way, every other color, or force of color, is a fixed thing, not +dependent on sensation, but numerically representable with as much +exactitude as a degree of heat by a thermometer. And of these hues, that +of open sky is one not producible by human art. The sky is not blue +_color_ merely,--it is blue _fire_, and cannot be painted. + +§ 4. Next, observe, this blue fire has in it _white_ fire; that is, it +has white clouds, as much brighter than itself as _it_ is brighter than +the white paper. So, then, above this azure light, we have another +equally exalted step of white light. Supposing the value of the light of +the pure white paper represented by the number 10, then that of the blue +sky will be (approximately) about 20, and of the white clouds 30. + +But look at the white clouds carefully, and it will be seen they are not +all of the same white; parts of them are quite grey compared with other +parts, and they are as full of passages of light and shade as if they +were of solid earth. Nevertheless, their most deeply shaded part is +that already so much lighter than the blue sky, which has brought us up +to our number 30, and all these high lights of white are some 10 degrees +above that, or, to white paper, as 40 to 10. And now if you look from +the blue sky and white clouds towards the sun, you will find that this +cloud white, which is four times as white as white paper, is quite dark +and lightless compared with those silver clouds that burn nearer the sun +itself, which you cannot gaze upon,--an infinite of brightness. How will +you estimate that? + +And yet to express all this, we have but our poor white paper after all. +We must not talk too proudly of our "truths" of art; I am afraid we +shall have to let a good deal of black fallacy into it, at the best. + +§ 5. Well, of the sun, and of the silver clouds, we will not talk for +the present. But this principal fact we have learned by our experiment +with the white paper, that, taken all in all, the calm sky, with such +light and shade as are in it, is brighter than the earth; brighter than +the whitest thing on earth which has not, at the moment of comparison, +heaven's own direct light on it. Which fact it is generally one of the +first objects of noble painters to render. I have already marked one +part of their aim in doing so, namely, the expression of infinity; but +the opposing of heavenly light to earth-darkness is another most +important one; and of all ways of rendering a picture generally +impressive (see especially § 12. of the chapter just referred to), this +is the simplest and surest. Make the sky calm and luminous, and raise +against it dark trees, mountains, or towers, or any other substantial +and terrestrial thing, in bold outline, and the mind accepts the +assertion of this great and solemn truth with thankfulness. + +§ 6. But this may be done either nobly or basely, as any other solemn +truth may be asserted. It may be spoken with true feeling of all that it +means; or it may be declared, as a Turk declares that "God is great," +when he means only that he himself is lazy. The "heaven is bright," of +many vulgar painters, has precisely the same amount of signification; it +means that they know nothing--will do nothing--are without +thought--without care--without passion. They will not walk the earth, +nor watch the ways of it, nor gather the flowers of it. They will sit +in the shade, and only assert that very perceptible, long-ascertained +fact, "heaven is bright." And as it may be _asserted_ basely, so it may +be _accepted_ basely. Many of our capacities for receiving noblest +emotion are abused, in mere idleness, for pleasure's sake, and people +take the excitement of a solemn sensation as they do that of a strong +drink. Thus the abandoned court of Louis XIV. had on fast days its +sacred concerts, doubtless entering in some degree into the religious +expression of the music, and thus idle and frivolous women at the +present day will weep at an oratorio. So the sublimest effects of +landscape may be sought through mere indolence; and even those who are +not ignorant, or dull, judge often erroneously of such effects of art, +because their very openness to all pleasant and sacred association +instantly colors whatever they see, so that, give them but the feeblest +shadow of a thing they love, they are instantly touched by it to the +heart, and mistake their own pleasurable feeling for the result of the +painter's power. Thus when, by spotting and splashing, such a painter as +Constable reminds them somewhat of wet grass and green leaves, forthwith +they fancy themselves in all the happiness of a meadow walk; and when +Gaspar Poussin throws out his yellow horizon with black hills, forthwith +they are touched as by the solemnity of a real Italian twilight, +altogether forgetting that wet grass and twilight do not constitute the +universe; and prevented by their joy at being pleasantly cool, or +gravely warm, from seeking any of those more precious truths which +cannot be caught by momentary sensation, but must be thoughtfully +pursued. + +§ 7. I say "more precious," for the simple fact that the sky is brighter +than the earth is _not_ a precious truth unless the earth itself be +first understood. Despise the earth, or slander it; fix your eyes on its +gloom, and forget its loveliness; and we do not thank you for your +languid or despairing perception of brightness in heaven. But rise up +actively on the earth,--learn what there is in it, know its color and +form, and the full measure and make of it, and if _after that_ you can +say "heaven is bright," it will be a precious truth, but not till then. +Giovanni Bellini knows the earth well, paints it to the full, and to the +smallest fig-leaf and falling flower,--blue hill and white-walled +city,--glittering robe and golden hair; to each he will give its lustre +and loveliness; and then, so far as with his poor human lips he may +declare it, far beyond all these, he proclaims that "heaven is bright." +But Gaspar, and such other landscapists, painting all Nature's flowery +ground as one barrenness, and all her fair foliage as one blackness, and +all her exquisite forms as one bluntness; when, in this sluggard gloom +and sullen treachery of heart, they mutter their miserable attestation +to what others had long ago discerned for them,--the sky's +brightness,--we do not thank them; or thank them only in so far as, even +in uttering this last remnant of truth, they are more commendable than +those who have sunk from apathy to atheism, and declare, in their dark +and hopeless backgrounds, that heaven is NOT bright. + +§ 8. Let us next ascertain what are the colors of the earth itself. + +A mountain five or six miles off, in a sunny summer morning in +Switzerland, will commonly present itself in some such pitch of dark +force, as related to the sky, as that shown in Fig. 4. Plate +25+, while +the sky itself will still, if there are white clouds in it, tell as a +clear dark, throwing out those white clouds in vigorous relief of light; +yet, conduct the experiment of the white paper as already described, and +you will, in all probability, find that the darkest part of the +mountain--its most vigorous nook of almost black-looking shadow--_is +whiter than the paper_. + +The figure given represents the _apparent_ color[17] of the top of the +Aiguille Bouchard (the mountain which is seen from the village of +Chamouni, on the other side of the Glacier des Bois), distant, by +Forbes's map, a furlong or two less than four miles in a direct line +from the point of observation. The observation was made on a warm sunny +morning, about eleven o'clock, the sky clear blue; the mountain seen +against it, its shadows grey purple, and its sunlit parts greenish. Then +the darkest part of the mountain was _lighter than pure white paper_, +held upright in full light at the window, parallel to the direction in +which the light entered. And it will thus generally be found impossible +to represent, in any of its _true_ colors, scenery distant more than two +or three miles, in full daylight. The deepest shadows are whiter than +white paper. + +§ 9. As, however, we pass to nearer objects, true representation +gradually becomes possible;--to what degree is always of course +ascertainable accurately by the same mode of experiment. Bring the edge +of the paper against the thing to be drawn, and on that edge--as +precisely as a lady would match the colors of two pieces of a +dress--match the color of the landscape (with a little opaque white +mixed in the tints you use, so as to render it easy to lighten or darken +them). Take care not to imitate the tint as you believe it to be, but +accurately as it is; so that the colored edge of the paper shall not be +discernible from the color of the landscape. You will then find (if +before inexperienced) that shadows of trees, which you thought were dark +green or black, are pale violets and purples; that lights, which you +thought were green, are intensely yellow, brown, or golden, and most of +them far too bright to be matched at all. When you have got all the +imitable hues truly matched, sketch the masses of the landscape out +completely in those true and ascertained colors; and you will find, to +your amazement, that you have painted it in the colors of Turner,--in +those very colors which perhaps you have been laughing at all your +life,--the fact being that he, and he alone, of all men, _ever painted +Nature in her own colors_. + +§ 10. "Well, but," you will answer, impatiently, "how is it, if they are +the true colors, that they look so unnatural?" + +Because they are not shown in true contrast to the sky, and to other +high lights. Nature paints her shadows in pale purple, and then raises +her lights of heaven and sunshine to such height that the pale purple +becomes, by comparison, a vigorous dark. But poor Turner has no sun at +his command to oppose his pale colors. He follows Nature submissively as +far as he can; puts pale purple where she does, bright gold where she +does; and then when, on the summit of the slope of light, she opens her +wings and quits the earth altogether, burning into ineffable sunshine, +what can he do but sit helpless, stretching his hands towards her in +calm consent, as she leaves him and mocks at him! + +§ 11. "Well," but you will farther ask, "is this right or wise? ought +not the contrast between the masses be given, rather than the actual +hues of a few parts of them, when the others are inimitable?" + +Yes, if this _were_ possible, it ought to be done; but the true +contrasts can NEVER be given. The whole question is simply whether you +will be false at one side of the scale or at the other,--that is, +whether you will lose yourself in light or in darkness. This necessity +is easily expressible in numbers. Suppose the utmost light you wish to +imitate is that of serene, feebly lighted, clouds in ordinary sky (not +sun or stars, which it is, of course, impossible deceptively to imitate +in painting by any artifice). Then, suppose the degrees of shadow +between those clouds and Nature's utmost darkness accurately measured, +and divided into a hundred degrees (darkness being zero). Next we +measure our own scale, calling our utmost possible black, zero;[18] and +we shall be able to keep parallel with Nature, perhaps up to as far as +her 40 degrees; all above that being whiter than our white paper. Well, +with our power of contrast between zero and 40, we have to imitate her +contrasts between zero and 100. Now, if we want true contrasts, we can +first set our 40 to represent her 100, our 20 for her 80, and our zero +for her 60; everything below her 60 being lost in blackness. This is, +with certain modifications, Rembrandt's system. Or, secondly, we can put +zero for her zero, 20 for her 20, and 40 for her 40; everything above 40 +being lost in _white_ness. This is, with certain modifications, Paul +Veronese's system. Or, finally, we can put our zero for her zero, and +our 40 for her 100; our 20 for her 50, our 30 for her 75, and our ten +for her 25, proportioning the intermediate contrasts accordingly. This +is, with certain modifications, Turner's system;[19] the modifications, +in each case, being the adoption, to a certain extent, of either of the +other systems. Thus, Turner inclines to Paul Veronese; liking, as far as +possible, to get his hues perfectly true up to a certain point,--that is +to say, to let his zero stand for Nature's zero, and his 10 for her 10, +and his 20 for her 20, and then to expand towards the light by quick but +cunning steps, putting 27 for 50, 30 for 70, and reserving some force +still for the last 90 to 100. So Rembrandt modifies his system on the +other side, putting his 40 for 100, his 30 for 90, his 20 for 80; then +going subtly downwards, 10 for 50, 5 for 30; nearly everything between +30 and zero being lost in gloom, yet so as still to reserve his zero for +zero. The systems expressed in tabular form will stand thus:-- + + NATURE. REMBRANDT. TURNER. VERONESE. + + 0 0 0 0 + 10 1 10 10 + 20 3 20 20 + 30 5 24 30 + 40 7 26 32 + 50 10 27 34 + 60 13 28 36 + 70 17 30 37 + 80 20 32 38 + 90 30 36 39 + 100 40 40 40 + +§ 12. Now it is evident that in Rembrandt's system, while the +_contrasts_ are not more right than with Veronese, the _colors_ are all +wrong, from beginning to end. With Turner and Veronese, Nature's 10 is +their 10, and Nature's 20 their 20; enabling them to give pure truth up +to a certain point. But with Rembrandt _not one color_ is absolutely +true, from one side of the scale to the other; only the contrasts are +true at the top of the scale. Of course, this supposes Rembrandt's +system applied to a subject which shall try it to the utmost, such as +landscape. Rembrandt generally chose subjects in which the real colors +were very nearly imitable,--as single heads with dark backgrounds, in +which Nature's highest light was little above his own; her 40 being then +truly representable by his 40, his picture became nearly an absolute +truth. But his system is only right when applied to such subjects: +clearly, when we have the full scale of natural light to deal with, +Turner's and Veronese's convey the greatest sum of truth. But not the +most complete deception, for people are so much more easily and +instinctively impressed by force of light than truth of color, that they +instantly miss the relative power of the sky, and the upper tones; and +all the true local coloring looks strange to them, separated from its +adjuncts of high light; whereas, give them the true contrast of light, +and they will not observe the false local color. Thus all Gaspar +Poussin's and Salvator's pictures, and all effects obtained by leaving +high lights in the midst of exaggerated darkness, catch the eye, and are +received for true, while the pure truth of Veronese and Turner is +rejected as unnatural; only not so much in Veronese's case as in +Turner's, because Veronese confines himself to more imitable things, as +draperies, figures, and architecture, in which his exquisite truth at +the bottom of the scale tells on the eye at once; but Turner works a +good deal also (see the table) at the _top_ of the natural scale, +dealing with effects of sunlight and other phases of the upper colors, +more or less inimitable, and betraying therefore, more or less, the +artifices used to express them. It will be observed, also, that in order +to reserve some force for the top of his scale, Turner is obliged to +miss his gradations chiefly in middle tints (see the table), where the +feebleness is sure to be felt. His principal point for missing the +midmost gradations is almost always between the earth and sky; he draws +the earth truly as far as he can, to the horizon; then the sky as far as +he can, with his 30 to 40 part of the scale. They run together at the +horizon; and the spectator complains that there is no distinction +between earth and sky, or that the earth does not _look solid enough_. + +§ 13. In the upper portions of the three pillars 5, 6, 7, Plate +25+, +are typically represented these three conditions of light and shade, +characteristic, 5, of Rembrandt, 6, of Turner, and 7, of Veronese. The +pillar to be drawn is supposed, in all the three cases, white; Rembrandt +represents it as white on its highest light; and, getting the true +gradations between this highest light and extreme dark, is reduced to +his zero, or black, for the dark side of the white object. This first +pillar also represents the system of Leonardo da Vinci. In the room of +the Louvre appropriated to Italian drawings is a study of a piece of +drapery by Leonardo. Its lights are touched with the finest white +chalk, and its shadows wrought, through exquisite gradations, to utter +blackness. The pillar 6 is drawn on the system of Turner; the high point +of light is still distinct: but even the darkest part of the shaft is +kept pale, and the gradations which give the roundness are wrought out +with the utmost possible delicacy. The third shaft is drawn on +Veronese's system. The light, though still focused, is more diffused +than with Turner; and a slight flatness results from the determination +that the fact of the shaft's being _white_ shall be discerned more +clearly even than that it is round; and that its darkest part shall +still be capable of brilliant relief, as a white mass, from other +objects round it. + +§ 14. This resolution, on Veronese's part, is owing to the profound +respect for the _colors_ of objects which necessarily influenced him, as +the colorist at once the most brilliant and the most tender of all +painters of the elder schools; and it is necessary for us briefly to +note the way in which this greater or less respect for local color +influences the system of the three painters in light and shade. + +Take the whitest piece of note-paper you can find, put a blot of ink +upon it, carry it into the sunshine, and hold it fully fronting the +sunshine, so as to make the paper look as dazzling as possible, but not +to let the wet blot of ink _shine_. You will then find the ink look +_intensely_ black,--blacker, in fact, than any where else, owing to its +vigorous contrast with the dazzling paper. + +Remove the paper from the sunshine. The ink will not look so black. +Carry the paper gradually into the darkest part of the room, and the +contrast will as gradually appear to diminish; and, of course, in +darkness, the distinction between the black and the white vanishes. Wet +ink is as perfect a representative as is by any means attainable of a +perfectly dark color; that is, of one which absorbs all the light that +falls on it; and the nature of such a color is best understood by +considering it as a piece of portable night. Now, of course, the higher +you raise the daylight about this bit of night, the more vigorous is the +contrast between the two. And, therefore, as a general rule, the higher +you raise the light on any object with a pattern or stain upon it, the +more distinctly that pattern or stain is seen. But observe: the +distinction between the full black of ink, and full white of paper, is +the utmost reach of light and dark possible to art. Therefore, if this +contrast is to be represented truly, no deeper black can ever be given +in any shadow than that offered at once; as local color, in a full black +pattern, on the highest light. And, where color is the principal object +of the picture, that color must, at all events, be as right as possible +_where it is best seen_, i.e. in the lights. Hence the principle of Paul +Veronese, and of all the great Venetian colorists, is to use full black +for full black in high light, letting the shadow shift for itself as +best it may; and sometimes even putting the local black a little darker +in light than shadow, in order to give the more vigorous contrast noted +above. Let the pillars in Plate +25+ be supposed to have a black mosaic +pattern on the lower part of their shafts. Paul Veronese's general +practice will be, as at 7, having marked the rounding of the shaft as +well as he can in the white parts, to paint the pattern with one even +black over all, reinforcing it, if at all, a little in the _light_. + +§ 15. Repeat the experiment on the note-paper with a red spot of carmine +instead of ink. You will now find that the contrast in the sunshine +appears about the same as in the shade--the red and white rising and +falling together, and dying away together into the darkness. The fact, +however, is, that the contrast does actually for some time increase +towards the light; for in utter darkness the distinction is not +visible--the red cannot be distinguished from the white; admit a little +light, and the contrast is feebly discernible; admit more, it is +distinctly discernible. But you cannot increase the contrast beyond a +certain point. From that point the red and white for some time rise very +nearly equally in light, or fall together very nearly equally in shade; +but the contrast will begin to _diminish_ in very high lights, for +strong sunlight has a tendency to exhibit particles of dust, or any +sparkling texture in the local color, and then to diminish its power; so +that in order to see local color well, a certain degree of shadow is +necessary: for instance, a very delicate complexion is not well seen in +the sun; and the veins of a marble pillar, or the colors of a picture, +can only be properly seen in comparative shade. + +§ 16. I will not entangle the reader in the very subtle and curious +variations of the laws in this matter. The simple fact which is +_necessary_ for him to observe is, that the paler and purer the color, +the more the great Venetian colorists will reinforce it in the shadow, +and allow it to fall or rise in sympathy with the light; and those +especially whose object it is to represent sunshine, nearly always +reinforce their local colors somewhat in the shadows, and keep them both +fainter and feebler in the light, so that they thus approach a condition +of universal glow, the full color being used for the shadow, and a +delicate and somewhat subdued hue of it for the light. And this to the +eye is the loveliest possible condition of color. 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 colors; and +secondly, that in the rose there is _no shadow_, except what is composed +of color. All its shadows are fuller in color than its lights, owing to +the translucency and reflective power of its leaves. + +The second shaft, 6, in which the local color is paler towards the +light, and reinforced in the shadow, will therefore represent the +Venetian system with respect to paler colors, and the system, for the +most part, even with respect to darker colors, of painters who attempt +to render effects of strong sunlight. Generally, therefore, it +represents the practice of Turner. The first shaft, 5, exhibits the +disadvantage of the practice of Rembrandt and Leonardo, in that they +cannot show the local color on the dark side, since, however energetic, +it must at last sink into their exaggerated darkness. + +§ 17. Now, from all the preceding inquiry, the reader must perceive more +and more distinctly the great truth, that all forms of right art consist +in a certain _choice_ made between various classes of truths, a few only +being represented, and others necessarily excluded; and that the +excellence of each style depends first on its consistency with +itself,--the perfect fidelity, as far as possible, to the truths it has +chosen; and secondly, on the breadth of its harmony, or number of truths +it has been able to reconcile, and the consciousness with which the +truths refused are acknowledged, even though they may not be +represented. A great artist is just like a wise and hospitable man with +a small house: the large companies of truths, like guests, are waiting +his invitation; he wisely chooses from among this crowd the guests who +will be happiest with each other, making those whom he receives +thoroughly comfortable, and kindly remembering even those whom he +excludes; while the foolish host, trying to receive all, leaves a large +part of his company on the staircase, without even knowing who is there, +and destroys, by inconsistent fellowship, the pleasure of those who gain +entrance. + +§ 18. But even those hosts who choose well will be farther distinguished +from each other by their choice of nobler or inferior companies; and we +find the greatest artists mainly divided into two groups,--those who +paint principally with respect to local color, headed by Paul Veronese, +Titian, and Turner; and those who paint principally with reference to +light and shade irrespective of color, headed by Leonardo da Vinci, +Rembrandt, and Raphael. The noblest members of each of these classes +introduce the element proper to the other class, in a subordinate way. +Paul Veronese introduces a subordinate light and shade, and Leonardo +introduces a subordinate local color. The main difference is, that with +Leonardo, Rembrandt, and Raphael, vast masses of the picture are lost in +comparatively colorless (dark, grey, or brown) shadow; these painters +_beginning_ with the _lights_, and going _down_ to blackness; but with +Veronese, Titian, and Turner, the whole picture is like the +rose,--glowing with color in the shadows, and rising into paler and more +delicate hues, or masses of whiteness, in the lights; they having +_begun_ with the _shadows_, and gone up _to_ whiteness. + +§ 19. The colorists have in this respect one disadvantage, and three +advantages. The disadvantage is, that between their less violent hues, +it is not possible to draw all the forms which can be represented by the +exaggerated shadow of the chiaroscurists, and therefore a slight +tendency to flatness is always characteristic of the greater colorists, +as opposed to Leonardo or Rembrandt. When the form of some single object +is to be given, and its subtleties are to be rendered to the utmost, the +Leonardesque manner of drawing is often very noble. It is generally +adopted by Albert Durer in his engravings, and is very useful, when +employed by a thorough master, in many kinds of engraving;[20] but it is +an utterly false method of _study_, as we shall see presently. + +§ 20. Of the three advantages possessed by the colorists over the +chiaroscurists, the first is, that they have in the greater portions of +their pictures _absolute_ truth, as shown above, § 12, while the +chiaroscurists have no absolute truth anywhere. With the colorists the +shadows are right; the lights untrue: but with the chiaroscurists lights +and shadows are both untrue. The second advantage is, that also the +_relations_ of color are broader and vaster with the colorists than the +chiaroscurists. Take, for example, that piece of drapery studied by +Leonardo, in the Louvre, with white lights and black shadows. Ask +yourself, first, whether the real drapery was black or white. If white, +then its high lights are rightly white; but its folds being black, it +could not _as a mass_ be distinguished from the black or dark objects in +its neighborhood. But the fact is, that a white cloth or handkerchief +always is distinguished in daylight, as a _whole white thing_, from all +that is colored about it: we see at once that there is a white piece of +stuff, and a red, or green, or grey one near it, as the case may be: and +this relation of the white object to other objects _not_ white, Leonardo +has wholly deprived himself of the power of expressing; while, if the +cloth were black or dark, much more has he erred by making its lights +white. In either case, he has missed the large relation of mass to mass, +for the sake of the small one of fold to fold. And this is more or less +the case with all chiaroscurists; with all painters, that is to say, who +endeavor in their studies of objects to get rid of the idea of color, +and give the abstract shade. They invariably exaggerate the shadows, not +with respect to the thing itself, but with respect to all around it; and +they exaggerate the lights also, by leaving pure white for the high +light of what in reality is grey, rose-colored, or, in some way, not +white. + +§ 21. This method of study, being peculiarly characteristic of the Roman +and Florentine schools, and associated with very accurate knowledge of +form and expression, has gradually got to be thought by a large body of +artists the _grand_ way of study; an idea which has been fostered all +the more because it was an unnatural way, and therefore thought to be a +philosophical one. Almost the first idea of a child, or of a simple +person looking at anything, is, that it is a red, or a black, or a +green, or a white thing. Nay, say the artists; that is an +unphilosophical and barbarous view of the matter. Red and white are mere +vulgar appearances; look farther into the matter, and you will see such +and such wonderful other appearances. Abstract those, _they_ are the +heroic, epic, historic, and generally eligible appearances. And acting +on this grand principle, they draw flesh white, leaves white, ground +white, everything white in the light, and everything black in the +shade--and think themselves wise. But, the longer I live, the more +ground I see to hold in high honor a certain sort of childishness or +innocent susceptibility. Generally speaking, I find that when we first +look at a subject, we get a glimpse of some of the greatest truths about +it: as we look longer, our vanity, and false reasoning, and +half-knowledge, lead us into various wrong opinions; but as we look +longer still, we gradually return to our first impressions, only with a +full understanding of their mystical and innermost reasons; and of much +beyond and beside them, not then known to us, now added (partly as a +foundation, partly as a corollary) to what at first we felt or saw. It +is thus eminently in this matter of color. Lay your hand over the page +of this book,--any child or simple person looking at the hand and book, +would perceive, as the main fact of the matter, that a brownish pink +thing was laid over a white one. The grand artist comes and tells you +that your hand is not pink, and your paper is not white. He shades your +fingers and shades your book, and makes you see all manner of starting +veins, and projecting muscles, and black hollows, where before you saw +nothing but paper and fingers. But go a little farther, and you will get +more innocent again; you will find that, when "science has done its +worst, two and two still make four;" and that the main and most +important facts about your hand, so seen, are, after all, that it has +four fingers and a thumb--showing as brownish pink things on white +paper. + +§ 22. I have also been more and more convinced, the more I think of it, +that in general _pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes_. All the +other passions do occasional good, but whenever pride puts in _its_ +word, everything goes wrong, and what it might really be desirable to +do, quietly and innocently, it is mortally dangerous to do, proudly. +Thus, while it is very often good for the artist to make _studies_ of +things, for the sake of knowing their forms, with their high lights all +white, the moment he does this in a haughty way, and thinks himself +drawing in the great style, because he leaves high lights white, it is +all over with him; and half the degradation of art in modern times has +been owing to endeavors, much fostered by the metaphysical Germans, to +see things without color, as if color were a vulgar thing, the result +being, in most students, that they end by not being able to see anything +at all; whereas the true and perfect way of studying any object is +simply to look what its color is in high light, and put that safely +down, if possible; or, if you are making a chiaroscuro study, to take +the grey answering to that color, and cover the _whole_ object at once +with that grey, firmly resolving that no part of it shall be brighter +than that; then look for the darkest part of it, and if, as is probable, +its darkest part be still a great deal lighter than black, or than other +things about it, assume a given shade, as dark as, with due reference to +other things, you can have it, but no darker. Mark that for your extreme +dark on the object, and between those limits get as much drawing as you +can, by subtlety of gradation. That will tax your powers of drawing +indeed; and you will find this, which seems a childish and simple way of +going to work, requires verily a thousandfold more power to carry out +than all the pseudo-scientific abstractions that ever were invented. + +§ 23. Nor can it long be doubted that it is also the most impressive way +to others; for the third great advantage possessed by the colorists is, +that the delightfulness of their picture, its sacredness, and general +nobleness, are increased exactly in proportion to the quantity of light +and of lovely color they can introduce in _the shadows_, as opposed to +the black and grey of the chiaroscurists. I have already, in the Stones +of Venice, vol. ii. chap. v., insisted upon the fact of the sacredness of +color, and its necessary connection with all pure and noble feeling. What +we have seen of the use of color by the poets will help to confirm this +truth; but perhaps I have not yet enough insisted on the simplest and +readiest to hand of all proofs,--the way, namely, in which God has +employed color in His creation as the unvarying accompaniment of all that +is purest, most innocent, and most precious; while for things precious +only in material uses, or dangerous, common colors are reserved. Consider +for a little while what sort of a world it would be if all flowers were +grey, all leaves black, and the sky _brown_. Imagine that, as completely +as may be, and consider whether you would think the world any whit more +sacred for being thus transfigured into the hues of the shadows in +Raphael's Transfiguration. Then observe how constantly innocent things +are bright in color; look at a dove's neck, and compare it with the grey +back of a viper; I have often heard talk of brilliantly colored serpents; +and I suppose there are such,--as there are gay poisons, like the +foxglove and kalmia--types of deceit; but all the venomous serpents I +have really _seen_ are grey, brick-red, or brown, variously mottled; and +the most awful serpent I have seen, the Egyptian asp, is precisely of the +color of gravel, or only a little greyer. So, again, the crocodile and +alligator are grey, but the innocent lizard green and beautiful. I do not +mean that the rule is invariable, otherwise it would be more convincing +than the lessons of the natural universe are intended ever to be; there +are beautiful colors on the leopard and tiger, and in the berries of the +night-shade; and there is nothing very notable in brilliancy of color +either in sheep or cattle (though, by the way, the velvet of a brown +bull's hide in the sun, or the tawny white of the Italian oxen, is, to my +mind, lovelier than any leopard's or tiger's skin); but take a wider view +of nature, and compare generally rainbows, sunrises, roses, violets, +butterflies, birds, gold-fish, rubies, opals, and corals, with +alligators, hippopotami, lions, wolves, bears, swine, sharks, slugs, +bones, fungi,[21] frogs, and corrupting, stinging, destroying things in +general, and you will feel then how the question stands between the +colorists and chiaroscurists,--which of them have nature and life on +their side, and which have sin and death. + +§ 24. Finally: the ascertainment of the sanctity of color is not left to +human sagacity. It is distinctly stated in Scripture. I have before +alluded to the sacred chord of color (blue, purple, and scarlet, with +white and gold) as appointed in the Tabernacle; this chord is the fixed +base of all coloring with the workmen of every great age; the purple and +scarlet will be found constantly employed by noble painters, in various +unison, to the exclusion in general of pure crimson;--it is the harmony +described by Herodotus as used in the battlements of Ecbatana, and the +invariable base of all beautiful missal-painting; the mistake +continually made by modern restorers, in supposing the purple to be a +faded crimson, and substituting full crimson for it, being instantly +fatal to the whole work, as, indeed, the slightest modification of any +hue in a perfect color-harmony must always be.[22] In this chord the +scarlet is the powerful color, and is on the whole the most perfect +representation of abstract color which exists; blue being in a certain +degree associated with shade, yellow with light, and scarlet, as +absolute _color_, standing alone. Accordingly, we find it used, together +with cedar wood, hyssop, and running water, as an emblem of +purification, in Leviticus xiv. 4, and other places, and so used not +merely as the representative of the color of blood, since it was also to +be dipped in the actual blood of a living bird. So that the cedar wood +for its perfume, the hyssop for its searchingness, the water for its +cleansing, and the scarlet for its kindling or enlightening, are all +used as tokens of sanctification;[23] and it cannot be with any force +alleged, in opposition to this definite appointment, that scarlet is +used incidentally to illustrate the stain of sin,--"though thy sins be +as scarlet,"--any more than it could be received as a diminution of the +authority for using snow-whiteness as a type of purity, that Gehazi's +leprosy is described as being as "white as snow." An incidental image +has no authoritative meaning, but a stated ceremonial appointment has; +besides, we have the reversed image given distinctly in Prov. xxxi.: +"She is not afraid of the snow for her household, for all her household +are clothed with _scarlet_." And, again: "Ye daughters of Israel, weep +over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, with other delights." So, also, +the arraying of the mystic Babylon in purple and scarlet may be +interpreted exactly as we choose; either, by those who think color +sensual, as an image of earthly pomp and guilt, or, by those who think +it sacred, as an image of assumed or pretended sanctity. It is possible +the two meanings may be blended, and the idea may be that the purple and +fine linen of Dives are worn in hypocritical semblance of the purple and +fine linen of the high priest, being, nevertheless, themselves, in all +cases typical of all beauty and purity. I hope, however, to be able some +day to enter farther into these questions with respect to the art of +illumination; meantime, the facts bearing on our immediate subject may +be briefly recapitulated. All men, completely organized and justly +tempered, enjoy color; it is meant for the perpetual comfort and delight +of the human heart; it is richly bestowed on the highest works of +creation, and the eminent sign and seal of perfection in them; being +associated with _life_ in the human body, with _light_ in the sky, with +_purity_ and hardness in the earth,--death, night, and pollution of all +kinds being colorless. And although if form and color be brought into +complete opposition,[24] so that it should be put to us as a matter of +stern choice whether we should have a work of art all of form, without +color (as an Albert Durer's engraving), or all of color, without form +(as an imitation of mother-of-pearl), form is beyond all comparison the +more precious of the two; and in explaining the essence of objects, form +is essential, and color more or less accidental (compare Chap. v. of the +first section of Vol. I.); yet if color be introduced at all, it is +necessary that, whatever else may be wrong, _that_ should be right; just +as, though the music of a song may not be so essential to its influence +as the meaning of the words, yet if the music be given at all, _it_ must +be right, or its discord will spoil the words; and it would be better, +of the two, that the words should be indistinct, than the notes false. +Hence, as I have said elsewhere, the business of a painter is to paint. +If he can color, he is a painter, though he can do nothing else; if he +cannot color, he is no painter, though he may do everything else. But it +is, in fact, impossible, if he can color, but that he should be able to +do more; for a faithful study of color will always give power over form, +though the most intense study of form will give no power over color. The +man who can see all the greys, and reds, and purples in a peach, will +paint the peach rightly round, and rightly altogether; but the man who +has only studied its roundness, may not see its purples and greys, and +if he does not, will never get it to look like a peach; so that great +power over color is always a sign of large general art-intellect. +Expression of the most subtle kind can be often reached by the slight +studies of caricaturists;[25] sometimes elaborated by the toil of the +dull, and sometimes by the sentiment of the feeble, but to color well +requires real talent and earnest study, and to color perfectly is the +rarest and most precious power an artist can possess. Every other gift +may be erroneously cultivated, but this will guide to all healthy, +natural, and forcible truth; the student may be led into folly by +philosophers, and into falsehood by purists; but he is always safe if he +holds the hand of a colorist. + + +FOOTNOTES + + [13] Part II. Sec. II. Chap I. + + [14] Part III. Sec. I. Chap. V. + + [15] Light from above is the same thing with reference to our + present inquiry. + + [16] For which reason, I said in the Appendix to the third volume, + that the expression "finite realization of infinity" was a + considerably less rational one than "black realization of white." + + [17] The _color_, but not the form. I wanted the contour of the top + of the Breven for reference in another place, and have therefore + given it instead of that of the Bouchard, but in the proper depth of + tint. + + [18] Even here we shall be defeated by Nature, her utmost darkness + being deeper than ours. See Part II. Sec. II. Chap. I. § 4-7. etc. + + [19] When the clouds are brilliantly lighted, it may rather be, as + stated in § 4. above, in the proportion of 160 to 40. I take the + number 100 as more calculable. + + [20] It is often extremely difficult to distinguish properly between + the Leonardesque manner, in which local color is denied altogether, + and the Turneresque, in which local color at its highest point in + the picture is merged in whiteness. Thus, Albert Durer's noble + "Melancholia" is entirely Leonardesque; the leaves on her head, her + flesh, her wings, her dress, the wolf, the wooden ball, and the + rainbow, being all equally white on the high lights. But my drawing + of leaves, facing page 120, Vol. III., is Turneresque; because, + though I leave pure white to represent the pale green of leaves and + grass in high light, I give definite increase of darkness to four of + the bramble leaves, which, in reality, were purple, and leave a dark + withered stalk nearly black, though it is in light, where it crosses + the leaf in the centre. These distinctions could only be properly + explained by a lengthy series of examples; which I hope to give some + day or other, but have not space for here. + + [21] It is notable, however, that nearly all the poisonous agarics + are scarlet or speckled, and wholesome ones brown or gray, as if to + show us that things rising out of darkness and decay are always most + deadly when they are well drest. + + [22] Hence the intense absurdity of endeavoring to "restore" the + color of ancient buildings by the hands of ignorant colorists, as at + the Crystal Palace. + + [23] The redeemed Rahab bound for a sign a _scarlet_ thread in the + window. Compare Canticles iv. 3. + + [24] The inconsistency between perfections of color and form, which + I have had to insist upon in other places, is exactly like that + between articulation and harmony. We cannot have the richest harmony + with the sharpest and most audible articulation of words: yet good + singers will articulate clearly: and the perfect study of the + science of music will conduct to a fine articulation; but the study + of pronunciation will not conduct to, nor involve, that of harmony. + So, also, though, as said farther on, _subtle_ expression can be got + without color, perfect expression never can; for the color of the + face is a part of its expression. How often has that scene between + Francesca di Rimini and her lover been vainly attempted by + sculptors, simply because they did not observe that the main note of + expression in it was in the fair sheet-lightning--fading and flaming + through the cloud of passion! + + Per più flate gli occhi ci sospinse + Quella lettura, _e scolorocci il viso_. + + And, of course, in landscape, color is the principal source of + expression. Take one melancholy chord from the close of Crabbe's + Patron: + + "Cold grew the foggy morn; the day was brief, + Loose on the cherry hung the crimson leaf. + The dew dwelt ever on the herb; the woods + Roared with strong blasts; with mighty showers, the floods + All green was vanished, save of pine and yew + That still displayed their melancholy hue; + Save the green holly, with its berries red + And the green moss that o'er the gravel spread." + + [25] See Appendix 1. Modern Grotesque. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +OF TURNERIAN MYSTERY:--FIRST, AS ESSENTIAL. + + +§ 1. In the preceding chapters we have shown the nature of Turner's art; +first, as respected sympathy with his subject; next, as respected +fidelity in local detail; and thirdly, as respected principles of color. +We have now finally to confirm what in various places has been said +respecting his principles of _delineation_, or that mysterious and +apparently uncertain execution by which he is distinguished from most +other painters. + +In Chap. III. § 17 of the preceding volume we concluded generally that +all great drawing was _distinct_ drawing; but with reference, +nevertheless, to a certain sort of indistinctness, necessary to the +highest art, and afterwards to be explained. And the inquiry into this +seeming contradiction has, I trust, been made somewhat more interesting +by what we saw respecting modern art in the fourth paragraph of Chap. +XVI., namely, that it was distinguished from old art eminently by +_in_distinctness, and by its idle omission of details for the sake of +general effect. Perhaps also, of all modern artists, Turner is the one +to whom most people would first look as the great representative of this +nineteenth century cloudiness, and "ingenious speaking concerning +smoke;" every one of his compositions being evidently dictated by a +delight in seeing only a part of things rather than the whole, and in +casting clouds and mist around them rather than unveiling them. + +§ 2. And as the head of modern mystery, all the ranks of the best +ancient, and of even a very important and notable division of modern +authority, seem to be arrayed against him. As we saw in preceding +chapters, every great man was definite until the seventeenth century. +John Bellini, Leonardo, Angelico, Durer, Perugino, Raphael,--all of them +hated fog, and repudiated indignantly all manner of concealment. Clear, +calm, placid, perpetual vision, far and near; endless perspicuity of +space; unfatigued veracity of eternal light; perfectly accurate +delineation of every leaf on the trees, every flower in the fields, +every golden thread in the dresses of the figures, up to the highest +point of calm brilliancy which was penetrable to the eye, or possible to +the pencil,--these were their glory. On the other--the entirely +mysterious--side, we have only sullen and sombre Rembrandt; desperate +Salvator; filmy, futile Claude; occasionally some countenance from +Correggio and Titian, and a careless condescension or two from +Tintoret,[26]--not by any means a balanced weight of authority. Then, +even in modern times, putting Turner (who is at present the prisoner at +the bar) out of the question, we have, in landscape, Stanfield and +Harding as definers, against Copley Fielding and Robson on the side of +the clouds;[27] Mulready and Wilkie against Etty,--even Etty being not +so much misty in conception as vague in execution, and not, therefore, +quite legitimately to be claimed on the foggy side; while, finally, the +whole body of the Pre-Raphaelites--certainly the greatest men, taken as +a class, whom modern Europe has produced in concernment with the +arts--entirely agree with the elder religious painters, and do, to their +utmost, dwell in an element of light and declaration, in antagonism to +all mist and deception. Truly, the clouds seem to be getting much the +worst of it; and I feel, for the moment, as if nothing could be said for +them. However, having been myself long a cloud-worshipper, and passed +many hours of life in the pursuit of them from crag to crag, I must +consider what can possibly be submitted in their defence, and in +Turner's. + +§ 3. The first and principal thing to be submitted is, that the clouds +_are there_. Whether we like them or not, it is a fact that by far the +largest spaces of the habitable world are full of them. That is Nature's +will in the matter; and whatever we may theoretically determine to be +expedient or beautiful, she has long ago determined what shall _be_. We +may declare that clear horizons and blue skies form the most exalted +scenery; but for all that, the bed of the river in the morning will +still be traced by its line of white mist, and the mountain peaks will +be seen at evening only in the rents between their blue fragments of +towering cloud. Thus it is, and that so constantly, that it is +impossible to become a faithful landscape painter without continually +getting involved in effects of this kind. We may, indeed, avoid them +systematically, but shall become narrow mannerists if we do. + +§ 4. But not only is there a _partial_ and variable mystery thus caused +by clouds and vapors throughout great spaces of landscape; there is a +continual mystery caused throughout _all_ spaces, caused by the absolute +infinity of things. WE NEVER SEE ANYTHING CLEARLY. I stated this fact +partly in the chapter on Truth of Space, in the first volume, but not +with sufficient illustration, so that the reader might by that chapter +have been led to infer that the mystery spoken of belonged to some +special distance of the landscape, whereas the fact is, that everything +we look at, be it large or small, near or distant, has an equal quantity +of mystery in it; and the only question is, not how much mystery there +is, but at what part of the object mystification begins. We suppose we +see the ground under our feet clearly, but if we try to number its +grains of dust, we shall find that it is as full of confusion and +doubtful form as anything else; so that there is literally _no_ point of +clear sight, and there never can be. What we call seeing a thing +clearly, is only seeing enough of it to _make out what it is_; this +point of intelligibility varying in distance for different magnitudes +and kinds of things, while the appointed quantity of mystery remains +nearly the same for all. Thus: throwing an open book and an embroidered +handkerchief on a lawn, at a distance of half a mile we cannot tell +which is which; that is the point of mystery for the whole of those +things. They are then merely white spots of indistinct shape. We +approach them, and perceive that one is a book, the other a +handkerchief, but cannot read the one, nor trace the embroidery of the +other. The mystery has ceased to be in the whole things, and has gone +into their details. We go nearer, and can now read the text and trace +the embroidery, but cannot see the fibres of the paper, nor the threads +of the stuff. The mystery has gone into a third place. We take both up +and look closely at them; we see the watermark and the threads, but not +the hills and dales in the paper's surface, nor the fine fibres which +shoot off from every thread. The mystery has gone into a fourth place, +where it must stay, till we take a microscope, which will send it into a +fifth, sixth, hundredth, or thousandth place, according to the power we +use. When, therefore, we say, we see the book _clearly_, we mean only +that we know it is a book. When we say that we see the letters clearly, +we mean that we know what letters they are; and artists feel that they +are drawing objects at a convenient distance when they are so near them +as to know, and to be able in painting to show that they know, what the +objects are, in a tolerably complete manner; but this power does not +depend on any definite distance of the object, but on its size, kind, +and distance, together; so that a small thing in the foreground may be +precisely in the same _phase_ or place of mystery as a large thing far +away. + +§ 5. The other day, as I was lying down to rest on the side of the hill +round which the Rhone sweeps in its main angle, opposite Martigny, and +looking carefully across the valley to the ridge of the hill which rises +above Martigny itself, then distant about four miles, a plantain +seed-vessel about an inch long, and a withered head of a scabious half +an inch broad, happened to be seen rising up, out of the grass near me, +across the outline of the distant hill, so as seemingly to set +themselves closely beside the large pines and chestnuts which fringed +that distant ridge. The plantain was eight yards from me, and the +scabious seven; and to my sight, at these distances, the plantain and +the far away pines were equally clear (it being a clear day, and the sun +stooping to the west). The pines, four miles off, showed their branches, +but I could not count them; and two or three young and old Spanish +chestnuts beside them showed their broken masses distinctly; but I could +not count those masses, only I knew the trees to be chestnuts by their +general look. The plantain and scabious in like manner I knew to be a +plantain and scabious by their general look. I saw the plantain +seed-vessel to be, somehow, rough, and that there were two little +projections at the bottom of the scabious head which I knew to mean the +leaves of the calyx; but I could no more count distinctly the seeds of +the plantain, or the group of leaves forming the calyx of the scabious, +than I could count the branches of the far-away pines. + +§ 6. Under these circumstances, it is quite evident that neither the +pine nor plantain could have been rightly represented by a single dot or +stroke of color. Still less could they be represented by a definite +drawing, on a small scale, of a pine with all its branches clear, or of +a plantain with all its seeds clear. The round dot or long stroke would +represent nothing, and the clear delineation too much. They were not +mere dots of color which I saw on the hill, but something full of +essence of pine; out of which I could gather which were young and which +were old, and discern the distorted and crabbed pines from the +symmetrical and healthy pines; and feel how the evening sun was sending +its searching threads among their dark leaves;--assuredly they were more +than dots of color. And yet not one of their boughs or outlines could be +distinctly made out, or distinctly drawn. Therefore, if I had drawn +either a definite pine, or a dot, I should have been equally wrong, the +right lying in an inexplicable, almost inimitable, confusion between the +two. + +§ 7. "But is this only the case with pines four miles away, and with +plantains eight yards?" + +Not so. Everything in the field of sight is equally puzzling, and can +only be drawn rightly on the same difficult conditions. Try it fairly. +Take the commonest, closest, most familiar thing, and strive to draw it +verily as you see it. Be sure of this last fact, for otherwise you will +find yourself continually drawing, not what you _see_, but what you +_know_. The best practice to begin with is, sitting about three yards, +from a bookcase (not your own, so that you may _know_ none of the titles +of the books), to try to draw the books accurately, with the titles on +the backs, and patterns on the bindings, as you see them. You are not to +stir from your place to look what they are, but to draw them simply as +they appear, giving the perfect look of neat lettering; which, +nevertheless, must be (as you find it on most of the books) absolutely +illegible. Next try to draw a piece of patterned muslin or lace (of +which you do not know the pattern), a little way off, and rather in the +shade; and be sure you get all the grace and _look_ of the pattern +without going a step nearer to see what it is. Then try to draw a bank +of grass, with all its blades; or a bush, with all its leaves; and you +will soon begin to understand under what a universal law of obscurity we +live, and perceive that all _distinct_ drawing must be _bad_ drawing, +and that nothing can be right, till it is unintelligible. + +§ 8. "How! and Pre-Raphaelitism and Durerism, and all that you have been +talking to us about for these five hundred pages!" + +Well, it is all right; Pre-Raphaelitism is quite as unintelligible as +need be (I will answer for Durerism farther on). Examine your +Pre-Raphaelite painting well, and you will find it is the precise +fulfilment of these laws. You can make out your plantain head and your +pine, and see entirely what they are; but yet they are full of mystery, +and suggest more than you can see. So also with Turner, the true head of +Pre-Raphaelitism. You shall see the spots of the trout lying dead on the +rock in his foreground, but not count them. It is only the Germans and +the so-called masters of drawing and defining that are wrong, not the +Pre-Raphaelites.[28] + +Not, that is to say, so far as it is _possible_ to be right. No human +skill can get the absolute truth in this matter; but a drawing by Turner +of a large scene, and by Holman Hunt of a small one, are as close to +truth as human eyes and hands can reach. + +§ 9. "Well, but how of Veronese and all the firm, fearless draughtsmen +of days gone by?" + +They are indeed firm and fearless, but they are all mysterious. Not one +great man of them, but he will puzzle you, if you look close, to know +what he means. Distinct enough, as to his general intent, indeed, just +as Nature is distinct in her general intent; but examine his touches, +and you will find in Veronese, in Titian, in Tintoret, in Correggio, and +in all the great _painters_, properly so called, a peculiar melting and +mystery about the pencilling, sometimes called softness, sometimes +freedom, sometimes breadth; but in reality a most subtle confusion of +colors and forms, obtained either by the apparently careless stroke of +the brush, or by careful retouching with tenderest labor; but always +obtained in one way or another: so that though, when compared with work +that has no meaning, all great work is _distinct_,--compared with work +that has narrow and stubborn meaning, all great work is _in_distinct; +and if we find, on examining any picture closely, that it is all clearly +to be made out, it cannot be, as painting, first-rate. There is no +exception to this rule. EXCELLENCE OF THE HIGHEST KIND, WITHOUT +OBSCURITY, CANNOT EXIST. + +§ 10. "But you said that all authority was against Turner,--Titian's and +Veronese's, as well as that of the older painters." + +Yes, as regards his choice of misty or foggy subject, it is so; but in +this matter of mere _execution_, all the great painters are with him, +though at first he seems to differ from them, on account of that choice +of foggy subject; and because, instead of painting things under +circumstances when their general character is to be discerned at once +(as Veronese paints human figures close to us and the size of life), he +is always painting things twenty and thirty miles away, reduced to +unintelligible and eccentric shades. + +§ 11. "But how, then, of this foggy choice; can _that_ be right in +itself?" + +That we will discuss in the next chapter: let us keep at present to the +question of execution. + +"Keeping to that question, why is it that a photograph always looks +clear and sharp,--not at all like a Turner?" + +Photographs never look entirely clear and sharp; but because clearness +is supposed a merit in them, they are usually taken from very clearly +marked and un-Turnerian subjects; and such results as are misty and +faint, though often precisely those which contain the most subtle +renderings of nature, are thrown away, and the clear ones only are +preserved. Those clear ones depend for much of their force on the faults +of the process. Photography either exaggerates shadows, or loses detail +in the lights, and, in many ways which I do not here pause to explain, +misses certain of the utmost subtleties of natural _effect_ (which are +often the things that Turner has chiefly aimed at,) while it renders +subtleties of _form_ which no human hand could achieve. But a delicately +taken photograph of a truly Turnerian subject, is far more like Turner +in the drawing than it is to the work of any other artist; though, in +the system of chiaroscuro, being entirely and necessarily +Rembrandtesque, the subtle mystery of the touch (Turnerism carried to an +infinitely wrought refinement) is not usually perceived. + +§ 12. "But how of Van Eyck, and Albert Durer, and all the clear early +men?" + +So far as they are _quite_ clear, they are imperfect, and knowingly +imperfect, if considered as painters of real appearances; but by means +of this very imperfection or conventionalism, they often give certain +facts which are more necessary to their purpose than these outward +appearances. For instance, in Fig. 2 of Plate 25, facing page 32, I +requested Mr. Le Keux to facsimile, as far as might be, the look of the +daguerreotype; and he has admirably done so. But if Albert Durer had +drawn the wall between those towers, he would have represented it with +all its facts distinctly revealed, as in Fig. 1; and in many respects +this clear statement is precious, though, so far as regards ocular +truth, it is not natural. A modern sketcher of the "bold" school would +represent the tower as in Fig. 3; that is to say, in a manner just as +trenchant and firm, and therefore ocularly false, as Durer's; but, in +all probability, which involved entireness of fallacy or ignorance as +to the wall facts; rendering the work nearly valueless; or valuable only +in color or composition; not as draughtsmanship. + +Of this we shall have more to say presently, here we may rest satisfied +with the conclusion that to a perfectly great manner of painting, or to +entirely finished work, a certain degree of indistinctness is +indispensable. As all subjects have a mystery in _them_, so all drawing +must have a mystery in _it_; and from the nearest object to the most +distant, if we can quite make out what the artist would be at, there is +something wrong. The strokes of paint, examined closely, must be +confused, odd, incomprehensible; having neither beginning nor +end,--melting into each other, or straggling over each other, or going +wrong and coming right again, or fading away altogether; and if we can +make anything of them quite out, that part of the drawing is wrong, or +incomplete. + +§ 13. Only, observe, the method by which the confusion is obtained may +vary considerably according to the distance and scale of the picture +itself; for very curious effects are produced upon all paintings by the +distance of the eye from them. One of these is the giving a certain +softness to all colors, so that hues which would look coarse or bald if +seen near, may sometimes safely be left, and are left, by the great +workmen in their large works, to be corrected by the kind of _bloom_ +which the distance of thirty or forty feet sheds over them. I say, +"sometimes," because this optical effect is a very subtle one, and seems +to take place chiefly on certain colors, dead fresco colors especially; +also the practice of the great workmen is very different, and seems much +to be regulated by the time at their disposal. Tintoret's picture of +Paradise, with 500 figures in it, adapted to a supposed distance of from +fifty to a hundred feet, is yet colored so tenderly that the nearer it +is approached the better it looks; nor is it at all certain that the +color which is wrong near, will look right a little way off, or even a +great way off: I have never seen any of our Academy portraits made to +look like Titians by being hung above the line: still, distance _does_ +produce a definite effect on pictorial color, and in general an +improving one. It also deepens the relative power of all strokes and +shadows. A touch of shade which, seen near, is all but invisible, and, +as far as effect on the picture is concerned, quite powerless, will be +found, a little way off, to tell as a definite shadow, and to have a +notable result on all that is near it; and so markedly is this the case, +that in all fine and first-rate drawing there are many passages in which +if we _see_ the touches we are putting on, we are doing too much; they +must be put on by the feeling of the hand only, and have their effect on +the eye when seen in unison, a little way off. This seems strange; but I +believe the reason of it is, that, seen at some distance, the parts of +the touch or touches are gathered together, and their relations truly +shown; while, seen near, they are scattered and confused. On a large +scale, and in common things, the phenomenon is of constant occurrence; +the "dirt bands" on a glacier, for instance, are not to be counted on +the glacier itself, and yet their appearance is truly stated by +Professor Forbes to be "_one of great importance_, though from the two +circumstances of being _best seen at a distance_, or considerable +height, and in a feeble or slanting light, it had very naturally been +overlooked both by myself and others, like what are called blind paths +over moors, visible at a distance, but lost when we stand upon +them."[29] + +§ 14. Not only, however, does this take place in a picture very notably, +so that a group of touches will tell as a compact and intelligible mass, +a little way off, though confused when seen near; but also a dark touch +gains at a little distance in apparent _darkness_, a light touch in +apparent _light_, and a colored touch in apparent color, to a degree +inconceivable by an unpractised person; so that literally, a good +painter is obliged, working near his picture, to do in everything only +about half of what he wants, the rest being done by the distance. And if +the effect, at such distance, is to be of confusion, then sometimes seen +near, the work must be a confusion worse confounded, almost utterly +unintelligible; hence the amazement and blank wonder of the public at +some of the finest passages of Turner, which look like a mere +meaningless and disorderly work of chance; but, rightly understood, are +preparations for a given result, like the most subtle moves of a game of +chess, of which no bystander can for a long time see the intention, but +which are, in dim, underhand, wonderful way, bringing out their +foreseen and inevitable result. + +§ 15. And, be it observed, no other means would have brought out that +result. Every distance and size of picture has its own proper method of +work; the artist will necessarily vary that method somewhat according to +circumstances and expectations: he may sometimes finish in a way fitted +for close observation, to please his patron, or catch the public eye; +and sometimes be tempted into such finish by his zeal, or betrayed into +it by forgetfulness, as I think Tintoret has been, slightly, in his +Paradise, above mentioned. But there never yet was a picture thoroughly +effective at a distance, which did not look more or less unintelligible +near. Things which in distant effect are folds of dress, seen near are +only two or three grains of golden color set there apparently by chance; +what far off is a solid limb; near is a grey shade with a misty outline, +so broken that it is not easy to find its boundary; and what far off may +perhaps be a man's face, near, is only a piece of thin brown color, +enclosed by a single flowing wave of a brush loaded with white, while +three brown touches across one edge of it, ten feet away, become a mouth +and eyes. The more subtle the power of the artist, the more curious the +difference will be between the apparent means and the effect produced; +and one of the most sublime feelings connected with art consists in the +perception of this very strangeness, and in a sympathy with the +foreseeing and foreordaining power of the artist. In Turner, Tintoret, +and Paul Veronese, the intenseness of perception, first, as to what is +to be done, and then, of the means of doing it, is so colossal, that I +always feel in the presence of their pictures just as other people would +in that of a supernatural being. Common talkers use the word "magic" of +a great painter's power without knowing what they mean by it. They mean +a great truth. That power _is_ magical; so magical, that, well +understood, no enchanter's work could be more miraculous or more +_appalling_; and though I am not often kept from saying things by +timidity, I should be afraid of offending the reader, if I were to +define to him accurately the kind and the degree of awe, with which I +have stood before Tintoret's Adoration of the Magi, at Venice, and +Veronese's Marriage in Cana, in the Louvre. + +§ 16. It will now, I hope, be understood how easy it is for dull artists +to mistake the mystery of great masters for carelessness, and their +subtle concealment of intention for want of intention. For one person +who can perceive the delicacy, invention, and veracity of Tintoret or +Reynolds[30] there are thousands who can perceive the dash of the brush +and the confusion of the color. They suppose that the merit consists in +dash and confusion, and that they may easily rival Reynolds by being +unintelligible, and Tintoret by being impetuous. But I assure them, very +seriously, that obscurity is _not_ always admirable, nor impetuosity +always right; that disorder does not necessarily imply discretion, nor +haste, security. It is sometimes difficult to understand the words of a +deep thinker; but it is equally difficult to understand an idiot; and +young students will find it, on the whole, the best thing they can do to +strive to be _clear_;[31] not affectedly clear, but manfully and firmly. +Mean something, and say something, whenever you touch canvas; yield +neither to the affectation of precision nor of speed, and trust to time, +and your honest labor, to invest your work gradually, in such measure +and kind as your genius can reach, with the tenderness that comes of +love, and the mystery that comes of power. + + +FOOTNOTES + + [26] In the clouds around Mount Sinai, in the picture of the Golden + Calf; the smoke turning into angels, in the Cenacolo in San Giorgio + Maggiore; and several other such instances. + + [27] Stanfield I call a definer, as opposed to Copley Fielding, + because, though, like all other moderns, he paints cloud and storm, + he will generally paint all the masts and yards of a ship, rather + than merely her black bows glooming through the foam; and all the + rocks on a hill side, rather than the blue outline of the hill + through the mist. + + [28] Compare, if at hand, my letter in the Times of the 5th of May, + 1854, on Hunt's Light of the World. I extract the passage bearing + chiefly on the point in question. + + "As far as regards the technical qualities of Mr. Hunt's painting, I + would only ask the spectator to observe this difference between true + Pre-Raphaelite work and its imitations. The true work represents all + objects exactly as they would appear in nature, in the position and + at the distances which the arrangement of the picture supposes. The + false work represents them with all their details, as if seen + through a microscope. Examine closely the ivy on the door in Mr. + Hunt's picture, and there will not be found in it a single clear + outline. All is the most exquisite mystery of color; becoming + reality at its due distance. In like manner, examine the small gems + on the robe of the figure. Not one will be made out in form, and yet + there is not one of all those minute points of green color, but it + has two or three distinctly varied shades of green in it, giving its + mysterious value and lustre. The spurious imitations of + Pre-Raphaelite work represent the most minute leaves and other + objects with sharp outlines, but with no variety of color, and with + none of the concealment, none of the infinity of nature." + + [29] Travels through the Alps, chap. viii. + + [30] Reynolds is usually admired for his dash and speed. His true + merit is in an ineffable subtlety combined with his speed. The + tenderness of some of Reynolds' touches is quite beyond telling. + + [31] Especially in distinction of species of things. It may be + doubtful whether in a great picture we are to represent the bloom + upon a grape, but never doubtful that we are to paint a grape so as + to be known from a cherry. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +OF TURNERIAN MYSTERY:--SECONDLY, WILFUL. + + +§ 1. In the preceding chapter we were concerned only with the mystery +necessary in all great art. We have yet to inquire into the nature of +that more special love of concealment in which Turner is the leading +representative of modern cloud-worship; causing Dr. Waagen sapiently to +remark that "he" had here succeeded in combining "a crude painted medley +with a general foggy appearance."[32] + +As, for defence of his universal indistinctness, my appeal was in the +last chapter to universal fact, so, for defence of this special +indistinctness, my first appeal is in this chapter to special fact. An +English painter justifiably loves fog, because he is born in a foggy +country; as an Italian painter justifiably loves clearness, because he +is born in a comparatively clear country. I have heard a traveller +familiar with the East complain of the effect in a picture of Copley +Fielding's, that "it was such very bad weather." But it ought not to be +bad weather to the English. Our green country depends for its life on +those kindly rains and floating swirls of cloud; we ought, therefore, to +love them and to paint them. + +§ 2. But there is no need to rest my defence on this narrow English +ground. The fact is, that though the climates of the South and East may +be _comparatively_ clear, they are no more absolutely clear than our own +northern air; and that wherever a landscape-painter is placed, if he +paints faithfully, he will have continually to paint effects of mist. +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 _notable_ 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. + +§ 3. Nor does it seem to me in any wise difficult to understand why they +should be thus appointed for enjoyment. In former parts of this work we +were able to trace a certain delightfulness in every visible feature of +natural things which was typical of any great spiritual truth; surely, +therefore, we need not wonder now, 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. + +§ 4. 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 seek knowledge +must always be right. Yet (as in all matters before observed,) wherever +_pride_ 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 perished in seeking light; and if we, who +are crushed before the moth, will not accept such mystery as is needful +for 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. + +§ 5. And going down from this great truth to the lower truths which are +types of it in smaller matters, we shall find, that as soon as people +try honestly to see all they can of anything, they come to a point where +a noble dimness begins. They see more than others; but the consequence +of their seeing more is, that they feel they cannot see all; and the +more intense their perception, the more the crowd of things which they +_partly_ see will multiply upon them; and their delight may at last +principally consist in dwelling on this cloudy part of their prospect, +somewhat casting away or aside what to them has become comparatively +common, but is perhaps the sum and substance of all that other people +see in the thing, for the utmost subtleties and shadows and glancings of +it cannot be caught but by the most practised vision. And as a delicate +ear rejoices in the slighter and more modulated passages of sound which +to a blunt ear are utterly monotonous in their quietness, or +unintelligible in their complication, so, when the eye is exquisitely +keen and clear, it is fain to rest on grey films of shade, and wandering +rays of light, and intricacies of tender form, passing over hastily, as +unworthy or commonplace, what to a less educated sense appears the whole +of the subject.[33] In painting, this progress of the eye is marked +always by one consistent sign--its sensibility, namely, to effects of +_gradation_ in light and color, and habit of looking for them, rather +even than for the signs of the essence of the subject. It will, indeed, +see more of that essence than is seen by other eyes; and its choice of +the points to be seized upon will be always regulated by that special +sympathy which we have above examined as the motive of the Turnerian +picturesque; but yet, the more it is cultivated, the more of light and +color it will perceive, the less of substance. + +[Illustration: J. Ruskin. 1 2 3 4 + 26. The Law of Evanescence.] + +§ 6. Thus, when the eye is quite uncultivated, it sees that a man is a +man, and a face is a face, but has no idea what shadows or lights fall +upon the form or features. Cultivate it to some degree of artistic +power, and it will then see shadows distinctly, but only the more +vigorous of them. Cultivate it still farther, and it will see light +within light, and shadow within shadow, and will continually refuse to +rest in what it had already discovered, that it may pursue what is more +removed and more subtle, until at last it comes to give its chief +attention and display its chief power on gradations which to an +untrained faculty are partly matters of indifference, and partly +imperceptible. That these subtle gradations have indeed become matters +of primal importance to it, may be ascertained by observing that they +are the things it will last part with, as the object retires into +distance; and that, though this distance may become so great as to +render the real nature of the object quite undiscernible, the gradations +of light upon it will not be lost. + +§ 7. For instance, Fig. 1, on the opposite page, Plate 26, is a +tolerably faithful rendering of the look of a wall tower of a Swiss town +as it would be seen within some hundred yards of it. Fig. 2 is (as +nearly as I can render it) a facsimile of Turner's actual drawing of +this tower, at a presumed distance of about half a mile. It has far less +of intelligible delineation, either of windows, cornices, or tiles; but +intense care has still been given to get the pearly roundness of the +side, and the exact relations of all the tones of shade. And now, if +Turner wants to remove the tower still farther back, he will gradually +let the windows and stones all disappear together, before he will quit +his shadows and delicately centralized rays. At Fig. 3 the tower is +nearly gone, but the pearly roundness of it and principal lights of it +are there still. At Fig. 4 (Turner's ultimate condition in distance) +the essence of the thing is quite unintelligible; we cannot answer for +its being a tower at all. But the gradations of light are still there, +and as much pains have been taken to get them as in any of the other +instances. A vulgar artist would have kept something of the form of the +tower, expressing it by a few touches; and people would call it a clever +drawing. Turner lets the tower melt into air, but still he works half an +hour or so over those delicate last gradations, which perhaps not many +people in England besides himself can fully see, as not many people can +understand the final work of a great mathematician. I assume, of course, +in this example, that the tower, as it grows less and less distinct, +becomes part of the subject of a _larger_ picture. Fig. 1 represents +nearly what Turner's treatment of it would be if it were the principal +subject of a vignette; and Fig. 4 his treatment of it as an object in +the extreme distance of a large oil picture. If at the same supposed +distance it entered into a smaller drawing, so as to be much smaller in +size, he might get the gradations with less trouble, sometimes even by a +single sweep of the brush; but _some_ gradation would assuredly be +retained, though the tower were diminished to the height of one of the +long letters of this type. + +§ 8. "But is Turner right in doing this?" + +Yes. The truth is indeed so. If you watch any object as it fades in +distance, it will lose gradually its force, its intelligibility, its +anatomy, its whole comprehensible being; but it will _never_ lose its +gradation of light. Up to the last moment, what light is seen on it, +feebly glimmering and narrowed almost to a point or a line, is still +full of change. One part is brighter than another, and brighter with as +lovely and tender increase as it was when nearest to us; and at last, +though a white house ten miles away will be seen only as a small square +spot of light, its windows, doors, or roof, being as utterly invisible +as if they were not in existence, the gradation of its light will not be +lost; one part of the spot will be seen to be brighter than another. + +§ 9. Is there not a deep meaning in this? We, in our daily looking at +the thing, think that its own make is the most important part of it. +Windows and porticos, eaves and cornices, how interesting and how useful +are they! Surely, the chief importance of the thing is in these. No; not +in these; but in the play of the light of heaven upon it. There is a +place and time when all those windows and porticos will be lost sight +of; when the only question becomes, "what light had it?" How much of +heaven was looking upon it? What were the broad relations of it, in +light and darkness, to the sky and earth, and all things around it? It +might have strange humors and ways of its own--many a rent in its wall, +and many a roughness on its roof; or it might have many attractivenesses +and noblenesses of its own--fair mouldings and gay ornaments; but the +time comes when all these are vain, and when the slight, wandering +warmth of heaven's sunshine which the building itself felt not, and not +one eye in a thousand saw, becomes all in all. I leave the reader to +follow out the analogies of this. + +§ 10. "Well, but," it is still objected, "if this be so, why is it +necessary to insist, as you do always, upon the most minute and careful +renderings of form?" + +Because, though these gradations of light are indeed, as an object dies +in distance, the only things it can retain, yet as it lives its active +life near us, those very gradations can only be seen properly by the +effect they have on its character. You can only show how the light +affects the object, by knowing thoroughly what the object is; and noble +mystery differs from ignoble, in being a veil thrown between us and +something definite, known, and substantial; but the ignoble mystery is a +veil cast before chaos, the studious concealment of Nothing. + +§ 11. There is even a way in which the very definiteness of Turner's +knowledge adds to the mystery of his pictures. In the course of the +first volume I had several times occasion to insist on the singular +importance of cast shadows, and the chances of their sometimes gaining +supremacy in visibility over even the things that cast them. Now a cast +shadow is a much more curious thing than we usually suppose. The strange +shapes it gets into--the manner in which it stumbles over everything +that comes in its way, and frets itself into all manner of fantastic +schism, taking neither the shape of the thing that casts it, nor of that +it is cast upon, but an extraordinary, stretched, flattened, fractured, +ill-jointed anatomy of its own--cannot be imagined until one is actually +engaged in shadow-hunting. If any of these wayward umbræ are faithfully +remembered and set down by the painter, they nearly always have an +unaccountable look, quite different from anything one would have +invented or philosophically conjectured for a shadow; and it constantly +happens, in Turner's distances, that such strange pieces of broken +shade, accurately remembered, or accurately invented, as the case may +be, cause a condition of unintelligibility, quaint and embarrassing +almost in exact proportion to the amount of truth it contains. + +§ 12. I believe the reader must now sufficiently perceive that the right +of being obscure is not one to be lightly claimed; it can only be +founded on long effort to be intelligible, and on the present power of +_being_ intelligible to the exact degree which the nature of the thing +admits. Nor shall we, I hope, any more have difficulty in understanding +how the noble mystery and the ignoble, though direct opposites, are yet +continually mistaken for each other--the last aping the first; and the +most wretched artists taking pride in work which is simply slurred, +slovenly, ignorant, empty, and insolent, as if it were nobly mysterious +(just as a drunkard who cannot articulate supposes himself oracular); +whereas the noble art-mystery, as all noble language-mystery, is reached +only by intense labor. Striving to speak with uttermost truth of +expression, weighing word against word, and wasting none, the great +speaker, or writer, toils first into perfect intelligibleness, then, as +he reaches to higher subject, and still more concentrated and wonderful +utterance, he becomes ambiguous--as Dante is ambiguous,--half a dozen +different meanings lightening out in separate rays from every word, and, +here and there, giving rise to much contention of critics as to what the +intended meaning actually was. But it is no drunkard's babble for all +that, and the men who think it so, at the third hour of the day, do not +highly honor _themselves_ in the thought. + +§ 13. And now observe how perfectly the conclusions arrived at here +consist with those of the third chapter, and how easily we may +understand the meaning of that vast weight of authority which we found +at first ranged against the clouds, and strong in arms on the side of +intelligibility. Nearly all great men must, for the reasons above given, +be intelligible. Even, if they are to be the greatest, still they must +struggle through intelligibility to obscurity; if of the second class, +then the best thing they can do, all their lives through, is to be +intelligible. Therefore the enormous majority of all good and true men +will be _clear_ men; and the drunkards, sophists, and sensualists will, +for the most part, sink back into the fog-bank, and remain wrapt in +darkness, unintelligibility, and futility. Yet, here and there, once in +a couple of centuries, one man will rise past clearness, and become dark +with excess of light. + +§ 14. "Well, then, you mean to say that the tendency of this age to +general cloudiness, as opposed to the old religious clearness of +painting, is one of degradation; but that Turner is this one man who has +risen _past_ clearness?" + +Yes. With some modifications of the saying, I mean that; but those +modifications will take us a little time to express accurately. + +For, first, it will not do to condemn every minor painter utterly, the +moment we see he is foggy. Copley Fielding, for instance, was a minor +painter; but his love of obscurity in rain clouds, and dew-mist on +downs, was genuine love, full of sweetness and happy aspiration; and, in +this way, a little of the light of the higher mystery is often caught by +the simplest men when they keep their hearts open. + +§ 15. Neither will it be right to set down every painter for a great +man, the moment we find he is clear; for there is a hard and vulgar +intelligibility of nothingness, just as there is an ambiguity of +nothingness. And as often, in conversation, a man who speaks but badly +and indistinctly has, nevertheless, got much to say; and a man who +speaks boldly and plainly may yet say what is little worth hearing; so, +in painting, there are men who can express themselves but blunderingly, +and yet have much in them to express; and there are others who talk with +great precision, whose works are yet very impertinent and untrustworthy +assertions. Sir Joshua Reynolds is full of fogginess and shortcomings as +compared with either of the Caraccis; but yet one Sir Joshua is worth +all the Caraccis in Europe; and so, in our modern water-color societies, +there are many men who define clearly enough, all whose works, put +together, are not worth a careless blot by Cox or Barrett. + +§ 16. Let me give one illustration more, which will be also of some +historical usefulness in marking the relations of the clear and obscure +schools. + +We have seen, in our investigation of Greek landscape, Homer's intense +love of the aspen poplar. For once, in honor of Homer and the Greeks, I +will take an aspen for the subject of comparison, and glance at the +different modes in which it would have been, or was, represented from +the earliest to the present stage of landscape art. + +The earliest manner which comes within our field of examination is that +of the thirteenth century. Fig. 1. Plate 27 is an aspen out of the wood +in which Absalom is slain, from a Psalter in my own possession, +executed, certainly, after the year 1250, and before 1272; the other +trees in the wood being, first, of course, the oak in which Absalom is +caught, and a sycamore. All these trees are somewhat more conventional +than is even usual at the period; though, for this reason, the more +characteristic as examples of earliest work. There is no great botanical +accuracy until some forty years later (at least in painting); so that I +cannot be quite sure, the leaf not being flat enough at the base, that +this tree is meant for an aspen: but it is so in all probability; and, +whether it be or not, serves well enough to mark the definiteness and +symmetry of the old art,--a symmetry which, be it always observed, is +NEVER formal or unbroken. This tree, though it looks formal enough, +branches unequally at the top of the stem. But the lowest figure in +Plate 7, Vol. III. is a better example from the MS. Sloane, 1975, Brit. +Mus. Every plant in that herbarium is drawn with some approach to +accuracy, in leaf, root, and flower; while yet all are subjected to the +sternest conventional arrangement; colored in almost any way that +pleases the draughtsman, and set on quaint grounds of barred color, like +bearings on shields;[34] one side of the plant always balancing the +other, but never without some transgression or escape from the law of +likeness, as in the heads of the cyclamen flower, and several other +parts of this design. It might seem at first, that the root was more +carelessly drawn than the rest, and uglier in color; but this is in pure +conscientiousness. The workman knew that a root was ugly and +earthy; he would not make it ornamental and delicate. He would sacrifice +his pleasant colors and graceful lines at once for the radical fact; and +rather spoil his page than flatter a fibre. + +[Illustration: + 1. Ancient, or Giottesque. 4. Modern or Blottesque. + 2. Purist. 5. Constablesque. + 3. Turneresque. 6. Hardingesque. + 27. The Aspen, under Idealization.] + +[Illustration: 28. Aspen, Unidealized.] + +§ 17. Here, then, we have the first mediæval condition of art, +consisting in a fenced, but varied, symmetry; a perfect definiteness; +and a love of nature, more or less interfered with by conventionalism +and imperfect knowledge. Fig. 2 in Plate 27 represents the next +condition of mediæval art, in which the effort at imitation is +contending with the conventional type. This aspen is from the MS. +Cotton, Augustus, A. 5, from which I have already taken an example of +rocks to compare with Leonardo's. There can be no doubt here about the +species of the tree intended, as throughout the MS. its illuminator has +carefully distinguished the oak, the willow, and the aspen; and this +example, though so small (it is engraved of the actual size), is very +characteristic of the aspen ramification; and in one point, of +ramification in general, namely, the division of the tree into two +masses, each branching outwards, not across each other. Whenever a tree +divides at first into two or three nearly equal main branches, the +secondary branches always spring from the outside of the divided ones, +just as, when a tree grows under a rock or wall, it shoots away from it, +never towards it. The beautiful results of this arrangement we shall +trace in the next volume; meantime, in the next Plate (28) I have drawn +the main[35] ramifications of a real aspen, growing freely, but in a +sheltered place, as far as may be necessary to illustrate the point in +question. + +§ 18. This example, Fig. 2 in Plate 27 is sufficiently characteristic of +the purist mediæval landscape, though there is somewhat more leaning to +naturalism than is usual at the period. The next example, Fig. 3, is +from Turner's vignette of St. Anne's Hill (Rogers's Poems, p. 214). +Turner almost always groups his trees, so that I have had difficulty in +finding one on a small scale and isolated, which would be characteristic +of him; nor is this one completely so, for I had no access to the +original vignette, it being, I believe, among the drawings that have +been kept from the public, now these four years, because the Chancery +lawyers do not choose to determine the meaning of Turner's perfectly +intelligible, though informal, will; and Mr. Goodall's engraving, which +I have copied, though right in many respects, is not representative of +the dotted touch by which Turner expressed the aspen foliage. I have +not, however, ventured to alter it, except only by adding the +extremities where they were hidden in the vignette by the trelliswork +above. + +The principal difference between the Turnerian aspen and the purist +aspen is, it will be seen, in the expression of lightness and confusion +of foliage, and roundness of the tree as a mass; while the purist tree, +like the thirteenth century one, is still flat. All attempt at the +expression of individual leaves is now gone, the tree being too far off +to justify their delineation; but the direction of the light, and its +gradations, are carefully studied. + +§ 19. Fig. 6 is a tolerable facsimile[36] of a little chalk sketch of +Harding's; quite inimitable in the quantity of life and truth obtained +by about a quarter of a minute's work; but beginning to show the faulty +vagueness and carelessness of modernism. The stems, though beautifully +free, are not thoroughly drawn or rounded; and in the mass of the tree, +though well formed, the tremulousness and transparency of leafage are +lost. Nor is it possible, by Harding's manner of drawing, to express +such ultimate truths; his execution, which, _in its way_, no one can at +all equal (the best chalk drawing of Calame and other foreign masters +being quite childish and feeble in comparison), is yet sternly limited +in its reach, being originally based on the assumption that nothing is +to be delicately drawn, and that the method is only good which insures +specious incompletion. + +It will be observed, also, that there is a leaning first to one side, +then to the other, in Harding's aspen, which marks the wild +picturesqueness of modernism as opposed to the quiet but stiff dignity +of the purist (Fig. 2); Turner occupying exactly the intermediate place. + +The next example (Fig. 5) is an aspen of Constable's, on the left in +the frontispiece to Mr. Leslie's life of him. Here we have arrived at +the point of total worthlessness, the tree being as flat as the old +purist one, but, besides, wholly false in ramification, idle, and +undefined in every respect; it being, however, just possible still to +discern what the tree is meant for, and therefore, the type of the worst +modernism not being completely established. + +§ 20. Fig. 4 establishes this type, being the ordinary condition of tree +treatment in our blotted water-color drawings; the nature of the tree +being entirely lost sight of, and no accurate knowledge, of any kind, +possessed or communicated. + +Thus, from the extreme of definiteness and light, in the thirteenth +century (the middle of the Dark Ages!), we pass to the extreme of +uncertainty and darkness, in the middle of the nineteenth century. + +As, however, the definite mediæval work has some faults, so the +indefinite modern work has some virtues, its very uncertainty enabling +it to appeal pleasantly to the imagination (though in an inky manner, as +described above, Vol. III. Chap. x. § 10), and sometimes securing +qualities of color which could no otherwise be obtained. It ought, +however, if we would determine its true standing, to be compared, not +with the somewhat forced and narrow decision of the thirteenth century, +but with the perfect and well-informed decision of Albert Durer and his +fellow-workmen. For the proper representation of these there was no room +in this plate; so, in Plate 25, above, on each side of the +daguerreotyped towers of Fribourg, I have given, Fig. 1, a Dureresque, +and Fig. 3, a Blottesque, version of the intermediate wall. The latter +version may, perhaps, be felt to have some pleasantness in its apparent +ease; and it has a practical advantage, in its capability of being +executed in a quarter of a minute, while the Dureresque statement +_cannot_ be made in less than a quarter of an hour. But the latter +embraces not only as much as is worth the extra time, but even an +infinite of contents, beyond and above the other, for the other is in no +single place clear in its assertion of _any_thing; whereas the +Dureresque work, asserting clearly many most interesting facts about the +grass on the ledges, the bricks of the windows, and the growth of the +foliage, is forever a useful and trustworthy record; the other forever +an empty dream. If it is a beautiful dream, full of lovely color and +good composition, we will not quarrel with it; but it can never be so, +unless it is founded first on the Dureresque knowledge, and suggestive +of it, through all its own mystery or incompletion. So that by all +students the Dureresque is the manner to be first adopted, and calmly +continued as long as possible; and if their inventive instincts do not, +in after life, _force_ them to swifter or more cloudy execution,--if at +any time it becomes a matter of doubt with them how far to surrender +their gift of accuracy,--let them be assured that it is best always to +err on the side of clearness; to live in the illumination of the +thirteenth century rather than the mysticism of the nineteenth, and vow +themselves to the cloister rather than to lose themselves in the desert. + +§ 21. I am afraid the reader must be tired of this matter; and yet there +is one question more which I must for a moment touch upon, in +conclusion, namely, the mystery of _clearness itself_. In an Italian +twilight, when, sixty or eighty miles away, the ridge of the Western +Alps rises in its dark and serrated blue against the crystalline +vermilion, there is still unsearchableness, but an unsearchableness +without cloud or concealment,--an infinite unknown, but no sense of any +veil or interference between us and it: we are separated from it not by +any anger or storm, not by any vain and fading vapor, but only by the +deep infinity of the thing itself. I find that the great religious +painters rejoiced in that kind of unknowableness, and in that only; and +I feel that even if they had had all the power to do so, still they +would not have put rosy mists and blue shadows behind their sacred +figures, but only the far-away sky and cloudless mountains. Probably the +right conclusion is that the clear and cloudy mysteries are alike noble; +but that the beauty of the wreaths of frost mist, folded over banks of +greensward deep in dew, and of the purple clouds of evening, and the +wreaths of fitful vapor gliding through groves of pine, and irised +around the pillars of waterfalls, is more or less typical of the kind of +joy which we should take in the imperfect knowledge granted to the +earthly life, while the serene and cloudless mysteries set forth that +belonging to the redeemed life. But of one thing I am well assured, that +so far as the clouds are regarded, not as concealing the truth of other +things, but as themselves true and separate creations, they are not +usually beheld by us with enough honor; we have too great veneration for +cloudlessness. My reasons for thinking this I will give in the next +chapter; here we have, I believe, examined as far as necessary, the +general principles on which Turner worked, and justified his adoption of +them so far as they contradicted preceding practice. + +It remains for us to trace, with more observant patience, the ground +which was marked out in the first volume; and, whereas in that volume we +hastily compared the truth of Turner with that of preceding +landscapists, we shall now, as closely as possible, examine the range of +what he himself has done and felt, and the way in which it is likely to +influence the future acts and thoughts of men. + +§ 22. And I shall attempt to do this, first, by examining what the real +effect of the things painted--clouds, or mountains, or whatever else +they may be--is, or ought to be, in general, on men's minds, showing the +grounds of their beauty or impressiveness as best I can; and then +examining how far Turner seems to have understood these reasons of +beauty, and how far his work interprets, or can take the place of +nature. But in doing this, I shall, for the sake of convenience, alter +the arrangement which I followed in the first volume; and instead of +examining the sky first, treat of it last; because, in many +illustrations which I must give of other things, I shall have to +introduce pieces of sky background which will all be useful for +reference when I can turn back to them from the end of the book, but +which I could not refer to in advance without anticipating all my other +illustrations. Nevertheless, some points which I have to note respecting +the meaning of the sky are so intimately connected with the subjects we +have just been examining, that I cannot properly defer their +consideration to another place; and I shall state them, therefore, in +the next chapter, afterwards proceeding, in the order I adopted in the +first volume, to examine the beauty of mountains, water, and vegetation. + + +FOOTNOTES + + [32] Art and Artists in England, vol. ii., p. 151. The other + characteristics which Dr. Waagen discovers in Turner are, "such a + looseness of treatment, such a total want of truth, as I never + before met with." + + [33] And yet, all these intricacies will produce for it another + whole; as simple and natural as the child's first conception of the + thing; only more comprehensive. See above, Chap. III., § 21. + + [34] Compare Vol. III. Chap. XIV. § 13. Touching the exact degree in + which ignorance or incapacity is mingled with wilful conventionalism + in this drawing, we shall inquire in the chapters on Vegetation. + + [35] Only the _main_ lines: the outer sprays have had no pains taken + with them, as I am going to put some leaves on them in next volume. + + [36] It is quite impossible to facsimile good free work. Both Turner + and Harding suffer grievously in this plate. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE FIRMAMENT. + + +§ 1. The task which we now enter upon, as explained in the close of the +preceding chapter, is the ascertaining as far as possible what the +proper effect of the natural beauty of different objects _ought_ to be +on the human mind, and the degree in which this nature of theirs, and +true influence, have been understood and transmitted by Turner. + +I mean to begin with the mountains, for the sake of convenience in +illustration; but, in the proper order of thought, the clouds ought to +be considered first; and I think it will be well, in this intermediate +chapter, to bring to a close that line of reasoning by which we have +gradually, as I hope, strengthened the defences around the love of +mystery which distinguishes our modern art; and to show, on final and +conclusive authority, what noble things these clouds are, and with what +feeling it seems to be intended by their Creator that we should +contemplate them. + +§ 2. 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 an +endeavor 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. + +§ 3. 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 or 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. + +§ 4. 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;"[37] 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. + +§ 5. 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 _anything_ 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 divided and aerial +state; or the waters which _fall_ and _flow_, from those which _rise_ +and _float_. Next, if we try this interpretation in the theological +sense of the word _Heaven_, 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."[38] +While farther, 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, oh 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." 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." + +§ 6. 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 plain meaning, or it has _no_ 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, and +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 +refine 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. + +§ 7. 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 _simple_ way, which _all_ 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 _flesh_, but, in the person of the Father, taken upon Him the +veil of our human _thoughts_, 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 labor; 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 _for us_ 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." + +§ 8. 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 simply 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 those heavens together as a scroll" to be an +equal and relative destruction with the "melting of the elements in +fervent heat;"[39] and I understand the making 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 forever, +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 divers +colors, of which the threads are purple and scarlet, and the +embroideries flame. + +§ 9. 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 cloud," and thus renews, in the +sound of every drooping swathe of rain, his promises of everlasting +love. "In them hath he set a _tabernacle_ for the sun;" whose burning +ball, which without the firmament would be seen 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 golden pavement is spread for +his chariot wheels at morning; 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 shower 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 colored 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." + + +FOOTNOTES + + [37] "God made + The firmament, expanse of liquid, pure, + Transparent, elemental air, diffused + In circuit to the uttermost convex + Of this great round." + + _Paradise Lost_, book vii. + + [38] The reader may refer to the following texts, which it is + needless to quote: Exod. xiii. 21, xvi. 10, xix. 9, xxiv. 16, xxxiv. + 5, Levit. xvi. 2, Num. x. 34, Judges v. 4, 1 Kings viii. 10, Ezek. + i. 4, Dan. vii. 13, Matt. xxiv. 30, 1 Thess. iv. 17, Rev. i. 7. + + [39] Compare also Job, xxxvi. 29, "The spreading of the clouds, and + the noise of his _tabernacle_;" and xxxviii. 33, "Knowest thou the + ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the + earth? canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds?" + + Observe that in the passage of Addison's well known hymn-- + + "The spacious firmament on high, + With all the blue ethereal sky, + And spangled heavens, a shining frame, + Their great Original proclaim"-- + + the writer has clearly the true distinctions in his mind; he does + not use his words, as we too often accept them, in vain tautology. + By the _spacious_ firmament he means the clouds, using the word + spacious to mark the true meaning of the Hebrew term: the blue + _ethereal_ sky is the real air or ether, blue above the clouds; the + heavens are the starry space, for which he uses this word, less + accurately, indeed, than the others, but as the only one available + for this meaning. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE DRY LAND. + + +§ 1. Having thus arrived at some apprehension of the true meaning and +noble offices of the clouds, we leave farther inquiry into their aspects +to another time, and follow the fixed arrangement of our subject; first, +to the crests of the mountains. Of these also, having seen in our review +of ancient and modern landscape various strange differences in the way +men looked upon them, it will be well in the outset to ascertain, as far +as may be, the true meaning and office. + +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 heaven be gathered +together unto one place, and let the dry land appear." + +We do not, perhaps, often enough consider the deep significance 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 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 a 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 _void_, for +it had been _without form_. The command that the waters should be +gathered was the command that the earth should be _sculptured_. The sea +was not driven to his place in suddenly restrained rebellion, but +withdrawn to his 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. + +§ 2. 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 endeavor 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. + +§ 3. 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 _sculpture_ 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 thou shalt return."[40] 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 slope, and the cottage +to nestle beneath their shadow. + +§ 4. And observe, two distinct ends were to be accomplished in the 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 +desert 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 _possible_;" +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, neglect 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 _lift_ the lowlands +_on their sides_. 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 fell 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. + +§ 5. And although this beauty seems at first, in its wildness, +inconsistent with the service of man, it is, in fact, more necessary to +his happy existence than all the level and easily subdued land which he +rejoices to possess. It seems almost an insult to the reader's +intelligence to ask him to dwell (as if they could be doubted) on the +_uses_ of the hills; and yet so little, until lately, have those uses +been understood, that, in the seventeenth century, one of the most +enlightened of the religious men of his day (Fleming), himself a native +of a mountain country, casting about for some reason to explain to +himself the existence of mountains, and prove their harmony with the +general perfectness of the providential government of creation, can +light upon this reason only, "They are inhabited by the beasts." + + + First use of mountains. To give motion to water. + +§ 6. It may not, therefore, even at this day, 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 far 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 those +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 _found_ its way. 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 fail, 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 mountain, 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, though it is not likely, have been in +great part excavated in early time 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, between 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. + +§ 7. 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 a reservoir 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 disposition of the beds of clay or rock raised from beneath the +bosom of the valley into ranks of enclosing hills. + + + Second use. To give motion to air. + +§ 8. The second great use of mountains is to maintain a constant change +in the currents and nature of the _air_. Such change would, of course, +have been partly caused by differences in soils 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, +and ascend or descend their ravines, altering both the temperature and +nature of the air as it passes, in a thousand different ways; 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 softly 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. + + + Third use. To give change to the ground. + +§ 9. The third great use of mountains is to cause perpetual change in +the _soils_ of the earth. Without such provisions 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 which swells the rivulets 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 below. + +And it is not, in reality, a degrading, but a true, large, and ennobling +view of the mountain ranges of the world, if we compare them to heaps of +fertile and fresh earth, laid up by a prudent gardener beside his garden +beds, whence, at intervals, he casts on them some scattering of new and +virgin ground. That which we so often lament as convulsion or +destruction is nothing else than the momentary shaking of the dust from +the spade. The winter floods, which inflict a temporary devastation, +bear with them the elements of succeeding fertility; the fruitful field +is covered with sand and shingle in momentary judgment, but in enduring +mercy; and the great river, which chokes its mouth with marsh, and +tosses terror along its shore, is but scattering the seeds of the +harvests of futurity, and preparing the seats of unborn generations. + +§ 10. 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,[41]--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 fearfulness 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 symbol: + + "Thy _righteousness_ is like the great mountains: + Thy _judgments_ are a great deep." + + +FOOTNOTES + + [40] "Surely the mountain falling cometh to nought, and the rock is + removed out of his place. The waters wear the stones: thou washest + away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and thou + destroyest the hope of man."--_Job_, xiv. 18, 19. + + [41] The _highest_ pasturages (at least so say the Savoyards) being + always the best and richest. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +OF THE MATERIALS OF MOUNTAINS:--FIRST, COMPACT CRYSTALLINES. + + +§ 1. In the early days of geological science, the substances which +composed the crust of the earth, as far as it could be examined, were +supposed to be referable to three distinct classes: the first consisting +of rocks which not only supported all the rest, but from which all the +rest were derived, therefore called "Primary;" the second class +consisting of rocks formed of the broken fragments or altered substance +of the primary ones, therefore called "Secondary;" and, thirdly, rocks +or earthy deposits formed by the ruins and detritus of both primary and +secondary rocks, called, therefore, "Tertiary." This classification was +always, in some degree, uncertain; and has been lately superseded by +more complicated systems, founded on the character of the fossils +contained in the various deposits, and on the circumstances of position, +by which their relative ages are more accurately ascertainable. But the +original rude classification, though of little, if any, use for +scientific purposes, was based on certain broad and conspicuous +phenomena, which it brought clearly before the popular mind. In this way +it may still be serviceable, and ought, I think, to be permitted to +retain its place, as an introduction to systems more defined and +authoritative. + +§ 2. For the fact is, that in approaching any large mountain range, the +ground over which the spectator passes, if he examine it with any +intelligence, will almost always arrange itself in his mind under three +great heads. There will be, first, the ground of the plains or valleys +he is about to quit, composed of sand, clay, gravel, rolled stones, and +variously mingled soils; which, if he has any opportunity,--at the banks +of a stream, or the sides of a railway cutting,--to examine to any +depth, he will find arranged in beds exactly resembling those of modern +sand-banks or sea-beaches, and appearing to have been formed under such +natural laws as are in operation daily around us. At the outskirts of +the hill district, he may, perhaps, find considerable eminences, formed +of these beds of loose gravel and sand; but, as he enters into it +farther, he will soon discover the hills to be composed of some harder +substance, properly deserving the name of rock, sustaining itself in +picturesque forms, and appearing, at first, to owe both its hardness and +its outlines to the action of laws such as do not hold at the present +day. He can easily explain the nature, and account for the distribution, +of the banks which overhang the lowland road, or of the dark earthy +deposits which enrich the lowland pasture; but he cannot so distinctly +imagine how the limestone hills of Derbyshire and Yorkshire were +hardened into their stubborn whiteness, or raised into their cavernous +cliffs. Still, if he carefully examines the substance of these more +noble rocks, he will, in nine cases out of ten, discover them to be +composed of fine calcareous dust, or closely united particles of sand; +and will be ready to accept as possible, or even probable, the +suggestion of their having been formed, by slow deposit, at the bottom +of deep lakes and ancient seas, under such laws of Nature as are still +in operation. + +§ 3. But, as he advances yet farther into the hill district, he finds +the rocks around him assuming a gloomier and more majestic condition. +Their tint darkens; their outlines become wild and irregular; and +whereas before they had only appeared at the roadside in narrow ledges +among the turf, or glanced out from among the thickets above the brooks +in white walls and fantastic towers, they now rear themselves up in +solemn and shattered masses far and near; softened, indeed, with strange +harmony of clouded colors, but possessing the whole scene with their +iron spirit; and rising, in all probability, into eminences as much +prouder in actual elevation than those of the intermediate rocks, as +more powerful in their influence over every minor feature of the +landscape. + +§ 4. And when the traveller proceeds to observe closely the materials of +which these noble ranges are composed, he finds also a complete change +in their internal structure. They are no longer formed of delicate sand +or dust--each particle of that dust the same as every other, and the +whole mass depending for its hardness merely on their closely cemented +unity; but they are now formed of several distinct substances, visibly +unlike each other; and not _pressed_ but _crystallized_ into one +mass,--crystallized into a unity far more perfect than that of the dusty +limestone, but yet without the least mingling of their several natures +with each other. Such a rock, freshly broken, has a spotty, granulated, +and, in almost all instances, sparkling, appearance; it requires a much +harder blow to break it than the limestone or sandstone; but, when once +thoroughly shattered, it is easy to separate from each other the various +substances of which it is composed, and to examine them in their +individual grains or crystals; of which each variety will be found to +have a different degree of hardness, a different shade of color, and a +different character of form. + +But this examination will not enable the observer to comprehend the +method either of their formation or aggregation, at least by any process +such as he now sees taking place around him; he will at once be driven +to admit that some strange and powerful operation has taken place upon +these rocks, different from any of which he is at present cognizant; and +farther inquiry will probably induce him to admit, as more than +probable, the supposition that their structure is in great part owing to +the action of enormous heat prolonged for indefinite periods. + +§ 5. Now, although these three great groups of rocks do indeed often +pass into each other by imperceptible gradations, and although their +peculiar aspect is never a severe indication of their relative ages, yet +their characters are for the most part so defined as to make a strong +impression on the mind of an ordinary observer, and their age is also +for the most part approximately indicated by their degrees of hardness, +and crystalline aspect. It does, indeed, sometimes happen that a soft +and slimy clay will pass into a rock like Aberdeen granite by +transitions so subtle that no point of separation can be determined; and +it very often happens that rocks like Aberdeen granite are of more +recent formation than certain beds of sandstone and limestone. But, in +spite of all these uncertainties and exceptions, I believe that unless +actual pains be taken to efface from the mind its natural impressions, +the idea of three great classes of rocks and earth will maintain its +ground in the thoughts of the general observer; that whether he desire +it or not, he will find himself throwing the soft and loose clays and +sands together under one head; placing the hard rocks, of a dull, +compact, homogeneous substance, under another head; and the hardest +rocks, of a crystalline, glittering, and various substance, under a +third head; and having done this, he will also find that, with certain +easily admissible exceptions, these three classes of rocks are, in every +district which he examines, of three different ages; that the softest +are the youngest, the hard and homogeneous ones are older, and the +crystalline are the oldest; and he will, perhaps, in the end, find it a +somewhat inconvenient piece of respect to the complexity and accuracy of +modern geological science, if he refuse to the three classes, thus +defined in his imagination, their ancient title of Tertiary, Secondary, +and Primary. + +§ 6. But however this may be, there is one lesson evidently intended to +be taught by the different characters of these rocks, which we must not +allow to escape us. We have to observe, first, the state of perfect +powerlessness, and loss of all beauty, exhibited in those beds of earth +in which the separated pieces or particles are entirely independent of +each other, more especially in the gravel whose pebbles have all been +_rolled into one shape_: secondly, the greater degree of permanence, +power, and beauty possessed by the rocks whose component atoms have some +affection and attraction for each other, though all of one kind; and +lastly, the utmost form and highest beauty of the rocks in which the +several atoms have all _different shapes_, _characters_, and _offices_; +but are inseparably united by some fiery process which has purified them +all. + +It can hardly be necessary to point out how these natural ordinances +seem intended to teach us the great truths which are the basis of all +political science; how the polishing friction which separates, the +affection which binds, and the affliction that fuses and confirms, are +accurately symbolized by the processes to which the several ranks of +hills appear to owe their present aspect; and how, even if the knowledge +of those processes be denied to us, that present aspect may in itself +seem no imperfect image of the various states of mankind: first, that +which is powerless through total disorganization; secondly, that which, +though united, and in some degree powerful, is yet incapable of great +effort or result, owing to the too great similarity and confusion of +offices, both in ranks and individuals; and finally, the perfect state +of brotherhood and strength in which each character is clearly +distinguished, separately perfected, and employed in its proper place +and office. + +§ 7. I shall not, however, so oppose myself to the views of our leading +geologists as to retain here the names of Primary, Secondary, and +Tertiary rocks. But as I wish the reader to keep the ideas of the three +classes clearly in his mind, I will ask his leave to give them names +which involve no theory, and can be liable, therefore, to no great +objections. We will call the hard, and (generally) central, masses +Crystalline Rocks, because they almost always present an appearance of +crystallization. The less hard substances, which appear compact and +homogeneous, we will call Coherent Rocks, and for the scattered débris +we will use the general term Diluvium. + +§ 8. All these substances agree in one character, that of being more or +less soft and destructible. One material, indeed, which enters largely +into the composition of most of them, flint, is harder than iron; but +even this, their chief source of strength, is easily broken by a sudden +blow; and it is so combined in the large rocks with softer substances, +that time and the violence of the weather invariably produce certain +destructive effects on their masses. Some of them become soft, and +moulder away; others break, little by little, into angular fragments or +slaty sheets; but all yield in some way or other; and the problem to be +solved in every mountain range appears to be, that under these +conditions of decay, the cliffs and peaks may be raised as high, and +thrown into as noble forms, as is possible, consistently with an +effective, though not perfect permanence, and a general, though not +absolute security. + +§ 9. Perfect permanence and absolute security were evidently in nowise +intended.[42] It would have been as easy for the Creator to have made +mountains of steel as of granite, of adamant as of lime; but this was +clearly no part of the Divine counsels: mountains were to be +destructible and frail; to melt under the soft lambency of the +streamlet; to shiver before the subtle wedge of the frost; to wither +with untraceable decay in their own substance; and yet, under all these +conditions of destruction, to be maintained in magnificent eminence +before the eyes of men. + +Nor is it in any wise difficult for us to perceive the beneficent +reasons for this appointed frailness of the mountains. They appear to be +threefold: the first, and the most important, that successive soils +might be supplied to the plains, in the manner explained in the last +chapter, and that men might be furnished with a material for their works +of architecture and sculpture, at once soft enough to be subdued, and +hard enough to be preserved; the second, that some sense of danger might +always be connected with the most precipitous forms, and thus increase +their sublimity; and the third, that a subject of perpetual interest +might be opened to the human mind in observing the changes of form +brought about by time on these monuments of creation. + +In order, therefore, to understand the method in which these various +substances break, so as to produce the forms which are of chief +importance in landscape, as well as the exquisite adaptation of all +their qualities to the service of men, it will be well that I should +take some note of them in their order; not with any mineralogical +accuracy, but with care enough to enable me hereafter to explain, +without obscurity, any phenomena dependent upon such peculiarities of +substance. + + + 1. CRYSTALLINE ROCKS. + +§ 10. 1st. CRYSTALLINE ROCKS.--In saying, above, that the hardest rocks +generally presented an appearance of "crystallization," I meant a +glittering or granulated look, somewhat like that of a coarse piece of +freshly broken loaf sugar. + + + Are always Compound. + +But this appearance may also exist in rocks of uniform and softer +substance, such as statuary marble, of which freshly broken pieces, put +into a sugar-basin, cannot be distinguished by the eye from the real +sugar. Such rocks are truly crystalline in structure; but the group to +which I wish to limit the term "crystalline," is not only thus +granulated and glittering, but is always composed of at least two, +usually three or four, substances, intimately mingled with each other in +the form of small grains or crystals, and giving the rock a more or less +speckled or mottled look, according to the size of the crystals and +their variety of color. It is a law of nature, that whenever rocks are +to be employed on hard service, and for great purposes, they shall be +thus composed. And there appear to be two distinct providential reasons +for this. + +§ 11. The first, that these crystalline rocks being, as we saw above, +generally the oldest and highest, it is from them that other soils of +various kinds must be derived; and they were therefore made a kind of +storehouse, from which, wherever they were found, all kinds of treasures +could be developed necessary for the service of man and other living +creatures. Thus the granite of Mont Blanc is a crystalline rock composed +of four substances; and in these four substances are contained the +elements of nearly all kinds of sandstone and clay, together with +potash, magnesia, and the metals of iron and manganese. Wherever the +smallest portion of this rock occurs, a certain quantity of each of +these substances may be derived from it, and the plants and animals +which require them sustained in health. + +The second reason appears to be that rocks composed in this manner are +capable of more interesting variety in form than any others; and as they +were continually to be exposed to sight in the high ranges, they were so +prepared as to be always as interesting and beautiful as possible. + + + And divisible into two classes, Compact Crystallines and Slaty + Crystallines. + +§ 12. These crystalline or spotted rocks we must again separate into two +great classes, according to the arrangement, in them, of the particles +of a substance called mica. It is not present in all of them; but when +it occurs, it is usually in large quantities, and a notable source of +character. It varies in color, occurring white, brown, green, red, and +black; and in aspect, from shining plates to small dark grains, even +these grains being seen, under a magnifier, to be composed of little +plates, like pieces of exceedingly thin glass; but with this great +difference from glass, that, whether large or small, the plates will not +easily break _across_, but are elastic, and capable of being bent into a +considerable curve; only if pressed with a knife upon the edge, they +will separate into any number of thinner plates, more and more elastic +and flexible according to their thinness, and these again into others +still finer; there seeming to be no limit to the possible subdivision +but the coarseness of the instrument employed. + +[Illustration: FIG. 3.] + +§ 13. Now, when these crystals or grains, represented by the black spots +and lines in Fig. 3, lie as they do at _a_ in that figure, in all +directions, cast hither and thither among the other materials of the +stone,--sometimes on their faces, sometimes on their sides, sometimes on +their edges,--they give the rock an irregularly granulated appearance +and structure, so that it will break with equal ease in any direction; +but if these crystals lie all one way, with their sides parallel, as at +_b_, they give the rock a striped or slaty look, and it will most +readily break in the direction in which they lie, separating itself into +folia or plates, more or less distinctly according to the quantity of +mica in its mass. In the example Fig. 4, a piece of rock from the top of +Mont Breven, there are very few of them, and the material with which +they are surrounded is so hard and compact that the whole mass breaks +irregularly, like a solid flint, beneath the hammer; but the plates of +mica nevertheless influence the fracture on a large scale, and occasion, +as we shall see hereafter, the peculiar form of the precipice at the +summit of the mountain.[43] + +The rocks which are destitute of mica, or in which the mica lies +irregularly, or in which it is altogether absent, I shall call Compact +Crystallines. The rocks in which the mica lies regularly I shall call +Slaty Crystallines. + +[Illustration: FIG. 4.] + + + COMPACT CRYSTALLINES. + +§ 14. 1st. Compact Crystallines.--Under this head are embraced the large +group of the granites, syenites, and porphyries,--rocks which all agree +in the following particulars:-- + + + Their first characteristic. _Speckledness._ + +A. Variety of color.--The method of their composition out of different +substances necessitates their being all more or less spotted or dashed +with various colors; there being generally a prevalent ground color, +with other subordinate hues broken over it, forming, for the most part, +tones of silver grey, of warm but subdued red, or purple. Now, there is +in this a very marvellous provision for the beauty of the central +ranges. Other rocks, placed lower among the hills, receive color upon +their surfaces from all kinds of minute vegetation; but these higher and +more exposed rocks are liable to be in many parts barren; and the wild +forms into which they are thrown necessitate their being often freshly +broken, so as to bring their pure color, untempered in anywise, frankly +into sight. Hence it is appointed that this color shall not be raw or +monotonous, but composed--as all beautiful color must be composed--by +mingling of many hues in one. Not that there is any aim at _attractive_ +beauty in these rocks; they are intended to constitute solemn and +desolate scenes; and there is nothing delicately or variously disposed +in their colors. Such beauty would have been inconsistent with their +expression of power and terror, and it is reserved for the marbles and +other rocks of inferior office. But their color is grave and perfect; +closely resembling, in many cases, the sort of hue reached by +cross-chequering in the ground of fourteenth-century manuscripts, and +peculiarly calculated for distant effects of light; being, for the most +part, slightly warm in tone, so as to receive with full advantage the +red and orange rays of sunlight. This warmth is almost always farther +aided by a glowing orange color, derived from the decomposition of the +iron which, though in small quantity, usually is an essential element in +them: the orange hue forms itself in unequal veins and spots upon the +surfaces which have been long exposed, more or less darkening them; and +a very minute black lichen,--so minute as to look almost like spots of +dark paint,--a little opposed and warmed by the golden Lichen +geographicus, still farther subdues the paler hues of the highest +granite rocks. Now, when a surface of this kind is removed to a distance +of four or five miles, and seen under warm light through soft air, the +orange becomes russet, more or less inclining to pure red, according to +the power of the rays: but the black of the lichen becomes pure dark +blue; and the result of their combination is that peculiar reddish +purple which is so strikingly the characteristic of the rocks of the +higher Alps. Most of the travellers who have seen the Valley of Chamouni +carry away a strong impression that its upper precipices are of red +rock. But they are, without exception, of a whitish grey, toned and +raised by this united operation of the iron, the lichen, and the light. + +§ 15. I have never had an opportunity of studying the effects of these +tones upon rocks of porphyry; but the beautiful color of that rock in +its interior substance has rendered it one of the favorite materials of +the architects of all ages, in their most costly work. Not that all +porphyry is purple; there are green and white porphyries, as there are +yellow and white roses; but the first idea of a porphyry rock is that it +shall be purple,--just as the first idea of a rose is that it shall be +red. The purple inclines always towards russet[44] rather than blue, and +is subdued by small spots of grey or white. This speckled character, +common to all the crystalline rocks, fits them, in art, for large and +majestic work; it unfits them for delicate sculpture; and their second +universal characteristic is altogether in harmony with this consequence +of their first. + + + Their second characteristic. _Toughness._ + +§ 16. This second characteristic is a tough hardness, not a brittle +hardness, like that of glass or flint, which will splinter violently at +a blow in the most unexpected directions; but a grave hardness, which +will bear many blows before it yields, and when it is forced to yield at +last, will do so, as it were, in a serious and thoughtful way; not +spitefully, nor uselessly, nor irregularly, but in the direction in +which it is wanted, and where the force of the blow is directed--there, +and there only. A flint which receives a shock stronger than it can +bear, gives up everything at once, and flies into a quantity of pieces, +each piece full of flaws. But a piece of granite seems to say to itself, +very solemnly: "If these people are resolved to split me into two +pieces, that is no reason why I should split myself into three. I will +keep together as well as I can, and as long as I can; and if I must fall +to dust at last, it shall be slowly and honorably; not in a fit of +fury." The importance of this character, in fitting the rock for human +uses, cannot be exaggerated: it is essential to such uses that it should +be hard, for otherwise it could not bear enormous weights without being +crushed; and if, in addition to this hardness, it had been brittle, like +glass, it could not have been employed except in the rudest way, as +flints are in Kentish walls. But now it is possible to cut a block of +granite out of its quarry to exactly the size we want; and that with +perfect ease, without gunpowder, or any help but that of a few small +iron wedges, a chisel, and a heavy hammer. A single workman can detach a +mass fifteen or twenty feet long, by merely drilling a row of holes, a +couple of inches deep, and three or four inches apart, along the +surface, in the direction in which he wishes to split the rock, and then +inserting wedges into each of these holes, and striking them, +consecutively, with small, light, repeated blows along the whole row. +The granite rends, at last, along the line, quite evenly, requiring very +little chiselling afterwards to give the block a smooth face. + +§ 17. This after-chiselling, however, is necessarily tedious work, and +therefore that condition of speckled color, which is beautiful if +exhibited in broad masses, but offensive in delicate forms, exactly +falls in with the conditions of _possible_ sculpture. Not only is it +more laborious to carve granite delicately, than a softer rock; but it +is physically impossible to bring it into certain refinements of form. +It cannot be scraped and touched into contours, as marble can; it must +be struck hard, or it will not yield at all; and to strike a delicate +and detached form hard, is to break it. The detached fingers of a +delicate hand, for instance, cannot, as far as I know, be cut in +granite. The smallest portion could not be removed from them without a +strength of blow which would break off the finger. Hence the sculptor of +granite is forced to confine himself to, and to seek for, certain types +of form capable of expression in his material; he is naturally driven to +make his figures simple in surface, and colossal in size, that they may +bear his blows; and this simplicity and magnitude are exactly the +characters necessary to show the granitic or porphyritic color to the +best advantage. And thus we are guided, almost forced, by the laws of +nature, to do right in art. Had granite been white, and marble speckled +(and why should this not have been, but by the definite Divine +appointment for the good of man?), the huge figures of the Egyptian +would have been as oppressive to the sight as cliffs of snow, and the +Venus de Medicis would have looked like some exquisitely graceful +species of frog. + + + Their third characteristic. _Purity in decomposition._ + +§ 18. The third universal characteristic of these rocks is their +decomposition into the purest sand and clay. Some of them decompose +spontaneously, though slowly, on exposure to weather; the greater number +only after being mechanically pulverized; but the sand and clay to which +by one or the other process they are reducible, are both remarkable for +their purity. The clay is the finest and best that can be found for +porcelain; the sand often of the purest white, always lustrous and +bright in its particles. The result of this law is a peculiar aspect of +purity in the landscape composed of such rocks. It cannot become muddy, +or foul, or unwholesome. The streams which descend through it may indeed +be opaque, and as white as cream with the churned substance of the +granite; but their water, after this substance has been thrown down, is +good and pure, and their shores are not slimy or treacherous, but of +pebbles, or of firm and sparkling sand. The quiet streams, springs, and +lakes are always of exquisite clearness, and the sea which washes a +granite coast is as unsullied as a flawless emerald. It is remarkable to +what extent this intense purity in the country seems to influence the +character of its inhabitants. It is almost impossible to make a cottage +built in a granite country look absolutely miserable. Rough it may +be,--neglected, cold, full of aspect of hardship,--but it never can look +_foul_; no matter how carelessly, how indolently, its inhabitants may +live, the water at their doors will not stagnate, the soil beneath their +feet will not allow itself to be trodden into slime, the timbers of +their fences will not rot, they cannot so much as dirty their faces or +hands if they try; do the worst they can, there will still be a feeling +of firm ground under them, and pure air about them, and an inherent +wholesomeness in their abodes which it will need the misery of years to +conquer. And, as far as I remember, the inhabitants of granite countries +have always a force and healthiness of character, more or less abated +or modified, of course, according to the other circumstances of their +life, but still definitely belonging to them, as distinguished from the +inhabitants of the less pure districts of the hills. + +These, then, are the principal characters of the compact crystallines, +regarded in their minor or detached masses. Of the peculiar forms which +they assume we shall have to speak presently; meantime, retaining these +general ideas touching their nature and substance, let us proceed to +examine, in the same point of view, the neighboring group of slaty +crystallines. + + +FOOTNOTES + + [42] I am well aware that to the minds of many persons nothing bears + a greater appearance of presumption than any attempt at reasoning + respecting the purposes of the Divine Being; and that in many cases + it would be thought more consistent with the modesty of humanity to + limit its endeavor to the ascertaining of physical causes than to + form conjectures respecting Divine intentions. But I believe this + feeling to be false and dangerous. Wisdom can only be demonstrated + in its ends, and goodness only perceived in its motives. He who in a + morbid modesty supposes that he is incapable of apprehending any of + the purposes of God, renders himself also incapable of witnessing + his wisdom; and he who supposes that favors may be bestowed without + intention, will soon learn to receive them without gratitude. + + [43] See Appendix 2. Slaty Cleavage. + + [44] As we had to complain of Dante for not enough noticing the + colors of rocks in wild nature, let us do him the justice to refer + to his noble symbolic use of their colors when seen in the hewn + block. + + "The lowest stair was marble white, so smooth + And polished that therein my mirrored form + Distinct I saw. The next of hue more dark + Than sablest grain, a rough and singed block, + Cracked lengthwise and across. The third, that lay + Massy above, seemed porphyry, that flamed + Red as the life-blood spouting from a vein." + + This stair is at the gate of Purgatory. The white step means + sincerity of conscience; the black, contrition; the purple (I + believe), pardon by the Atonement. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +OF THE MATERIALS OF MOUNTAINS:--SECONDLY, SLATY CRYSTALLINES. + + +§ 1. It will be remembered that we said in the last chapter (§ 4) that +one of the notable characters of the whole group of the crystallines was +the incomprehensibility of the processes which have brought them to +their actual state. This however is more peculiarly true of the slaty +crystallines. It is perfectly possible, by many processes of chemistry, +to produce masses of irregular crystals which, though not of the +substance of granite, are very like it in their mode of arrangement. +But, as far as I am aware, it is impossible to produce artificially +anything resembling the structure of the slaty crystallines. And the +more I have examined the rocks themselves, the more I have felt at once +the difficulty of explaining the method of their formation, and the +growing interest of inquiries respecting that method. The facts (and I +can venture to give nothing more than facts) are briefly these:-- + +§ 2. The mineral called mica, described in the course of the last +chapter, is closely connected with another, differing from it in +containing a considerable quantity of magnesia. This associated mineral, +called chlorite, is of a dull greenish color, and opaque, while the mica +is, in thin plates, more or less translucent; and the chlorite is apt to +occur more in the form of a green earth, or green dust, than of finely +divided plates. The original quantity of magnesia in the rock determines +how far the mica shall give place to chlorite; and in the intermediate +conditions of rock we find a black and nearly opaque mica, containing a +good deal of magnesia, together with a chlorite, which at first seems +mixed with small plates of true mica, or is itself formed of minute +plates or spangles, and then, as the quantity of magnesia increases, +assumes its proper form of a dark green earth. + +§ 3. By this appointment there is obtained a series of materials by +which the appearance of the rock may be varied to almost any extent. +From plates of brilliant white mica half a foot broad, flashing in the +sun like panes of glass, to a minute film of dark green dust hardly +traceable by the eye, an infinite range of conditions is found in the +different groups of rocks; but always under this general law, that, for +the most part, the compact crystallines present the purest and boldest +plates of mica; and the tendency to pass into slaty crystallines is +commonly accompanied by the change of the whiteness of the mica to a +dark or black color, indicating (I believe) the presence of magnesia, +and by the gradual intermingling with it of chloritic earth; or else of +a cognate mineral (differing from chlorite in containing a quantity of +lime) called hornblende. + +[Illustration: FIG. 5.] + +Such, at least, is eminently the case in the Alps; and in the account I +have to give of their slaty crystallines, it must be understood that in +using the word "mica" generally, I mean the more obscure conditions of +the mineral, associated with chlorite and hornblende. + +§ 4. Now it is quite easy to understand how, in the compact +crystallines, the various elements of the rock, separating from each +other as they congealed from their fluid state, whether of watery +solution or fiery fusion, might arrange themselves in irregular grains +as at _a_ in Fig. 3, p. 106. Such an arrangement constantly takes place +before our eyes in volcanic rocks as they cool. But it is not at all +easy to understand how the white, hard, and comparatively heavy +substances should throw themselves into knots and bands in one definite +direction, and the delicate films of mica should undulate about and +between them, as in Fig. 5 on page 114, like rivers among islands, +pursuing, however, on the whole, a straight course across the mass of +rock. If it could be shown that such pieces of stone had been formed in +the horizontal position in which I have drawn the one in the figure, the +structure would be somewhat intelligible as the result of settlement. +But, on the contrary, the lines of such foliated rocks hardly ever are +horizontal; neither can distinct evidence be found of their at any time +having been so. The evidence, on the contrary, is often strongly in +favor of their having been formed in the highly inclined directions in +which they now occur, such as that of the piece in Fig. 7, p. 117.[45] + +[Illustration: FIG. 6.] + +§ 5. Such, however, is the simple fact, that when the compact pact +crystallines are about to pass into slaty crystallines, their mica +throws itself into these bands and zones, undulating around knots of the +other substances which compose the rock. Gradually the knots diminish in +size, the mica becomes more abundant and more definite in direction, and +at last the mass, when broken across the beds, assumes the appearance of +Fig. 6 on the last page.[46] Now it will be noticed that, in the lines +of that figure, no less than in Fig. 5, though more delicately, there is +a subdued, but continual expression of _undulation_. This character +belongs, more or less, to nearly the whole mass of slaty crystalline +rocks; it is one of exquisite beauty, and of the highest importance to +their picturesque forms. It is also one of as great mysteriousness as +beauty. For these two figures are selected from crystallines whose beds +are remarkably straight; in the greater number the undulation becomes +far more violent, and, in many, passes into absolute contortion. Fig. 7 +is a piece of a slaty crystalline, rich in mica, from the Valley of St. +Nicolas, below Zermatt. The rock from which it was broken was thrown +into coils three or four feet across: the fragment, which is drawn of +the real size, was at one of the turns, and came away like a thick +portion of a crumpled quire of paper from the other sheets.[47] + +[Illustration: FIG. 7.] + + + Typical character of Slaty Crystallines. + +§ 6. I might devote half a volume to a description of the fantastic and +incomprehensible arrangement of these rocks and their veins; but all +that is necessary for the general reader to know or remember, is this +broad fact of the _undulation_ of their whole substance. For there is +something, it seems to me, inexpressibly marvellous in this phenomenon, +largely looked at. It is to be remembered that these are the rocks +which, on the average, will be oftenest observed, and with the greatest +interest, by the human race. The central granites are too far removed, +the lower rocks too common, to be carefully studied; these slaty +crystallines form the noblest hills that are easily accessible, and seem +to be thus calculated especially to attract observation, and reward it. +Well, we begin to examine them; and first, we find a notable hardness in +them, and a thorough boldness of general character, which make us regard +them as very types of perfect rocks. They have nothing of the look of +dried earth about them, nothing petty or limited in the display of their +bulk. Where they are, 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 farther into it, it is all touched and troubled, like waves by a +summer breeze; rippled, far more delicately than seas or lakes are +rippled; _they_ 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 indeed 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: "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 _trembled_; and all the hills _moved +lightly_." + + + Serviceable characters of the Slaty Crystallines. + + 1. Fitness for building with. + +§ 7. Thus far may we trace the apparent typical signification of the +structure of those noble rocks. The material uses of this structure are +not less important. These substances of the higher mountains, it is +always to be remembered, were to be so hard as to enable them to be +raised into, and remain in, the most magnificent forms; and this +hardness renders it a matter of great difficulty for the peasant to +break them into such masses as are required for his daily purposes. He +is compelled in general to gather the fragments which are to form the +walls of his house or his garden from the ruins into which the mountain +suffers its ridges to be naturally broken; and if these pieces were +absolutely irregular in shape, it would be a matter of much labor and +skill to build securely with them. But the flattened arrangement of the +layers of mica always causes the rock to break into flattish fragments, +requiring hardly any pains in the placing them so as to lie securely in +a wall, and furnishing light, broad, and unflawed pieces to serve for +slates upon the roof; for fences, when set edgeways into the ground; or +for pavements, when laid flat. + + + 2. Stability in débris. + +§ 8. Farther: whenever rocks break into utterly irregular fragments, the +masses of débris which they form are not only excessively difficult to +walk over, but the pieces touch each other in so few points, and suffer +the water to run so easily and so far through their cavities, that it +takes a long series of years to enable them either to settle themselves +firmly, or receive the smallest covering of vegetation. Where the +substance of the stone is soft, it may soon be worn down, so that the +irregular form is of less consequence. But in the hard crystallines, +unless they had a tendency to break into flattish fragments, their ruin +would remain for centuries in impassable desolation. The flat shape of +the separate pieces prevents this; it permits--almost necessitates--their +fitting into and over each other in a tolerably close mass, and thus they +become comparatively easy to the foot, less permeable to water, and +therefore retentive both of surface moisture and of the seeds of +vegetation. + + + 3. Security on declivities. + +§ 9. There is another result of nearly equal importance as far as +regards the habitableness of the hills. When stones are thrown together +in rounded or massy blocks, like a heap of hazel nuts, small force will +sometimes disturb their balance; and when once set in motion, a +square-built and heavy fragment will thunder down even a slightly +sloping declivity, with an impetus as unlikely to be arrested as fatal +in its increase. But when stones lie flatly, as dead leaves lie, it is +not easy to tilt any one of them upon its edge, so as to set it in +motion; and when once moved, it will nearly always slide, not roll, and +be stopped by the first obstacle it encounters, catching against it by +the edge, or striking into the turf where first it falls, like a +hatchet. Were it not for the merciful ordinance that the slaty +crystallines should break into thin and flattish fragments, the frequent +falls of stones from the hill sides would render many spots among the +greater mountain chains utterly uninhabitable, which are now +comparatively secure. + + + 4. Tendency to form the loveliest scenery. + +§ 10. Of the picturesque aspects which this mode of cleavage produces in +the mountains, and in the stones of the foreground, we shall have to +speak presently; with regard to the uses of the materials it is only +necessary to note farther that these slaty rocks are of course, by their +wilful way of breaking, rendered unfit for sculpture, and for nearly all +purposes of art; the properties which render them convenient for the +peasant in building his cottage, making them unavailable for the +architecture of more elaborate edifices. One very great advantage is +thus secured for the scenery they compose, namely, that it is rarely +broken by quarries. A single quarry will often spoil a whole Alpine +landscape; the effect of the lovely bay of the Lago Maggiore, for +instance, in which lie the Borromean Islands, is, in great part, +destroyed by the scar caused by a quarry of pink granite on its western +shore; and the valley of Chamouni itself has lost some of its loveliest +rock scenery in consequence of the unfortunate discovery that the +boulders which had fallen from its higher pinnacles, and were lying in +massy heaps among its pines, were available for stone lintels and +door-posts in the building of its new inns. But the slaty crystallines, +though sometimes containing valuable mines, are hardly ever quarried for +stone; and the scenes they compose retain, in general, little disturbed +by man, their aspect of melancholy power, or simple and noble peace. The +color of their own mass, when freshly broken, is nearly the same as that +of the compact crystallines; but it is far more varied by veins and +zones of included minerals, and contains usually more iron, which gives +a rich brown or golden color to their exposed sides, so that the +coloring of these rocks is the most glowing to be found in the mountain +world. They form also soil for vegetation more quickly, and of a more +fruitful kind than the granites, and appear, on the whole, intended to +unite every character of grandeur and of beauty, and to constitute the +loveliest as well as the noblest scenes which the earth ever unfolds to +the eyes of men. + + +FOOTNOTES + + [45] See again Appendix 2. Slaty Cleavage. + + [46] This is a piece of the gneiss of the Montanvert, near the + Châlets of Blaitière dessous. + + [47] "Some idea may be formed of the nature of these incurvations by + supposing the gneiss beds to have been in a plastic state, either + from the action of heat or of some other unknown cause, and, while + in this state, to have been subjected to pressure at the two + extremities, or in some other parts, according to the nature of the + curvatures. But even this hypothesis (though the best that has been + thought of) will scarcely enable us to explain all the contortions + which not merely the beds of gneiss, but likewise of mica slate and + clay slate, and even greywacke slate, exhibit. There is a bed of + clay slate near the ferry to Kerrera, a few miles south of Oban, in + Argyleshire. This bed has been partly wasted away by the sea, and + its structure exposed to view. It contains a central cylindrical + nucleus of unknown length (but certainly considerable), round which + six beds of clay slate are wrapt, the one within the other, so as to + form six concentric cylinders. Now, however plastic the clay slate + may have been, there is no kind of pressure which will account for + this structure; the central cylinder would have required to have + been rolled six times in succession (allowing an interval for + solidification between each) in the plastic clay slate."--_Outlines + of Mineralogy, Geology, &c._, by Thomas Thomson, M.D. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +OF THE MATERIALS OF MOUNTAINS:--THIRDLY, SLATY COHERENTS. + + +§ 1. It will be remembered that we resolved to give generally the term +"coherent" to those rocks which appeared to be composed of one compact +substance, not of several materials. But, as in all the arrangements of +Nature we find that her several classes pass into each other by +imperceptible gradations, and that there is no ruling of red lines +between one and the other, we need not suppose that we shall find any +plainly distinguishable limit between the crystalline and coherent +rocks. Sometimes, indeed, a very distinctly marked crystalline will be +joined by a coherent rock so sharply and neatly that it is possible to +break off specimens, no larger than a walnut, containing portions of +each; but far more frequently the transition from one to the other is +effected gradually; or, if not, there exist, at any rate, in other +places intervening, a series of rocks which possess an imperfectly +crystalline character, passing down into that of simple coherence. This +transition is usually effected through the different kinds of slate; the +slaty crystallines becoming more and more fine in texture, until at last +they appear composed of nothing but very fine mica or chlorite; and this +mass of micaceous substance becomes more and more compact and silky in +texture, losing its magnesia, and containing more of the earth which +forms the substance of clay, until at last it assumes the familiar +appearance of roofing-slate, the noblest example of the coherent rocks. +I call it the noblest, as being the nearest to the crystallines, and +possessing much in common with them. Connected with this well-known +substance are enormous masses of other rocks, more or less resembling it +in character, of which the following are universal characteristics. + + + Characteristics of Slaty Coherents. + + 1. Softness of texture. + + 2. Lamination of structure. + +§ 2. First. They nearly always, as just said, contain more of the earth, +which is the basis of clay, than the crystalline rocks; and they can be +scratched or crushed with much greater facility. The point of a knife +will trace a continuous powdery streak upon most of the coherent rocks; +while it will be quite powerless against a large portion of the granular +knots in the crystallines. Besides this actual softness of substance, +the slaty coherents are capable of very fine division into flakes, not +irregularly and contortedly, like the crystallines, but straightly, so +as to leave a silky lustre on the sides of the fragments, as in roofing +slate; and separating with great ease, yielding to a slight pressure +against the edge. Consequently, although the slaty coherents are capable +of forming large and bold mountains, they are liable to all kinds of +destruction and decay in a far greater degree than the crystallines; +giving way in large masses under frost, and crumbling into heaps of +flaky rubbish, which in its turn dissolves or is ground down into +impalpable dust or mud, and carried to great distances by the mountain +streams. These characters render the slaty coherents peculiarly adapted +for the support of vegetation; and as, though apparently homogeneous, +they usually contain as many chemical elements as the crystallines, they +constitute (as far as regards the immediate nourishment of soils) the +most important part of mountain ranges. + + + 3. Darkness and blueness in color. + +§ 3. I have already often had occasion to allude to the apparent +connexion of brilliancy of color with vigor of life, or purity of +substance. This is preeminently 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 without exception 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. Darkness and dulness of color are the universal signs of +dissolution, or disorderly mingling of elements.[48] + +§ 4. Accordingly, these slaty coherents, being usually composed of many +elements imperfectly united, are also for the most part grey, black, or +dull purple; those which are purest and hardest verging most upon +purple, and some of them in certain lights displaying, on their smooth +sides, very beautiful zones and changeful spaces of grey, russet, and +obscure blue. But even this beauty is strictly connected with their +preservation of such firmness of form as properly belongs to them; it is +seen chiefly on their even and silky surfaces; less, in comparison, upon +their broken edges, and is lost altogether when they are reduced to +powder. They then form a dull grey dust, or, with moisture, a black +slime, of great value as a vegetative earth, but of intense ugliness +when it occurs in extended spaces in mountain scenery. And thus the +slaty coherents are often employed to form those landscapes of which the +purpose appears to be to impress us with a sense of horror and pain, as +a foil to neighboring scenes of extreme beauty. 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, 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. I know no other scenes so appalling as these in +storm, or so woful in sunshine. + + + 4. Great power of supporting vegetation. + +§ 5. Where, however, these same rocks exist in more favorable 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 color 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. Of these peculiar conditions we shall have to speak +at length in another place. + + + 5. Adaptation to architecture and the fine arts. + +§ 6. As far as regards ministry to the purposes of man, the slaty +coherents are of somewhat more value than the slaty crystallines. Most +of them can be used in the same way for rough buildings, while they +furnish finer plates or sheets for roofing. It would be difficult, +perhaps, to estimate the exact importance of their educational influence +in the form of drawing-slate. For sculpture they are, of course, +altogether unfit, but I believe certain finer conditions of them are +employed for a dark ground in Florentine mosaic. + +§ 7. It remains only to be noticed, that the direction of the lamination +(or separation into small folio) is, in these rocks, not always, nor +even often indicative of the true direction of their larger beds. It is +not, however, necessary for the reader to enter into questions of such +complicated nature as those which belong to the study of slaty cleavage; +and only a few points, which I could not pass over, are noted in the +Appendix; but it is necessary to observe here, that all rocks, however +constituted, or however disposed, have certain ways of breaking in one +direction rather than another, and separating themselves into blocks by +means of smooth cracks or fissures, technically called joints, which +often influence their forms more than either the position of their beds, +or their slaty lamination; and always are conspicuous in their weathered +masses. Of these, however, as it would be wearisome to enter into more +detail at present, I rather choose to speak incidentally, as we meet +with examples of their results in the scenery we have to study more +particularly. + + +FOOTNOTES + + [48] Compare the close of § 11, Chap. III. Vol. III., and, here, + Chap. III. § 23. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +OF THE MATERIALS OF MOUNTAINS:--FOURTHLY, COMPACT COHERENTS. + + +§ 1. This group of rocks, the last we have to examine, is, as far as +respects geographical extent and usefulness to the human race, more +important than any of the preceding ones. It forms the greater part of +all low hills and uplands throughout the world, and supplies the most +valuable materials for building and sculpture, being distinguished from +the group of the slaty coherents by its incapability of being separated +into thin sheets. All the rocks belonging to the group break +irregularly, like loaf sugar or dried clay. Some of them are composed of +hardened calcareous matter, and are known as limestone; others are +merely hardened sand, and are called freestone or sandstone; and others, +appearing to consist of dry mud or clay, are of less general importance, +and receive different names in different localities. + +§ 2. Among these rocks, the foremost position is, of course, occupied by +the great group of the marbles, of which the substance appears to have +been prepared expressly in order to afford to human art a perfect means +of carrying out its purposes. They are of exactly the necessary +hardness,--neither so soft as to be incapable of maintaining themselves +in delicate forms, nor so hard as always to require a blow to give +effect to the sculptor's touch; the mere pressure of his chisel produces +a certain, effect upon them. The color of the white varieties 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 _marked_ pieces of purpose in the creation,--that all the +variegated kinds should be comparatively opaque, so as to set off the +color 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 colors of +variegated marbles are also for the most part very beautiful, especially +those composed of purple, amber, and green, with white; and there seems +to be something notably attractive to the human mind in the vague and +veined labyrinths of their arrangements. They are farther marked as the +prepared material for human work by the dependence of their beauty on +smoothness of surface; for their veins are usually seen but dimly in the +native rock; and the colors they assume under the action of weather are +inferior to those of the crystallines: it is not until wrought and +polished by man that they show their character. Finally, they do not +decompose. The exterior surface is sometimes destroyed by a sort of +mechanical disruption of its outer flakes, but rarely to the extent in +which such action takes place in other rocks; and the most delicate +sculptures, if executed in good marble, will remain for ages +undeteriorated. + +§ 3. Quarries of marble are, however, rare, and we owe the greatest part +of the good architecture of this world to the more ordinary limestones +and sandstones, easily obtainable in blocks of considerable size, and +capable of being broken, sawn, or sculptured with ease; the color, +generally grey, or warm red (the yellow and white varieties becoming +grey with age), being exactly that which will distinguish buildings by +an agreeable contrast from the vegetation by which they may be +surrounded. + +To these inferior conditions of the compact coherence we owe also the +greater part of the _pretty_ scenery of the inhabited globe. The sweet +winding valleys, with peeping cliffs on either side; the light, +irregular wanderings of broken streamlets; the knolls and slopes covered +with rounded woods; the narrow ravines, carpeted with greensward, and +haunted by traditions of fairy or gnome; the jutting crags, crowned by +the castle or watch-tower; the white sea-cliff and sheep-fed down; the +long succession of coteau, sunburnt, and bristling with vines,--all +these owe whatever they have of simple beauty to the peculiar nature of +the group of rocks of which we are speaking; a group which, though +occasionally found in mountain masses of magnificent form and size, is +on the whole characterized by a comparative smallness of scale, and a +tendency to display itself less in true mountains than in elevated downs +or plains, through which winding valleys, more or less deep, are cut by +the action of the streams. + +§ 4. It has been said that this group of rocks is distinguished by its +incapability of being separated into sheets. This is only true of it in +small portions, for it is usually deposited in beds or layers of +irregular thickness, which are easily separable from each other; and +when, as not unfrequently happens, some of these beds are only half an +inch or a quarter of an inch thick, the rock appears to break into flat +plates like a slaty coherent. But this appearance is deceptive. However +thin the bed may be, it will be found that it is in its own substance +compact, and not separable into two other beds; but the true slaty +coherents possess a delicate slatiness of structure, carried into their +most minute portions, so that however thin a piece of them may be, it is +usually possible, if we have instruments fine enough, to separate it +into two still thinner flakes. As, however, the slaty and compact +crystallines, so also the slaty and compact coherents pass into each +other by subtle gradations, and present many intermediate conditions, +very obscure and indefinable. + +§ 5. I said just now that the colors of the compact coherents were +usually such as would pleasantly distinguish buildings from vegetation. +They are so; but considered as abstract hues, are yet far less agreeable +than those of the nobler and older rocks. And it is to be noticed, that +as these inferior rocks are the materials with which we usually build, +they form the ground of the idea suggested to most men's minds by the +word "stone," and therefore the general term "stone-color" is used in +common parlance as expressive of the hue to which the compact coherents +for the most part approximate. By stone-color I suppose we all +understand a sort of tawny grey, with too much yellow in it to be called +cold, and too little to be called warm. And it is quite true that over +enormous districts of Europe, composed of what are technically known as +"Jura" and "mountain" limestones, and various pale sandstones, such is +generally the color of any freshly broken rock which peeps out along the +sides of their gentler hills. It becomes a little greyer as it is +colored by time, but never reaches anything like the noble hues of the +gneiss and slate; the very lichens which grow upon it are poorer and +paler; and although the deep wood mosses will sometimes bury it +altogether in golden cushions, the minor mosses, whose office is to +decorate and chequer the rocks without concealing them, are always more +meagrely set on these limestones than on the crystallines. + +§ 6. I never have had time to examine and throw into classes the +varieties of the mosses which grow on the two kinds of rock, nor have I +been able to ascertain whether there are really numerous differences +between the species, or whether they only grow more luxuriantly on the +crystallines than on the coherents. But this is certain, that on the +broken rocks of 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 color 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 color so +that it can receive no more; and instead of looking rugged, or cold, or +stern, as anything that a rock is held to be at heart, it seems to be +clothed with a soft, dark leopard skin, embroidered with arabesque of +purple and silver. But in the lower ranges this is not so. The mosses +grow in more independent spots, not in such a clinging and tender way +over the whole surface; the lichens are far poorer and fewer; and the +color of the stone itself is seen more frequently; altered, if at all, +only into a little chiller grey than when it is freshly broken. So that +a limestone landscape is apt to be dull, and cold in general tone, with +some aspect even of barrenness. The sandstones are much richer in +vegetation: there are, perhaps, no scenes in our own island more +interesting than the wooded dingles which traverse them, the red rocks +growing out on either side, and shelving down into the pools of their +deep brown rivers, as at Jedburgh and Langholme; the steep oak copses +climbing the banks, the paler plumes of birch shaking themselves free +into the light of the sky above, and the few arches of the monastery +where the fields in the glen are greenest, or the stones of the border +tower where its cliffs are steepest, rendering both field and cliff a +thousandfold more dear to the heart and sight. But deprived of +associations, and compared in their mere natural beauty with the ravines +of the central ranges, there can be no question but that even the +loveliest passages of such scenery are imperfect and poor in foreground +color. And at first there would seem to be an unfairness in this, unlike +the usual system of compensation which so often manifests itself +throughout nature. The higher mountains have their scenes of power and +vastness, their blue precipices and cloud-like snows: why should they +also have the best and fairest colors given to their foreground rocks, +and overburden the human mind with wonder; while the less majestic +scenery, tempting us to the observance of details for which amidst the +higher mountains we had no admiration left, is yet, in the beauty of +those very details, as inferior as it is in scale of magnitude? + +§ 7. I believe the answer must be, simply, that it is not good for man +to live among what is most beautiful;--that he is a creature incapable +of satisfaction by anything upon earth; and that to allow him habitually +to possess, in any kind whatsoever, the utmost that earth can give, is +the surest way to cast him into lassitude or discontent. + +If the most exquisite orchestral music could be continued without a +pause for a series of years, and children were brought up and educated +in the room in which it was perpetually resounding, I believe their +enjoyment of music, or understanding of it, would be very small. And an +accurately parallel effect seems to be produced upon the powers of +contemplation, by the redundant and ceaseless loveliness of the high +mountain districts. The faculties are paralyzed by the abundance, and +cease, as we before noticed of the imagination, to be capable of +excitement, except by other subjects of interest than those which +present themselves to the eye. So that it is, in reality, better for +mankind that the forms of their common landscape should offer no +violent stimulus to the emotions,--that the gentle upland, browned by +the bending furrows of the plough, and the fresh sweep of the chalk +down, and the narrow winding of the copse-clad dingle, should be more +frequent scenes of human life than the Arcadias of cloud-capped mountain +or luxuriant vale; and that, while humbler (though always infinite) +sources of interest are given to each of us around the homes to which we +are restrained for the greater part of our lives, these mightier and +stranger glories should become the objects of adventure,--at once the +cynosures of the fancies of childhood, and themes of the happy memory, +and the winter's tale of age. + +§ 8. Nor is it always that the inferiority is felt. For, 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 promise 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 the 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 splendor of the Bernese Oberland. +The traveller, footsore, 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 overhanging, 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 utter solitude. It is passing through the midst of 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 labor 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. + +§ 9. But above the brows of those 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 +gardens, 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, 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 purer 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, that 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. + +§ 10. I believe, for general development of human intelligence and +sensibility, country of this kind is about the most perfect that exists. +A richer landscape, as that of Italy, enervates, or causes wantonness; a +poorer contracts the conceptions, and hardens the temperament of both +mind and body; and one more curiously or prominently beautiful deadens +the sense of beauty. Even what is here of attractiveness,--far +exceeding, as it does that of most of the thickly peopled districts of +the temperate zone,--seems to act harmfully on the poetical character of +the Swiss; but take its inhabitants all in all, as with deep love and +stern penetration they are painted in the works of their principal +writer, Gotthelf, and I believe we shall not easily find a peasantry +which would completely sustain comparison with them. + +§ 11. But be this as it may, it is certain that the compact coherent +rocks are appointed to form the greatest part of the earth's surface, +and by their utility, and easily changed and governed qualities, to +tempt man to dwell among them; being, however, in countries not +definitely mountainous, usually covered to a certain depth by those beds +of loose gravel and sand to which we agreed to give the name of +diluvium. There is nothing which will require to be noted respecting +these last, except the forms into which they are brought by the action +of water; and the account of these belongs properly to the branch of +inquiry which follows next in the order we proposed to ourselves, +namely, that touching the sculpture of mountains, to which it will be +best to devote some separate chapters; this only being noted in +conclusion respecting the various rocks whose nature we have been +describing, that out of the entire series of them we may obtain almost +every color pleasant to human sight, not the less so for being generally +a little softened or saddened. Thus we have beautiful subdued reds, +reaching tones of deep purple, in the porphyries, and of pale rose +color, in the granites; every kind of silvery and leaden grey, passing +into purple, in the slates; deep green, and every hue of greenish grey, +in the volcanic rocks and serpentines; rich orange, and golden brown, in +the gneiss; black, in the lias limestones; and all these, together with +pure white, in the marbles. One color only we hardly ever get in an +exposed rock--that dull _brown_ which we noticed above, in speaking of +color generally, as the most repulsive of all hues; every approximation +to it is softened by nature, when exposed to the atmosphere, into a +purple grey. All this can hardly be otherwise interpreted, than as +prepared for the delight and recreation of man; and I trust that the +time may soon come when these beneficent and beautiful gifts of color +may be rightly felt and wisely employed, and when the variegated fronts +of our houses may render the term "stone-color" as little definite in +the mind of the architect as that of "flower-color" would be to the +horticulturist. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +ON THE SCULPTURE OF MOUNTAINS:--FIRST, THE LATERAL RANGES. + + +§ 1. 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 the summer, when more copious +torrents, depending only on the melting of the lower snows, have left +their beds "stony channels in the sun." + +I suppose that my readers must be generally aware that glaciers are +masses of ice in slow motion, at the rate of from ten to twenty inches a +day, and that the stones which are caught between them and the rocks +over which they pass, or which are embedded in the ice and dragged along +by it over those rocks, are of course subjected to a crushing and +grinding power altogether unparalleled by any other force in constant +action. The dust to which these stones are reduced by the friction is +carried down by the streams which flow from the melting glacier, so that +the water which in the morning may be pure, owing what little strength +it has chiefly to the rock springs, is in the afternoon not only +increased in volume, but whitened with dissolved dust of granite, in +proportion to the heat of the preceding hours of the day, and to the +power and size of the glacier which feeds it. + +§ 2. The long drought which took place in the autumn of the year 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 +favorable to observance of their _least_ 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 hundred weight every four hours. By this +insignificant runlet, therefore, some four inches wide and four inches +deep, 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. + +§ 3. 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. To call it the thousandth +part of the glacier waters, would give a ludicrous under-estimate of +their total power; but even so calling it, we should find for result +that eighty thousand tons of mountain must be yearly transformed into +drifted sand, and carried down a certain distance.[49] How much greater +than this is the actual quantity so transformed I cannot tell; but take +this quantity as certain, and consider that this represents merely the +results of the labor of the constant summer streams, 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. + +§ 4. And hence two questions arise of the deepest interest. From what +first created forms were the mountains brought into their present +condition? into what forms will they change in the course of ages? Was +the world anciently in a more or less perfect state than it is now? was +it less or more fitted for the habitation of the human race? and are the +changes which it is now undergoing favorable to that race or not? The +present conformation of the earth appears dictated, as has been shown in +the preceding chapters, by supreme wisdom and kindness. And yet its +former state must have been different from what it is now; as its +present one from that which it must assume hereafter. Is this, +therefore, the earth's prime into which we are born; or is it, with all +its beauty, only the wreck of Paradise? + +I cannot entangle the reader in the intricacy of the inquiries necessary +for anything like a satisfactory solution of these questions. But, were +he to engage in such inquiries, their result would be his strong +conviction of the earth's having been brought from a state in which it +was utterly uninhabitable into one fitted for man;--of its having been, +when first inhabitable, more beautiful than it is now; and of its +gradually tending to still greater inferiority of aspect, and unfitness +for abode. + +It has, indeed, been the endeavor of some geologists to prove that +destruction and renovation are continually proceeding simultaneously in +mountains as well as in organic creatures; that while existing eminences +are being slowly lowered, others, in order to supply their place, are +being slowly elevated; and that what is lost in beauty or healthiness in +one spot is gained in another. But I cannot assent to such a conclusion. +Evidence altogether incontrovertible points to a state of the earth in +which it could be tenanted only by lower animals, fitted for the +circumstances under which they lived by peculiar organizations. From +this state it is admitted gradually to have been brought into that in +which we now see it; and the circumstances of the existing dispensation, +whatever may be the date of its endurance, seem to me to point not less +clearly to an end than to an origin; to a creation, when "the earth was +without form and void," and to a close, when it must either be renovated +or destroyed. + +§ 5. In one sense, and in one only, the idea of a continuous order of +things is admissible, in so far as the phenomena which introduced, and +those which are to terminate, the existing dispensation, may have been, +and may in future be, nothing more than a gigantic development of +agencies which are in continual operation around us. The experience we +possess of volcanic agency is not yet large enough to enable us to set +limits to its force; and as we see the rarity of subterraneous action +generally proportioned to its violence, there may be appointed, in the +natural order of things, convulsions to take place after certain epochs, +on a scale which the human race has not yet lived long enough to +witness. The soft silver cloud which writhes innocently on the crest of +Vesuvius, rests there without intermission; but the fury which lays +cities in sepulchres of lava bursts forth only after intervals of +centuries; and the still fiercer indignation of the greater volcanoes, +which make half the globe vibrate with earthquake, and shrivels up whole +kingdoms with flame, is recorded only in dim distances of history: so +that it is not irrational to admit that there may yet be powers dormant, +not destroyed, beneath the apparently calm surface of the earth, whose +date of rest is the endurance of the human race, and whose date of +action must be that of its doom. But whether such colossal agencies are +indeed in the existing order of things or not, still the effective +truth, for us, is one and the same. The earth, as a tormented and +trembling ball, may have rolled in space for myriads of ages before +humanity was formed from its dust; and as a devastated ruin it may +continue to roll, when all that dust shall again have been mingled with +ashes that never were warmed by life, or polluted by sin. But for us the +intelligible and substantial fact is that the earth has been brought, by +forces we know not of, into a form fitted for our habitation: on that +form a gradual, but destructive, change is continually taking place, and +the course of that change points clearly to a period when it will no +more be fitted for the dwelling-place of men. + +§ 6. It is, therefore, not so much what these forms of the earth +actually are, as what they are continually becoming, that we have to +observe; nor is it possible thus to observe them without an instinctive +reference to the first state out of which they have been brought. The +existing torrent has dug its bed a thousand feet deep. But in what form +was the mountain originally raised which gave that torrent its track and +power? The existing precipice is wrought into towers and bastions by the +perpetual fall of its fragments. In what form did it stand before a +single fragment fell? + +Yet to such questions, continually suggesting themselves, it is never +possible to give a complete answer. For a certain distance, the past +work of existing forces can be traced; but there gradually the mist +gathers, and the footsteps of more gigantic agencies are traceable in +the darkness; and still, as we endeavor to penetrate farther and farther +into departed time, the thunder of the Almighty power sounds louder and +louder; and the clouds gather broader and more fearfully, until at last +the Sinai of the world is seen altogether upon a smoke, and the fence of +its foot is reached, which none can break through. + +§ 7. If, therefore, we venture to advance towards the spot where the +cloud first comes down, it is rather with the purpose of fully pointing +out that there is a cloud, than of entering into it. It is well to have +been fully convinced of the existence of the mystery, in an age far too +apt to suppose that everything which is visible is explicable, and +everything that is present, eternal. But besides ascertaining the +existence of this mystery, we shall perhaps be able to form some new +conjectures respecting the facts of mountain aspects in the past ages. +Not respecting the processes or powers to which the hills owe their +origin, but respecting the aspect they first assumed. + +§ 8. For it is evident that, through all their ruin, some traces must +still exist of the original contours. The directions in which the mass +gives way must have been dictated by the disposition of its ancient +sides; and the currents of the streams that wear its flanks must still, +in great part, follow the course of the primal valleys. So that, in the +actual form of any mountain peak, there must usually be traceable the +shadow or skeleton of its former self; like the obscure indications of +the first frame of a war-worn tower, preserved, in some places, under +the heap of its ruins, in others to be restored in imagination from the +thin remnants of its tottering shell; while here and there, in some +sheltered spot, a few unfallen stones retain their Gothic sculpture, and +a few touches of the chisel, or stains of color, inform us of the whole +mind and perfect skill of the old designer. With this great difference, +nevertheless, that in the human architecture the builder did not +calculate upon ruin, nor appoint the course of impendent desolation; but +that in the hand of the great Architect of the mountains, time and decay +are as much the instruments of His purpose as the forces by which He +first led forth the troops of hills in leaping flocks:--the lightning +and the torrent, and the wasting and weariness of innumerable ages, all +bear their part in the working out of one consistent plan; and the +Builder of the temple for ever stands beside His work, appointing the +stone that is to fall, and the pillar that is to be abased, and guiding +all the seeming wildness of chance and change, into ordained splendors +and foreseen harmonies. + +§ 9. Mountain masses, then, considered with respect to their first +raising and first sculpture, may be conveniently divided into two great +groups; namely, those made up of beds or layers, commonly called +stratified; and those made of more or less united substance, called +unstratified. The former are nearly always composed of coherent rocks, +the latter of crystallines; and the former almost always occupy the +outside, the latter the centre of mountain chains. It signifies, +therefore, very little whether we distinguish the groups by calling one +stratified and the other unstratified, or one "coherent" and the other +"crystalline," or one "lateral" and the other "central." But as this +last distinction in position seems to have more influence on their forms +than either of the others, it is, perhaps, best, when we are examining +them in connection with art, that this should be thoroughly kept in +mind; and therefore we will consider the first group under the title of +"lateral ranges," and the second under that of "central peaks." + +[Illustration: FIG. 8.] + +§ 10. The LATERAL RANGES, which we are first to examine, are, for the +most part, broad tabular masses of sandstone, limestone, or whatever +their material may be,--tilted slightly up over large spaces (several or +many miles square), and forming precipices with their exposed edges, as +a book resting obliquely on another book forms miniature precipices with +its back and sides. The book is a tolerably accurate representation of +the mountain in substance, as well as in external aspect; nearly all +these tabular masses of rock being composed of a multitude of thinner +beds or layers, as the thickness of the book is made up of its leaves; +while every one of the mountain leaves is usually written over, though +in dim characters, like those of a faded manuscript, with history of +departed ages. + +"How were these mountain volumes raised, and how are they supported?" +are the natural questions following such a statement. + +And the only answer is: "Behold the cloud." + +No eye has ever seen one of these raised on a large scale; no +investigation has brought completely to light the conditions under which +the materials which support them were prepared. This only is the simple +fact, that they _are_ raised into such sloping positions; generally +several resting one upon another, like a row of books fallen down (Fig. +8); the last book being usually propped by a piece of formless compact +crystalline rock, represented by the piece of crumpled paper at _a_. + +[Illustration: FIG. 9.] + +§ 11. It is another simple fact that this arrangement is not effected in +an orderly and serene manner; but that the books, if they were ever +neatly bound, have been fearfully torn to pieces and dog's-eared in the +course of their elevation; sometimes torn leaf from leaf, but more +commonly rent across, as if the paper had been wet and soft: or, to +leave the book similitude, which is becoming inconvenient, the beds seem +to have been in the consistence of a paste, more or less dry; in some +places brittle, and breaking, like a cake, fairly across; in others +moist and tough, and tearing like dough, or bending like hot iron; and, +in others, crushed and shivering into dust, like unannealed glass. And +in these various states they are either bent or broken, or shivered, as +the case may be, into fragments of various shapes, which are usually +tossed one on top of another, as above described; but, of course, under +such circumstances, presenting, not the uniform edges of the books, but +jagged edges, as in Fig. 9. + +[Illustration: FIG. 10.] + +§ 12. Do not let it be said that I am passing my prescribed limits, and +that I have tried to enter the clouds, and am describing operations +which have never been witnessed. I describe facts or semblances, not +operations. I say "_seem_ to have been," not "have been." I say "_are_ +bent;" I do not say "_have been_ bent." Most travellers must remember +the entrance to the valley of Cluse, from the plain of Bonneville, on +the road from Geneva to Chamouni. They remember that immediately after +entering it they find a great precipice on their left, not less than two +thousand feet in perpendicular height. That precipice is formed by beds +of limestone bent like a rainbow, as in Fig. 10. Their edges constitute +the cliff; the flat arch which they form with their backs is covered +with pine forests and meadows, extending for three or four leagues in +the direction of Sixt. Whether the whole mountain was called out of +nothing into the form it possesses, or created first in the form of a +level mass, and then actually bent and broken by external force, is +quite irrelevant to our present purpose; but it is impossible to +describe its form without appearing to imply the latter alternative; and +all the distinct evidence which can be obtained upon the subject points +to such a conclusion, although there are certain features in such +mountains which, up to the present time, have rendered all positive +conclusion impossible, not because they contradict the theories in +question, but because they are utterly inexplicable on any theory +whatever. + +§ 13. We return then to our Fig. 9, representing beds which _appear_ to +have been broken short off at the edges. "If they ever were actually +broken," the reader asks, "what could have become of the bits?" +Sometimes they seem to have been lost, carried away no one knows where. +Sometimes they are really found in scattered fragments or dust in the +neighborhood. Sometimes the mountain is simply broken in two, and the +pieces correspond to each other, only leaving a valley between; but more +frequently one half slips down, or the other is pushed up. In such +cases, the coincidence of part with part is sometimes so exact, that +half of a broken pebble has been found on one side, and the other half +five or six hundred feet below, on the other. + +§ 14. The beds, however, which are to form mountains of any eminence are +seldom divided in this gentle way. If brittle, one would think they had +been broken as a captain's biscuit breaks, leaving sharp and ragged +edges; and if tough, they appear to have been torn asunder very much +like a piece of new cheese. + +The beds which present the most definite appearances of abrupt fracture, +are those of that grey or black limestone above described (Chap. x. § +4), formed into a number of thin layers or leaves, commonly separated by +filmy spreadings of calcareous sand, hard when dry, but easily softened +by moisture; the whole, considered as a mass, easily friable, though +particular beds may be very thick and hard. Imagine a layer of such +substance, three or four thousand feet thick, broken with a sharp crash +through the middle, and one piece of it thrown up as in Fig. 11. It is +evident that the first result of such a shock would be a complete +shattering of the consistence of the broken edges, and that these would +fall, some on the instant, and others tottering and crumbling away from +time to time, until the cliff had got in some degree settled into a +tenable form. The fallen fragments would lie in a confused heap at the +bottom, hiding perhaps one half of its height, as in Fig. 12; the top of +it, wrought into somewhat less ragged shape, would thenceforth submit +itself only to the gradual influences of time and storm. + +[Illustration: FIG. 11.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 12.] + +I do not say that this operation has actually taken place. I merely say +that such cliffs do in multitudes _exist_ in the form shown at Fig. 12, +or, more properly speaking, in that form modified by agencies in +visible operation, whose work can be traced upon them, touch by touch. +But the condition at Fig. 12 is the first rough blocking out of their +form, the primal state in which they demonstrably were, some thousands +of years ago, but beyond which no human reason can trace them without +danger of error. The cloud fastens upon them there. + +§ 15. It is rare, however, that such a cliff as that represented in Fig. +12 can maintain itself long in such a contour. Usually it moulders +gradually away into a steep mound or bank; and the larger number of bold +cliffs are composed of far more solid rock, which in its general make is +quite unshattered and flawless; apparently unaffected, as far as its +coherence is concerned, by any shock it may have suffered in being +raised to its position, or hewn into its form. Beds occur in the Alps +composed of solid coherent limestone (such as that familiar to the +English traveller in the cliffs of Matlock and Bristol), 3000 or 4000 +feet thick, and broken short off throughout a great part of this +thickness, forming nearly[50] sheer precipices not less than 1500 or +2000 feet in height, after all deduction has been made for slopes of +débris at the bottom, and for rounded diminution at the top. + +§ 16. The geologist plunges into vague suppositions and fantastic +theories in order to account for these cliffs; but, after all that can +be dreamed or discovered, they remain in great part inexplicable. If +they were interiorly shattered, it would be easy to understand that, in +their hardened condition, they had been broken violently asunder; but it +is not easy to conceive a firm cliff of limestone broken through a +thickness of 2000 feet without showing a crack in any other part of it. +If they were divided in a soft state, like that of paste, it is still +less easy to understand how any such soft material could maintain +itself, till it dried, in the form of a cliff so enormous and so +ponderous: it must have flowed down from the top, or squeezed itself out +in bulging protuberance at the base. But it has done neither; and we are +left to choose between the suppositions that the mountain was created in +a form approximating to that which it now wears, or that the shock which +produced it was so violent and irresistible, as to do its work neatly +in an instant, and cause no flaws to the rock except in the actual line +of fracture. The force must have been analogous either to the light and +sharp blow of the hammer with which one breaks a stone into two pieces +as it lies in the hand, or the parting caused by settlement under great +weight, like the cracks through the brickwork of a modern ill-built +house. And yet the very beds which seem at the time they were broken to +have possessed this firmness of consistency, are also bent throughout +their whole body into waves, apparently following the action of the +force that fractured them, like waves of sea under the wind. Truly the +cloud lies darkly upon us here! + +[Illustration: FIG. 13.] + +§ 17. And it renders these precipices more remarkable that there is in +them no principle of compensation against destructive influences. They +are not cloven back continually into new cliffs, as our chalk shores are +by the sea; otherwise, one might attribute their first existence to the +force of streams. But, on the contrary, the action of years upon them is +now always one of deterioration. The increasing heap of fallen fragments +conceals more and more of their base, and the wearing of the rain lowers +the height and softens the sternness of their brows, so that a great +part of their terror has evidently been subdued by time; and the farther +we endeavor to penetrate their history, the more mysterious are the +forms we are required to explain. + + + The three great representative forms of stratified mountains. + +§ 18. Hitherto, however, for the sake of clearness, we have spoken of +hills as if they were composed of a single mass or volume of rock. It is +very seldom that they are so. Two or three layers are usually raised at +once, with certain general results on mountain form, which it is next +necessary to examine. + + + 1. Wall above slope. + +1st. Suppose a series of beds raised in the condition _a_, Fig. 13, the +lowest soft, the uppermost compact; it is evident that the lower beds +would rapidly crumble away, and the compact mass above break for want of +support, until the rocks beneath had reached a slope at which they could +securely sustain themselves, as well as the weight of wall above, thus +bringing the hill into the outline _b_. + +[Illustration: FIG. 14.] + + + 2. Slope above wall. + +2d. If, on the other hand, the hill were originally raised as at _c_, +the softest beds being at the top, these would crumble into their smooth +slope without affecting the outline of the mass below, and the hill +would assume the form _d_, large masses of débris being in either of +these two cases accumulated at the foot of the slope, or of the cliff. +These first ruins might, by subsequent changes, be variously engulfed, +carried away, or covered over, so as to leave nothing visible, or at +least nothing notable, but the great cliff with its slope above or below +it. Without insisting on the evidences or probabilities of such +construction, it is sufficient to state that mountains of the two types, +_b_ and _d_, are exceedingly common in all parts of the world; and +though of course confused with others, and themselves always more or +less imperfectly developed, yet they are, on the whole, singularly +definite as classes of hills, examples of which can hardly but remain +clearly impressed on the mind of every traveller. Of the first, _b_, +Salisbury Crags, near Edinburgh, is a nearly perfect instance, though on +a diminutive scale. The cliffs of Lauterbrunnen, in the Oberland, are +almost without exception formed on the type _d_. + + + 3. Slope and wall alternately. + +3d. When the elevated mass, instead of consisting merely of two great +divisions, includes alternately hard and soft beds, as at _a_, Fig. 14, +the vertical cliffs and inclined banks alternate with each other, and +the mountain rises on a series of steps, with receding slopes of turf or +débris on the ledge of each, as at _b_. At the head of the valley of +Sixt, in Savoy, huge masses of mountain connected with the Buet are thus +constructed: their slopes are quite smooth, and composed of good pasture +land, and the cliffs in many places literally vertical. In the summer +the peasants make hay on the inclined pastures; and the hay is "carried" +by merely binding the haycocks tight and rolling them down the slope and +over the cliff, when I have heard them fall to the bank below, a height +of from five to eight hundred feet, with a sound like the distant report +of a heavy piece of artillery. + +[Illustration: FIG. 15.] + +§ 19. The next point of importance in these beds is the curvature, to +which, as well as to fracture, they seem to have been subjected. This +curvature is not to be confounded with that rippling or undulating +character of every portion of the slaty crystalline rocks above +described. I am now speaking of all kinds of rocks indifferently;--not +of their appearance in small pieces, but of their great contours in +masses, thousands of feet thick. And it is almost universally true of +these masses that they do not merely lie in flat superposition one over +another, as the books in Fig. 8; but they lie in _waves_, more or less +vast and sweeping according to the scale of the country, as in Fig. 15, +where the distance from one side of the figure to the other is supposed +to be four or five leagues. + +§ 20. Now, observe, if the precipices which we have just been describing +had been broken when their substance was in a hard state, there appears +no reason why any connexion should be apparent between the energy of +_undulation_ and these _broken_ rocks. If the continuous waves were +caused by convulsive movements of the earth's surface while its +substance was pliable, and were left in repose for so long a period as +to become perfectly hard before they were broken into cliffs, there +seems no reason why the second series of shocks should so closely have +confined itself to the locality which had suffered the first, that the +most abrupt precipices should always be associated with the wildest +waves. We might have expected that sometimes we should have had noble +cliffs raised where the waves had been slight; and sometimes low and +slight fractures where the waves had been violent. But this is not so. +The contortions and fractures bear always such relation to each other as +appears positively to imply contemporaneous formation. Through all the +lowland districts of the world the average contour of the waves of rock +is somewhat as represented in Fig. 16 _a_, and the little cliffs or +hills formed at the edges of the beds (whether by fracture, or, as +oftener happens in such countries, by gradual washing away under the +surge of ancient seas) are no higher, in proportion to the extent of +surface, than the little steps seen in the centre of the figure. Such is +the nature, and such the scale, of the ranges of hills which form our +own downs and wolds, and the French coteaux beside their winding rivers. +But as we approach the hill countries, the undulation becomes more +marked, and the crags more bold; so that almost any portion of such +mountain ranges as the Jura or the Vosges will present itself under +conditions such as those at _b_, the precipices at the edges being +bolder in exact proportion to the violence of wave. And, finally, in the +central and noblest chains the undulation becomes literally contortion; +the beds occur in such positions as those at _c_, and the precipices are +bold and terrific in exact proportion to this exaggerated and tremendous +contortion. + +[Illustration: FIG. 16.] + +§ 21. These facts appear to be just as contrary to the supposition of +the mountains having been formed while the rocks were hard, as the +considerations adduced in § 15 are to that of their being formed while +they were soft. And I believe the more the reader revolves the subject +in his thoughts, and the more opportunities he has of examining the +existing facts, the less explicable those facts will become to him, and +the more reverent will be his acknowledgment of the presence of the +cloud. + +For, as he examines more clearly the structure of the great mountain +ranges, he will find that though invariably the boldest forms are +associated with the most violent contortions, they sometimes _follow_ +the contortions, and sometimes appear entirely independent of them. For +instance, in crossing the pass of the Tête Noire, if the traveller +defers his journey till near the afternoon, so that from the top of the +pass he may see the great limestone mountain in the Valais, called the +Dent de Morcles, under the full evening light, he will observe that its +peaks are hewn out of a group of contorted beds, as shown in Fig. 4, +Plate 29. The wild and irregular zigzag of the beds, which traverse the +face of the cliff with the irregularity of a flash of lightning, has +apparently not the slightest influence on the outline of the peak. It +has been carved out of the mass, with no reference whatever to the +interior structure. In like manner, as we shall see hereafter, the most +wonderful peak in the whole range of the Alps seems to have been cut out +of a series of nearly horizontal beds, as a square pillar of hay is cut +out of a half-consumed haystack. And yet, on the other hand, we meet +perpetually with instances in which the curves of the beds have in great +part directed the shape of the whole mass of mountain. The gorge which +leads from the village of Ardon, in the Valais, up to the root of the +Diablerets, runs between two ranges of limestone hills, of which the +rude contour is given in Fig. 17, page 154. The great slope seen on the +left, rising about seven thousand feet above the ravine, is nothing but +the back of one sheet of limestone, whose broken edge forms the first +cliff at the top, a height of about six hundred feet, the second cliff +being the edge of another bed emergent beneath it, and the slope beyond, +the surface of a third. These beds of limestone all descend at a uniform +inclination into the gorge, where they are snapped short off, the +torrent cutting its way along the cleft, while the beds rise on the +other side in a huge contorted wave, forming the ridge of mountains on +the right,--a chain about seven miles in length, and from five thousand +to six thousand feet in height. The actual order of the beds is seen in +Fig. 18, and it is one of the boldest and clearest examples of the form +of mountains being correspondent to the curves of beds which I have ever +seen; it also exhibits a condition of the summits which is of constant +occurrence in stratified hills, and peculiarly important as giving rise +to the serrated structure, rendered classical by the Spaniards in their +universal term for mountain ridges, Sierra, and obtaining for one of the +most important members of the Comasque chain of Alps its well known +Italian name--Il Resegone. Such mountains are not merely successions of +irregular peaks, more or less resembling the edge of a much-hacked +sword; they are orderly successions of teeth set in one direction, +closely resembling those of a somewhat overworn saw, and nearly always +produced by successive beds emerging one from beneath the other. + +[Illustration: FIG. 18.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 17.] + +§ 22. In all such cases there is an infinitely greater difficulty in +accounting for the forms than in explaining the fracture of a single +bed. How, and when, and where, were the other portions carried away? Was +each bed once continuous over a much larger space from the point where +its edge is now broken off, or have such beds slipped back into some +gulf behind them? It is very easy for geologists to speak generally of +elevation and convulsion, but very difficult to explain what sort of +convulsion it could be which passed forward from the edge of one bed to +the edge of another, and broke the required portion off each without +disturbing the rest. Try the experiment in the simplest way: put half a +dozen of hard captain's biscuits in a sloping position on a table, and +then try, as they lie, to break the edge of each, one by one, without +disturbing the rest. At least, you will have to raise the edge before +you can break it; to put your hand underneath, between it and the next +biscuit, before you can get any purchase on it. What force was it that +put its fingers between one bed of limestone 600 feet thick and the next +beneath? If you try to break the biscuits by a blow from above, observe +the necessary force of your blow, and then conceive, if you can, the +sort of hammer that was required to break the 600 feet of rock through +in the same way. But, also, you will, ten to one, break two biscuits at +the same time. Now, in these serrated formations, two biscuits are +_never_ broken at the same time. There is no appearance of the slightest +jar having taken place affecting the bed beneath. If there be, a huge +cliff or gorge is formed at that spot, not a sierra. Thus, in Fig. 18, +the beds are affected throughout their united body by the shock which +formed the ravine at _a_; but they are broken, one by one, into the +cliffs at _b_ and _c_. Sometimes one is tempted to think that they must +have been slipped back, one from off the other; but there is never any +appearance of friction having taken place on their exposed surfaces; in +the plurality of instances their continuance or rise from their roots in +waves (see Fig. 16 above) renders the thing utterly impossible; and in +the few instances which have been known of such action actually taking +place (which have always been on a small scale), the sliding bed has +been torn into a thousand fragments almost as soon as it began to +move.[51] + +§ 23. And, finally, supposing a force found capable of breaking these +beds in the manner required, what force was it that carried the +fragments away? How were the gigantic fields of shattered marble +conveyed from the ledges which were to remain exposed? No signs of +violence are found on these ledges; what marks there are, the rain and +natural decay have softly traced through a long series of years. Those +very time-marks may have indeed effaced mere superficial appearances of +convulsion; but could they have effaced all evidence of the action of +such floods as would have been necessary to carry bodily away the whole +ruin of a block of marble leagues in length and breadth, and a quarter +of a mile thick? Ponder over the intense marvellousness of this. The bed +at _c_ (Fig. 18) must first be broken through the midst of it into a +sharp precipice, without at all disturbing it elsewhere; and then all of +it beyond _c_ is to be broken up, and carried perfectly away, without +disturbing or wearing down the face of the cliff at _c_. + +And yet no trace of the means by which all this was effected is left. +The rock stands forth in its white and rugged mystery, as if its peak +had been born out of the blue sky. The strength that raised it, and the +sea that wrought upon it, have passed away, and left no sign; and we +have no words wherein to describe their departure, no thoughts to form +about their action, than those of the perpetual and unsatisfied +interrogation,-- + + "What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? + And ye mountains, that ye skipped like lambs?" + + +FOOTNOTES + + [49] How far, is another question. The sand which the stream brings + from the bottom of one eddy in its course, it throws down in the + next; all that is _proved_ by the above trial is, that so many tons + of material are annually carried down by it a certain number of + feet. + + [50] _Nearly_; that is to say, not quite vertical. Of the degree of + steepness, we shall have more to say hereafter. + + [51] The Rossberg fall, compared to the convulsions which seem to + have taken place in the higher Alps, is like the slip of a paving + stone compared to the fall of a tower. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +OF THE SCULPTURE OF MOUNTAINS:--SECONDLY, THE CENTRAL PEAKS. + + +§ 1. In the 20th paragraph of the last chapter, it was noticed that +ordinarily the most irregular contortions or fractures of beds of rock +were found in the districts of most elevated hills, the contortion or +fracture thus appearing to be produced at the moment of elevation. It +has also previously been stated that the hardness and crystalline +structure of the material increased with the mountainous character of +the ground; so that we find as almost invariably correlative, the +_hardness_ of the rock, its _distortion_, and its _height_; and, in like +manner its _softness_, _regularity_ of _position_, and _lowness_. Thus, +the line of beds in an English range of down, composed of soft chalk +which crumbles beneath the fingers, will be as low and continuous as in +_a_ of Fig. 16 (p. 151); the beds in the Jura mountains, composed of +firm limestone, which needs a heavy hammer stroke to break it, will be +as high and wavy as at _b_; and the ranges of Alps, composed of slaty +crystallines, yielding only to steel wedges or to gunpowder, will be as +lofty and as wild in structure as at _c_. Without this beneficent +connection of hardness of material with height, mountain ranges either +could not have existed, or would not have been habitable. In their +present magnificent form, they could not have existed; and whatever +their forms, the frequent falls and crumblings away, which are of little +consequence in the low crags of Hastings, Dover, or Lyme, would have +been fatal to the population of the valleys beneath, when they took +place from heights of eight or ten thousand feet. + +[Illustration: FIG. 19.] + +§ 2. But this hardening of the material would not have been sufficient, +by itself, to secure the safety of the inhabitants. Unless the reader +has been already familiarized with geological facts, he must surely have +been struck by the prominence of the _bedded_ structure in all the +instances of mountain form given in the preceding chapter; and must have +asked himself, Why are mountains always built in this masonry-like way, +rather than in compact masses? Now, it is true that according to present +geological theories, the bedded structure was a necessary consequence of +the mode in which the materials were accumulated; but it is not less +true that this bedded structure is now the principal means of securing +the stability of the mass, and is to be regarded as a beneficent +appointment, with such special view. That structure compels each +mountain to assume the safest contour of which under the given +circumstances of upheaval it is capable. If it were all composed of an +amorphous mass of stone as at A, Fig. 19, a crack beginning from the +top, as at _x_ in A, might gradually extend downwards in the direction +_x y_ in B, until the whole mass, indicated by the shade, separated +itself and fell. But when the whole mountain is arranged in beds, as at +C, the crack beginning at the top stops in the uppermost bed, or, if it +extends to the next, it will be in a different place, and the detached +blocks, marked by the shaded portions, are of course still as secure in +their positions as before the crack took place. If, indeed, the beds +sloped towards the precipice, as at D, the danger would be greater; but +if the reader looks to any of the examples of mountain form hitherto +given, he will find that the universal tendency of the modes of +elevation is to cause the beds to slope _away_ from the precipice, and +to build the whole mountain in the form C, which affords the utmost +possible degree of security. Nearly all the mountains which rise +immediately above thickly peopled districts, though they may appear to +be thrown into isolated peaks, are in reality nothing more than flattish +ranks of rock, terminated by walls of cliff, of this perfectly safe +kind; and it will be part of our task in the succeeding chapter to +examine at some length the modes in which sublime and threatening forms +are almost deceptively assumed by arrangements of mountain which are in +themselves thus simple and secure. + +§ 3. It, however, fell within the purpose of the Great Builder to give, +in the highest peaks of mountains, examples of form more strange and +majestic than any which could be attained by structures so beneficently +adapted to the welfare of the human race. And the admission of other +modes of elevation, more terrific and less secure, takes place exactly +in proportion to the increasing presence of such conditions in the +locality as shall render it on other grounds unlikely to be inhabited, +or incapable of being so. Where the soil is rich and the climate soft, +the hills are low and safe;[52] as the ground becomes poorer and the air +keener, they rise into forms of more peril and pride; and their utmost +terror is shown only where their fragments fall on trackless ice, and +the thunder of their ruin can be heard but by the ibex and the eagle. + +§ 4. The safety of the lower mountains depends, as has just been +observed, on their tendency to divide themselves into beds. But it will +easily be understood that, together with security, such a structure +involves some monotony of aspect; and that the possibility of a rent +like that indicated in the last figure, extending itself without a +check, so as to detach some vast portion of the mountain at once, would +be a means of obtaining accidental forms of far greater awfulness. We +find, accordingly, that the bedded structure is departed from in the +central peaks; that they are in reality gifted with this power, or, if +we choose so to regard it, affected with this weakness, of rending +downwards throughout into vertical sheets; and that to this end they are +usually composed of that structureless and massive rock which we have +characterized by the term "compact crystalline." + +§ 5. This, indeed, is not universal. It happens sometimes that toward +the centre of great hill ranges ordinary stratified rocks of the +coherent groups are hardened into more compact strength than is usual +with them; and out of the hardened mass a peak, or range of peaks, is +cut as if out of a single block. Thus the well known Dent du Midi of +Bex, a mountain of peculiar interest to the English travellers who crowd +the various inns and pensions which now glitter along the shores of the +Lake of Geneva at Vevay, Clarens, and Montreux, is cut out of horizontal +beds of rock which are traceable in the evening light by their dark and +light lines along its sides, like courses of masonry; the real form of +the mountain being that of the ridge of a steep house-roof, jagged and +broken at the top, so that, seen from near St. Maurice, the extremity of +the ridge appears a sharp pyramid. The Dent de Morcles, opposite the +Dent du Midi, has been already noticed, and is figured in Plate 29, Fig. +4. In like manner, the Matterhorn is cut out of a block of nearly +horizontal beds of gneiss. But in all these cases the materials are so +hardened and knit together that to all intents and purposes they form +one solid mass, and when the forms are to be of the boldest character +possible, this solid mass is unstratified, and of compact crystalline +rock. + +§ 6. In looking from Geneva in the morning light, when Mont Blanc and +its companion hills are seen dark against the dawn, almost every +traveller must have been struck by the notable range of jagged peaks +which bound the horizon immediately to the north-east of Mont Blanc. In +ordinary weather they appear a single chain, but if any clouds or mists +happen to float into the heart of the group, it divides itself into two +ranges, lower and higher, as in Fig. 1, Plate 29, of which the uppermost +and more distant chain is the real crest of the Alps, and the lower and +darker line is composed of subordinate peaks which form the south side +of the valley of Chamouni, and are therefore ordinarily known as the +"Aiguilles of Chamouni." + +[Illustration: J. Ruskin. J.C. Armytage + 29. Aiguille Structure.] + +Though separated by some eight or nine miles of actual distance, the two +ranges are part of one and the same system of rock. They are both of +them most notable examples of the structure of the compact crystalline +peaks, and their jagged and spiry outlines are rendered still more +remarkable in any view obtained of them in the immediate neighborhood of +Geneva, by their rising, as in the figure, over two long slopes of +comparatively flattish mountain. The highest of these is the back of a +stratified limestone range, distant about twenty-five miles, whose +precipitous extremity, nodding over the little village of St. Martin's, +is well known under the name of the Aiguille de Varens. The nearer line +is the edge of another limestone mountain, called the Petit Salève, +within five miles of Geneva. And thus we have two ranges of the +crystalline rocks opposed to two ranges of the coherents, both having +their distinctive characters, the one of vertical fracture, the other of +level continuousness, developed on an enormous scale. I am aware of no +other view in Europe where the essential characteristics of the two +formations are so closely and graphically displayed. + +§ 7. Nor can I imagine any person thoughtfully regarding the more +distant range, without feeling his curiosity strongly excited as to the +method of its first sculpture. That long banks and fields of rock should +be raised aslope, and break at their edges into cliffs, however +mysterious the details of the operation may be, is yet conceivable in +the main circumstances without any great effort of imagination. But the +carving of those great obelisks and spires out of an infinitely harder +rock; the sculpture of all the fretted pinnacles on the inaccessible and +calm elevation of that great cathedral,--how and when was this wrought? +It is necessary, before the extent and difficulty of such a question can +be felt, to explain more fully the scale and character of the peaks +under consideration. + +[Illustration: FIG. 20.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 21.] + +§ 8. The valley of Chamouni, largely viewed, and irrespectively of minor +ravines and irregularities, is nothing more than a deep trench, dug +between two ranges of nearly continuous mountains,--dug with a +straightness and evenness which render its scenery, in some respects, +more monotonous than that of any other Alpine valley. On each side it is +bordered by banks of turf, darkened with pine forest, rising at an even +slope to a height of about 3000 feet, so that it may best be imagined +as a kind of dry moat, which, if cut across, would be of the form +typically shown in Fig. 20; the sloping bank on each side being about +3000 feet high, or the moat about three fifths of a mile in vertical +depth. Then, on the top of the bank, on each side, and a little way back +from the edge of the moat, rise the ranges of the great mountains, in +the form of shattered crests and pyramids of barren rock sprinkled with +snow. Those on the south side of the valley rise another 3000 feet above +the bank on which they stand, so that each of the masses superadded in +Fig. 21 may best be described as a sort of Egyptian pyramid,[53] of the +height of Snowden or Ben Lomond, hewn out of solid rock, and set on the +shoulder of the great bank which borders the valley. Then the Mont +Blanc, a higher and heavier cluster of such summits, loaded with deep +snow, terminates the range. Glaciers of greater or less extent descend +between the pyramids of rock; and one, supplied from their largest +recesses, even runs down the bank into the valley. Fig. 22[54] rudely +represents the real contours of the mountains, including Mont Blanc +itself, on its south side. The range of peaks, _b_, _p_, m, is that +already spoken of, known as the "Aiguilles of Chamouni." They form but a +very small portion of a great crowd of similar, and, for the most part, +larger peaks which constitute the chain of Mont Blanc, and which receive +from the Savoyards the name of Aiguilles, or needles, in consequence of +their peculiarly sharp summits. The forms of these Aiguilles, wonderful +enough in themselves, are, nevertheless, perpetually exaggerated both by +the imagination of the traveller, and by the artists whose delineations +of them find most frank acceptance. Fig. 1 in Plate 30 is faithfully +copied from the representation given of one of these mountains in a +plate lately published at Geneva. Fig. 2 in the same plate is a true +outline of the mountain itself. Of the exaggerations in the other I +shall have more to say presently; meantime, I refer to it merely as a +proof that I am not myself exaggerating, in giving Fig. 22 as showing +the general characters of these peaks. + +[Illustration: FIG. 22.] + +§ 9. This, then, is the problem to be considered,--How mountains of such +rugged and precipitous outline, and at the least 3000 feet in height, +were originally carved out of the hardest rocks, and set in their +present position on the top of the green and sloping bank which sustains +them. + +"By mere accident," the reader replies. "The uniform bank might as +easily have been the highest, and the broken granite peaks have risen +from its sides, or at the bottom of it. It is merely the chance +formation of the valley of Chamouni." + +Nay; not so. Although, as if to bring the problem more clearly before +the thoughts of men, by marking the structure most where the scenery is +most attractive, the formation is more distinct at Chamouni than +anywhere else in the Alpine chain; yet the general condition of a +rounded bank sustaining jagged or pyramidal peaks is more or less +traceable throughout the whole district of the great mountains. The most +celebrated spot, next to the valley of Chamouni, is the centre of the +Bernese Oberland; and it will be remembered by all travellers that in +its principal valley, that of Grindelwald, not only does the summit of +the Wetterhorn consist of a sharp pyramid raised on the advanced +shoulder of a great promontory, but the two most notable summits of the +Bernese Alps, the Schreckhorn and Finsteraarhorn, cannot be seen from +the valley at all, being thrown far back upon an elevated plateau, of +which only the advanced head or shoulder, under the name of the +Mettenberg, can be seen from the village. The real summits, consisting +in each case of a ridge starting steeply from this elevated plateau, as +if by a new impulse of angry or ambitious mountain temper, can only be +seen by ascending a considerable height upon the flank of the opposite +mass of the Faulhorn. + +§ 10. And this is, if possible, still more notably and provokingly the +case with the great peaks of the chain of Alps between Monte Rosa and +Mont Blanc. It will be seen, by a glance at any map of Switzerland, that +the district which forms the canton Valais is, in reality, nothing but a +ravine sixty miles long, between that central chain and the Alps of the +cantons Fribourg and Berne. This ravine is also, in its general +structure, merely a deeper and wider _moat_ than that already described +as forming the valley of Chamouni. It lies, in the same manner, between +two _banks_ of mountain; and the principal peaks are precisely in the +same manner set back upon the tops of these banks; and so provokingly +far back, that throughout the whole length of the valley not one of the +summits of the chief chain can be seen from it. That usually pointed out +to travellers as Monte Rosa is a subordinate, though still very colossal +mass, called the Montagne de Saas; and this is the only peak of great +size discoverable from the valley throughout its extent; one or two +glimpses of the snows, not at any eminent point, being caught through +the entrances of the lateral valleys of Evolena, &c. + +[Illustration: FIG. 23.] + +§ 11. Nor is this merely the consequence of the great _distance_ of the +central ridge. It would be intelligible enough that the mountains should +rise gradually higher and higher towards the middle of the chain, so +that the summit at _a_ in the upper diagram of Fig. 23 should be +concealed by the intermediate eminences _b_, _c_, from the valley at +_d_. But this is not, by any means, the manner in which the concealment +is effected. The great peaks stand, as at _a_ in the lower diagram, +jagged, sharp, and suddenly starting out of a comparatively tame mass +of elevated land, through which the trench of the valley of the Rhone is +cut, as at _c_. The subdivision of the bank at _b_ by thousands of +ravines, and its rise, here and there, into more or less notable +summits, conceal the real fact of the structure from a casual observer. +But 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 their 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. And 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 steep banks, of 3000 or +4000 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. + +§ 12. 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 could +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 hill sides, 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 at +Lyons than the Severn at Shrewsbury, 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. + +§ 13. Now, that such a structure is the best and wisest possible, 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? + +§ 14. 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 +_not_ 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. + +"What then were they once?" + +The only answer is yet again,--"Behold the cloud." + +Their form, as far as human vision can trace it, is one of eternal +decay. No retrospection can raise them out of their ruins, or withdraw +them beyond the law of their perpetual fate. Existing science may be +challenged to form, with the faintest color of probability, any +conception of the original aspect of a crystalline mountain; it cannot +be followed in its elevation, nor traced in its connection with its +fellows. No eyes ever "saw its substance, yet being imperfect;" its +history is a monotone of endurance and destruction: all that we can +certainly know of it, is that it was once greater than it is now, and it +only gathers vastness, and still gathers, as it fades into the abyss of +the unknown. + +§ 15. Yet this one piece of certain evidence ought not to be altogether +unpursued; and while, with all humility, we shrink from endeavoring to +theorize respecting processes which are concealed, we ought not to +refuse to follow, as far as it will lead us, the course of thought which +seems marked out by conspicuous and consistent phenomena. Exactly as the +form of the lower mountains seems to have been produced by certain +raisings and bendings of their formerly level beds, so the form of these +higher mountains seems to have been produced by certain breakings away +from their former elevated mass. If the process appears in either case +doubtful, it is less so with respect to the higher hills. We may not +easily believe that the steep limestone cliffs on one side of a valley, +now apparently secure and steadfast, ever were united with the cliffs on +the other side; but we cannot hesitate to admit that the peak which we +see shedding its flakes of granite, on all sides of it, as a fading rose +lets fall its leaves, was once larger than it is, and owes the present +characters of its forms chiefly to the modes of its diminution. + +§ 16. Holding fast this clue, we have next to take into consideration +another fact of not less importance,--that over the whole of the rounded +banks of lower mountain, wherever they have been in anywise protected +from the injuries of time, there are yet visible the tracks of ancient +glaciers. I will not here enter into detail respecting the mode in which +traces of glaciers are distinguishable. It is enough to state that the +footmark, so to speak, of a glacier is just as easily recognizable as +the trail of any well-known animal; and that with as much confidence as +we should feel in asserting that a horse had passed along a soft road +which yet retained the prints of its shoes, it may be concluded that the +glaciers of the Alps had once triple or quadruple the extent that they +have now; so that not only the banks of inferior mountains were once +covered with sheets of ice, but even the great valley of the Rhone +itself was the bed of an enormous "Mer de Glace," which extended beyond +the Lake of Geneva to the slopes of Jura.[55] + +§ 17. From what has already been noted of glacier action, the reader +cannot but be aware that its universal effect is to round and soften the +contours of the mountains subjected to it; so that a glacier may be +considered as a vast instrument of friction, a white sand-paper, applied +slowly but irresistibly to all the roughnesses of the hill which it +covers. And this effect is of course greatest when the ice flows +fastest, and contains more embedded stones; that is to say, greater +towards the lower part of a mountain than near its summit. + +[Illustration: FIG. 24.] + +Suppose now a chain of mountains raised in any accidental form, only of +course highest where the force was greatest,--that is to say, at the +centre of the chain,--and presenting any profile such as _a_, Fig. 24; +terminated, perhaps, by a broken secondary cliff, and the whole covered +with a thick bed of glacier, indicated by the spotted space, and moving +in the direction of the arrows. As it wears away the mountain, not at +all at the top, but always more and more as it descends, it would in +process of time reduce the contour of the flank of the hill to the form +at _b_. But at this point the snow would begin to slide from the central +peak, and to leave its rocks exposed to the action of the atmosphere. +Supposing those rocks disposed to break into vertical sheets, the summit +would soon cleave itself into such a form as that at _x_; and the +flakes again subdividing and falling, we should have conditions such as +at _y_. Meanwhile the glacier is still doing its work uninterruptedly on +the lower bank, bringing the mountain successively into the outlines _c_ +and _d_, in which the forms _x_ and _y_ are substituted consecutively +for the original summit. But the level of the whole flank of the +mountain being now so much reduced, the glacier has brought itself by +its own work into warmer climate, and has wrought out its own +destruction. It would gradually be thinned away, and in many places at +last vanish, leaving only the barren rounded mountains, and the tongues +of ice still supplied from the peaks above. + +§ 18. Such is the actual condition of the Alps at this moment. I do not +say that they have in reality undergone any such process. But I think it +right to put the supposition before the reader, more with a view of +explaining what the appearance of things actually is, than with any wish +that he should adopt either this or any other theory on the subject. It +facilitates a description of the Brèche de Roland to say, that it looks +as if the peer had indeed cut it open with a swordstroke; but it would +be unfair to conclude that the describer gravely wished the supposition +to be adopted as explanatory of the origin of the ravine. In like +manner, the reader who has followed the steps of the theory I have just +offered, will have a clearer conception of the real look and anatomy of +the Alps than I could give him by any other means. But he is welcome to +accept in seriousness just as much or as little of the theory as he +likes.[56] Only I am well persuaded that the more familiar any one +becomes with the chain of the Alps, the more, whether voluntarily or +not, the idea will force itself upon him of their being mere remnants of +large masses,--splinters and fragments, as of a stranded wreck, the +greater part of which has been removed by the waves; and the more he +will be convinced of the existence of two distinct regions, one, as it +were, below the ice, another above it,--one of subjected, the other of +emergent rock; the lower worn away by the action of the glaciers and +rains, the higher splintering and falling to pieces by natural +disintegration. + +§ 19. I press, however, neither conjecture nor inquiry farther; having +already stated all that is necessary to give the reader a complete idea +of the different divisions of mountain form. I proceed now to examine +the points of pictorial interest in greater detail; and in order to do +so more conveniently, I shall adopt the order, in description, which +Nature seems to have adopted in formation; beginning with the mysterious +hardness of the central crystallines, and descending to the softer and +lower rocks which we see in some degree modified by the slight forces +still in operation. We will therefore examine: 1. the pictorial +phenomena of the central peaks; 2. those of the summits of the lower +mountains round them, to which we shall find it convenient to give the +distinguishing name of crests; 3. the formation of Precipices, properly +so called; then, the general aspect of the Banks and Slopes, produced by +the action of water or of falling débris, on the sides or at the bases +of mountains; and finally, remove, if it may be, a few of the undeserved +scorns thrown upon our most familiar servants, Stones. To each of these +subjects we shall find it necessary to devote a distinct chapter. + + +FOOTNOTES + + [52] It may be thought I should have reversed these sentences, and + written where the hills are low and safe, the climate is soft, &c. + But it is not so. No antecedent reason can be shown why the Mont + Cervin or Finsteraarhorn should not have risen sharp out of the + plains of Lombardy, instead of out of glaciers. + + [53] I use the terms "pyramid" and "peak" at present, in order to + give a rough general idea of the aspect of these hills. Both terms, + as we shall see in the next chapter, are to be accepted under + limitation. + + [54] This coarse sketch is merely given for reference, as I shall + often have to speak of the particular masses of mountain, indicated + by the letters in the outline below it; namely-- + + _b._ Aiguille Blaitière. _p._ Aiguille du Plan. + _m._ Aiguille du Midi. M. Mont Blanc (summit). + _d._ Dôme du Gouté. _g._ Aiguille du Gouté. + _q_ and _r_ indicate stations only. T. Tapia. + C. Montagne de la Côte. _t._ Montagne de Taconay. + + [55] The glacier tracks on the gneiss of the great angle opposite + Martigny are the most magnificent I ever saw in the Alps; those + above the channel of the Trient, between Valorsine and the valley of + the Rhone, the most interesting. + + [56] For farther information respecting the glaciers and their + probable action, the reader should consult the works of Professor + Forbes. I believe this theory of the formation of the upper peaks + has been proposed by him, and recently opposed by Mr. Sharpe, who + believes that the great bank spoken of in the text was originally a + sea-bottom. But I have simply stated in this chapter the results of + my own watchings of the Alps; for being without hope of getting time + for available examination of the voluminous works on these subjects, + I thought it best to read nothing (except Forbes's most important + essay on the glaciers, several times quoted in the text), and + therefore to give, at all events, the force of independent witness + to such impressions as I received from the actual facts; De + Saussure, always a faithful recorder of those facts, and my first + master in geology, being referred to, occasionally, for information + respecting localities I had not been able to examine. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +RESULTING FORMS:--FIRST, AIGUILLES. + + +§ 1. I have endeavored in the preceding chapters always to keep the +glance of the reader on the broad aspect of things, and to separate for +him the mountain masses into the most distinctly comprehensible forms. +We must now consent to take more pains, and observe more closely. + +§ 2. I begin with the Aiguilles. In Fig. 24, p. 170, at _a_, it was +assumed that the mass was raised highest merely where the elevating +force was greatest, being of one substance with the bank or cliff below. +But it hardly ever _is_ of the same substance. Almost always it is of +compact crystallines, and the bank of slaty crystallines; or if it be of +slaty crystallines the bank is of slaty coherents. The bank is almost +always the softer of the two.[57] + +Is not this very marvellous? Is it not exactly as if the substance had +been prepared soft or hard with a sculpturesque view to what had to be +done with it; soft, for the glacier to mould, and the torrent to divide; +hard, to stand for ever, central in mountain majesty. + +[Illustration: FIG. 25.] + +§ 3. Next, then, comes the question, How do these compact crystallines +and slaty crystallines join each other? It has long been a well +recognized fact in the science of geology, that the most important +mountain ranges lift up and sustain upon their sides the beds of rock +which form the inferior groups of hills around them in the manner +roughly shown in the section Fig. 25, where the dark mass stands for the +hard rock of the great mountains (crystallines), and the lighter lines +at the side of it indicate the prevalent direction of the beds in the +neighboring hills (coherents), while the spotted portions represent the +gravel and sand of which the great plains are usually composed. But it +has not been so universally recognized, though long ago pointed out by +De Saussure, that the great central groups are often themselves composed +of beds lying in a precisely opposite direction; so that if we analyze +carefully the structure of the dark mass in the centre of Fig. 25, we +shall find it arranged in lines which slope downwards to the centre; the +flanks of it being of slaty crystalline rock, and the summit of compact +crystallines, as at _a_, Fig. 26. + +[Illustration: FIG. 26.] + +In speaking of the sculpture of the central peaks in the last chapter, I +made no reference to the _nature_ of the rocks in the banks on which +they stood. The diagram at _a_, Fig. 27, as representative of the +original condition, and _b_, of the resultant condition will, compared +with Fig. 24, p. 170, more completely illustrate the change.[58] + +[Illustration: FIG. 27.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 28.] + +§ 4. By what secondary laws this structure may ultimately be discovered +to have been produced is of no consequence to us at present; all that it +is needful for us to note is the beneficence which appointed it for the +mountains destined to assume the boldest forms. For into whatever +outline they may be sculptured by violence or time, it is evident at a +glance that their stability and security must always be the greatest +possible under the given circumstances. Suppose, for instance, that the +peak is in such a form as _a_ in Fig. 26, then, however steep the slope +may be on either side, there is still no chance of one piece of rock +sliding off another; but if the same outline were given to beds disposed +as at _b_, the unsupported masses might slide off those beneath them at +any moment, unless prevented by the inequalities of the surfaces. +Farther, in the minor divisions of the outline, the tendency of the peak +at _a_ will be always to assume contours like those at _a_ in Fig. 28, +which are, of course, perfectly safe; but the tendency of the beds at +_b_ in Fig. 27 will be to break into contours such as at _b_ here, which +are all perilous, not only in the chance of each several portion giving +way, but in the manner in which they would _deliver_, from one to the +other, the fragments which fell. A stone detached from any portion of +the peak at _a_ would be caught and stopped on the ledge beneath it; but +a fragment loosened from _b_ would not stay till it reached the valley +by a series of accelerating bounds. + +§ 5. While, however, the secure and noble form represented at _a_ in +Figs. 26 and 28 is for the most part ordained to be that of the highest +mountains, the contours at _b_, in each figure, are of perpetual +occurrence among the secondary ranges, in which, on a smaller scale, +they produce some of the most terrific and fantastic forms of precipice; +not altogether without danger, as has been fearfully demonstrated by +many a "bergfall" among the limestone groups of the Alps; but with far +less danger than would have resulted from the permission of such forms +among the higher hills; and with collateral advantages which we shall +have presently to consider. In the meantime, we return to the +examination of the superior groups. + +[Illustration: FIG. 29.] + +§ 6. The reader is, no doubt, already aware that the chain of the Mont +Blanc is bordered by two great valleys, running parallel to each other, +and seemingly excavated on purpose that travellers might be able to +pass, foot by foot, along each side of the Mont Blanc and its aiguilles, +and thus examine every peak in succession. One of these valleys is that +of Chamouni, the other that of which one half is called the Allée +Blanche, and the other the Val Ferret, the town of Cormayeur being near +its centre, where it opens to the Val d'Aosta. Now, cutting the chain of +Mont Blanc right across, from valley to valley, through the double range +of aiguilles, the section would be[59] as Fig. 29 here, in which _a_ is +the valley of Chamouni, _b_ the range of aiguilles of Chamouni, _c_ the +range of the Géant, _d_ the valley of Cormayeur. + +[Illustration: 30. The Aiguille Charmoz.] + Ideal. Actual. + +The little projection under M is intended to mark approximately the +position of the so well-known "Montanvert." It is a great weakness, not +to say worse than weakness, on the part of travellers, to extol +always chiefly what they think fewest people have seen or can see. I +have climbed much, and wandered much, in the heart of the high Alps, but +I have never yet seen anything which equalled the view from the cabin of +the Montanvert; and as the spot is visited every year by increasing +numbers of tourists, I have thought it best to take the mountains which +surround it for the principal subjects of our inquiry. + +§ 7. The little eminence left under M truly marks the height of the +Montanvert on the flanks of the Aiguilles, but not accurately its +position, which is somewhat behind the mass of mountain supposed to be +cut through by the section. But the top of the Montanvert is actually +formed, as shown at M, by the crests of the oblique beds of slaty +crystallines. Every traveller must remember the steep and smooth beds of +rock like sloping walls, down which, and over the ledges of which, the +path descends from the cabin to the edge of the glacier. These sloping +walls are formed by the inner sides of the crystalline beds,[60] as +exposed in the notch behind the letter M. + +§ 8. To these beds we shall return presently, our object just now being +to examine the aiguille, which, on the Montanvert, forms the most +conspicuous mass of mountain on the right of the spectator. It is known +in Chamouni as the Aiguille des Charmoz, and is distinguished by a very +sharp horn or projection on its side, which usually attracts the +traveller's attention as one of the most singular minor features in the +view from the Montanvert. The larger masses of the whole aiguille, and +true contour of this horn, are carefully given in plate +30+, Fig. 2, as +they are seen in morning sunshine. The _impression_ which travellers +usually carry away with them is, I presume, to be gathered from Fig. 1, +a fac simile of one of the lithographs purchased with avidity by English +travellers, in the shops of Chamouni and Geneva, as giving a faithful +representation of this aiguille seen from the Montanvert. It is worth +while to perpetuate this example of the ideal landscape of the +nineteenth century, popular at the time when the works of Turner were +declared by the public to be extravagant and unnatural. + +§ 9. This example of the common ideal of aiguilles is, however, useful +in another respect. It shows the strong impression which these Chamouni +mountains leave, of their being above all others sharp-peaked and +splintery, dividing more or less into arrowy spires; and it marks the +sense of another and very curious character in them, that these spires +are apt to be somewhat bent or curved. + +Both these impressions are partially true, and need to be insisted upon, +and cleared of their indistinctness, or exaggeration. + +First, then, this strong impression of their peakedness and spiry +separateness is always produced with the least possible _danger_ to the +travelling and admiring public; for if in reality these granite +mountains were ever separated into true spires or points, in the least +resembling this popular ideal in Plate +30+, the Montanvert and Mer de +Glace would be as inaccessible, except at the risk of life, as the +trenches of a besieged city; and the continual fall of the splintering +fragments would turn even the valley of Chamouni itself into a stony +desolation. + +§ 10. Perhaps in describing mountains with any effort to give some idea +of their sublime forms, no expression comes oftener to the lips than the +word "peak." And yet it is curious how rarely, even among the grandest +ranges, an instance can be found of a mountain ascertainably peaked in +the true sense of the word,--pointed at the top, and sloping steeply on +all sides; perhaps not more than five summits in the chain of the Alps, +the Finster-Aarhorn, Wetterhorn, Bietschhorn, Weisshorn, and Monte Viso +presenting approximations to such a structure. Even in the case of not +very steep pyramids, presenting themselves in the distance under some +such outline as that at the top of Fig. 30, it almost invariably +happens, when we approach and examine them, that they do not slope +equally on all their sides, but are nothing more than steep ends of +ridges, supported by far-extended masses of comparatively level rock, +which, seen in perspective, give the impression of a steep slope, though +in reality disposed in a horizonal, or nearly horizontal, line. + +§ 11. Supposing the central diagram in Fig. 30 to be the apparent +contour of a distant mountain, then its slopes may indeed, by singular +chance, be as steep as they appear; but, in all probability, several of +them are perspective descents of its retiring lines; and supposing it +were formed as the gable roof of the old French house below, and seen +under the same angle, it is evident that the part of the outline _a b_ +(in lettered reference line below) would be perfectly horizontal; _b c_ +an angle slope, in retiring perspective, much less steep than it +appears; _c d_, perfectly, horizontal; _d e_, an advancing or +foreshortened angle slope, less steep than it appears; and _e f_, +perfectly horizontal. + +[Illustration: FIG. 30.] + +But if the pyramid presents itself under a more formidable aspect, and +with steeper sides than those of the central diagram, then it may be +assumed (as far as I know mountains) for next to a certainty, that it is +not a pointed obelisk, but the end of a ridge more or less prolonged, of +which we see the narrow edge or section turned towards us. + +[Illustration: FIG. 31.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 32. + + Angles with the horizon _x y_. + + Of the line _a b_ 17° + " _b c_ 20½ + " _d y_ (general slope, exclusive of inequalities) 35¾ + " _a x_ (ditto, ditto, to point of cliff above _x_) 23½ ] + +For instance, no mountain in the Alps produces a more vigorous +impression of peakedness than the Matterhorn. In Professor Forbes's +work on the Alps, it is spoken of as an "obelisk" of rock, and +represented with little exaggeration in his seventh plate under the +outline Fig. 31. Naturally, in glancing, whether at the plate or the +mountain, we assume the mass to be a peak, and suppose the line _a b_ to +be the steep slope of its side. But that line is a perspective line. It +is in reality _perfectly horizontal_, corresponding to _e f_ in the +penthouse roof, Fig. 30. + +[Illustration: FIG. 33. + + Angles with the horizon _x y_. + + _a f_ 56° + _a e_ 12¾ + _e b_ (from point to point) 44½ + _b c_ ( ditto, ditto ) 67¼ + _c d_ (overhanging) 79° + _a x_ (irrespective of irregularities) 56 + _a y_ 38¾ ] + +§ 12. I say "perfectly horizontal," meaning, of course, in general +tendency. It is more or less irregular and broken, but so nearly +horizontal that, after some prolonged examination of the data I have +collected about the Matterhorn, I am at this moment in doubt _which is +its top_. For as, in order to examine the beds on its flanks, I walked +up the Zmutt glacier, I saw that the line _a b_ in Fig. 31 gradually +lost its steepness; and about half-way up the glacier, the conjectural +summit _a_ then bearing nearly S. E. (forty degrees east of south), I +found the contour was as in Fig. 32. In Fig. 33, I have given the +contour as seen from Zermatt; and in all three, the same letters +indicate the same points. In the Figures 32 and 33 I measured the angles +with the greatest care,[61] from the base lines _x y_, which are +accurately horizontal; and their general truth, irrespective of mere +ruggedness, may be depended upon. Now in this flank view, Fig. 32, what +_was_ the summit at Zermatt, _a_, becomes quite subordinate, and the +point _b_, far down the flank in Forbes's view taken from the +Riffelhorn, is here the apparent summit. I was for some time in +considerable doubt which of the appearances was most trustworthy; and +believe now that they are _both_ deceptive; for I found, on ascending +the flank of the hills on the other side of the Valais, to a height of +about five thousand feet above Brieg, between the Aletsch glacier and +Bietschhorn; being thus high enough to get a view of the Matterhorn on +something like distant terms of equality, up the St. Nicholas valley, it +presented itself under the outline Fig. 34, which seems to be conclusive +for the supremacy of the point _e_, between _a_ and _b_ in Fig. 33. But +the impossibility of determining, at the foot of it, without a +trigonometrical observation, _which is the top_ of such an apparent peak +as the Matterhorn, may serve to show the reader how little the eye is to +be trusted for the verification of peaked outline. + +[Illustration: FIG. 34.] + +§ 13. In like manner, the aiguilles of Chamouni, which present +themselves to the traveller, as he looks up to them from the village, +under an outline approximating to that rudely indicated at C in the next +figure, are in reality buttresses projecting from an intermediate ridge. +Let A be supposed to be a castle wall, with slightly elevated masses of +square-built buttresses at intervals. Then, by a process of +dilapidation, these buttresses might easily be brought to assume in +their perspective of ruin the forms indicated at B, which, with certain +modifications, is the actual shape of the Chamouni aiguilles. The top of +the Aiguille Charmoz is not the point under _d_, but that under _e_. +The deception is much increased by the elevation of the whole castle +wall on the green bank before spoken of, which raises its foundation +several thousand feet above the eye, and thus, giving amazing steepness +to all the perspective lines, produces an impression of the utmost +possible isolation of peaks, where, in reality, there is a +well-supported, and more or less continuous, though sharply jagged, pile +of solid walls. + +[Illustration: FIG. 35.] + +§ 14. There is, however, this great difference between the castle wall +and aiguilles, that the dilapidation in the one would take place by the +fall of _horizontal_ bricks or stones; in the aiguilles it takes place +in quite an opposite manner by the flaking away of nearly _vertical_ +ones. + +This is the next point of great interest respecting them. Observe, the +object of their construction appears to be the attainment of the utmost +possible peakedness in aspect, with the least possible danger to the +inhabitants of the valleys. As, therefore, they are first thrown into +transverse ridges, which take, in perspective, a more or less peaked +outline, so, in their dilapidation, they split into narrow flakes, +which, if seen edgeways, look as sharp as a lance-point, but are +nevertheless still strong; being each of them, in reality, not a +lance-point or needle, but a hatchet edge. + +§ 15. And since if these sharp flakes broke _straight_ across the masses +of mountain, when once the fissure took place, all hold would be lost +between flake and flake, it is ordered (and herein is the most notable +thing in the whole matter) that they shall not break straight, but _in +curves, round the body_ of the aiguilles, somewhat in the manner of the +coats of an onion; so that, even after fissure has taken place, the +detached film or flake clings to and leans upon the central mass, and +will not fall from it till centuries of piercing frost have wedged it +utterly from its hold; and, even then, will not fall all at once, but +drop to pieces slowly, and flake by flake. Consider a little the +beneficence of this ordinance;[62] supposing the cliffs had been built +like the castle wall, the mouldering away of a few bricks, more or less, +at the bottom would have brought down huge masses above, as it +constantly does in ruins, and in the mouldering cliffs of the slaty +coherents; while yet the top of the mountain would have been always +blunt and rounded, as at _a_, Fig. 36, when seen against the sky. But +the aiguille being built in these nearly vertical curved flakes, the +worst that the frost can do to it is to push its undermost rocks asunder +into forms such as at _b_, of which, when many of the edges have fallen, +the lower ones are more or less supported by the very débris accumulated +at their feet; and yet all the while the tops sustain themselves in the +most fantastic and incredible fineness of peak against the sky. + +[Illustration: J. Ruskin. J. C. Armytage. + 31. The Aiguille Blaitière.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 36.] + +§ 16. I have drawn the flakes in Fig. 36, for illustration's sake, under +a caricatured form. Their real aspect will be understood in a moment by +a glance at the opposite plate, +31+, which represents the central +aiguille in the woodcut outline Fig. 35 (Aiguille Blaitière, called by +Forbes Greppond), as seen from within about half a mile of its actual +base. The white shell-like mass beneath it is a small glacier, which in +its beautifully curved outline[63] appears to sympathize with the sweep +of the rocks beneath, rising and breaking like a wave at the feet of the +remarkable horn or spur which supports it on the right. The base of the +aiguille itself is, as it were, washed by this glacier, or by the snow +which covers it, till late in the season, as a cliff is by the sea; +except that a narrow chasm, of some twenty or thirty feet in depth and +two or three feet wide, usually separates the rock from the ice, which +is melted away by the heat reflected from the southern face of the +aiguille. The rock all along this base line is of the most magnificent +compactness and hardness, and rings under the hammer like a bell; yet, +when regarded from a little distance, it is seen to be distinctly +inclined to separate into grand curved flakes or sheets, of which the +dark edges are well marked in the plate. The pyramidal form of the +aiguille, as seen from this point, is, however, entirely deceptive; the +square rock which forms its apparent summit is not the real top, but +much in advance of it, and the slope on the right against the sky is a +perspective line; while, on the other hand, the precipice in light, +above the three small horns at the narrowest part of the glacier, is +considerably steeper than it appears to be, the cleavage of the flakes +crossing it somewhat obliquely. But I show the aiguille from this spot +that the reader may more distinctly note the fellowship between its +curved precipice and the little dark horn or spur which bounds the +glacier; a spur the more remarkable because there is just such another, +jutting in like manner from the corresponding angle of the next aiguille +(Charmoz), both of them looking like remnants or foundations of the +vaster ancient pyramids, of which the greater part has been by ages +carried away. + +[Illustration: FIG. 37.] + +§ 17. The more I examined the range of the aiguilles the more I was +struck by this curved cleavage as their principal character. It is quite +true that they have other straighter cleavages (noticed in the Appendix, +as the investigation of them would be tiresome to the general reader); +but it is this to which they owe the whole picturesqueness of their +contours; curved as it is, not simply, but often into the most strange +shell-like undulations, as will be understood by a glance at Fig. 37, +which shows the mere _governing_ lines at the base of this Aiguille +Blaitière, seen, with its spur, from a station some quarter of a mile +nearer it, and more to the east than that chosen in Plate +31+. These +leading lines are rarely well shown in fine weather, the important +contour from _a_ downwards being hardly relieved clearly from the +precipice beyond (_b_), unless a cloud intervenes, as it did when I made +this memorandum; while, again, the leading lines of the Aiguille du +Plan, as seen from the foot of it, close to the rocks, are as at Fig. +38, the generally pyramidal outline being nearly similar to that of +Blaitière, and a spur being thrown out to the right, under _a_, composed +in exactly the same manner of curved folia of rock laid one against the +other. The hollow in the heart of the aiguille is as smooth and sweeping +in curve as the cavity of a vast bivalve shell. + +[Illustration: FIG. 38.] + +§ 18. I call these the governing or leading lines, not because they are +the first which strike the eye, but because, like those of the grain of +the wood in a tree-trunk, they rule the swell and fall and change of all +the mass. In Nature, or in a photograph, a careless observer will by no +means be struck by them, any more than he would by the curves of the +tree; and an ordinary artist would draw rather the cragginess and +granulation of the surfaces, just as he would rather draw the bark and +moss of the trunk. Nor can any one be more steadfastly adverse than I to +every substitution of anatomical knowledge for outward and apparent +fact; but so it is, that as an artist increases in acuteness of +perception, the facts which _become_ outward and apparent to him are +those which bear upon the growth or make of the thing. And, just as in +looking at any woodcut of trees after Titian or Albert Durer, as +compared with a modern water-color sketch, we shall always be struck by +the writhing and rounding of the tree trunks in the one, and the +stiffness, and merely blotted or granulated surfaces of the other; so, +in looking at these rocks, the keenness of the artist's eye may almost +precisely be tested by the degree in which he perceives the curves that +give them their strength and grace, and in harmony with which the flakes +of granite are bound together, like the bones of the jaw of a saurian. +Thus the ten years of study which I have given to these mountains since +I described them in the first volume as "traversed sometimes by graceful +curvilinear fissures, sometimes by straight fissures," have enabled me +to ascertain, and now generally at a glance to see, that the curvilinear +ones are _dominant_, and that even the fissures or edges which appear +perfectly straight have _almost_ always some delicate sympathy with the +curves. Occasionally, however, as in the separate beds which form the +spur or horn of the Aiguille Blaitière, seen in true profile in Plate ++29+, Fig. 3, the straightness is so accurate that, not having brought a +rule with me up the glacier, I was obliged to write under my sketch, +"Not possible to draw it straight enough." Compare also the lines +sloping to the left in Fig. 38. + +§ 19. "But why not give everything just as it is; without caring what is +dominant and what subordinate?" + +You cannot. Of all the various impossibilities which torment and +humiliate the painter, none are more vexatious than that of drawing a +mountain form. It is indeed impossible enough to draw, by resolute care, +the foam on a wave, or the outline of the foliage of a large tree; but +in these cases, when care is at fault, carelessness will help, and the +dash of the brush will in some measure give wildness to the churning of +the foam, and infinitude to the shaking of the leaves. But chance will +not help us with the mountain. Its fine and faintly organized edge seems +to be definitely traced against the sky; yet let us set ourselves +honestly to follow it, and we find, on the instant, it has disappeared: +and that for two reasons. The first, that if the mountain be lofty, and +in light, it is so faint in color that the eye literally cannot trace +its separation from the hues next to it. The other day I wanted the +contour of a limestone mountain in the Valais, distant about seven +miles, and as many thousand feet above me; it was barren limestone; the +morning sun fell upon it, so as to make it almost vermilion color, and +the sky behind it a bluish green. Two tints could hardly have been more +opposed, but both were so subtle, that I found it impossible to see +accurately the line that separated the vermilion from the green. The +second, that if the contour be observed from a nearer point, or looked +at when it is dark against the sky, it will be found composed of +millions of minor angles, crags, points, and fissures, which no human +sight or hand can draw finely enough, and yet all of which have effect +upon the mind. + +§ 20. The outline shown as dark against the sky in Plate +29+, Fig. 2 is +about a hundred, or a hundred and twenty, yards of the top of the ridge +of Charmoz, running from the base of the aiguille down to the +Montanvert, and seen from the moraine of the Charmoz glacier, a quarter +of a mile distant to the south-west.[64] It is formed of decomposing +granite, thrown down in blocks entirely detached, but wedged together, +so as to stand continually in these seemingly perilous contours (being a +portion of such a base of aiguille as that in _b_, Fig. 36, p. 185).[65] +The block forming the summit on the left is fifteen or eighteen feet +long; and the upper edge of it, which is the dominant point of the +Charmoz ridge, is the best spot in the Chamouni district for giving a +thorough command of the relations of the aiguilles on each side of the +Mer de Glace. Now put the book, with that page open, upright, at three +yards distance from you, and try to draw this contour, which I have made +as dark and distinct as it ever could be in reality, and you will +immediately understand why it is impossible to draw mountain outlines +rightly. + +§ 21. And if not outlines, _a fortiori_ not details of mass, which have +all the complexity of the outline multiplied a thousand fold, and drawn +in fainter colors. Nothing is more curious than the state of +embarrassment into which the unfortunate artist must soon be cast when +he endeavors honestly to draw the face of the simplest mountain +cliff--say a thousand feet high, and two or three miles distant. It is +full of exquisite details, all seemingly decisive and clear; but when he +tries to arrest one of them, he cannot see it,--cannot find where it +begins or ends,--and presently it runs into another; and then he tries +to draw that, but that will not be drawn, neither, until it has +conducted him to a third, which, somehow or another, made part of the +first; presently he finds that, instead of three, there are in reality +four, and then he loses his place altogether. He tries to draw clear +lines, to make his work look craggy, but finds that then it is too hard; +he tries to draw soft lines, and it is immediately too soft; he draws a +curved line, and instantly sees it should have been straight; a straight +one, and finds when he looks up again, that it has got curved while he +was drawing it. There is nothing for him but despair, or some sort of +abstraction and shorthand for cliff. Then the only question is, what is +the wisest abstraction; and out of the multitude of lines that cannot +altogether be interpreted, which are the really dominant ones; so that +if we cannot give the whole, we may at least give what will convey the +most important facts about the cliff. + +[Illustration: 32. Aiguille Drawing. + 1. Old Ideal. 2. Turnerian.] + +§ 22. Recurring then to our "public opinion" of the Aiguille Charmoz, we +find the greatest exaggeration of, and therefore I suppose the greatest +interest in, the narrow and spiry point on its left side. That is in +reality a point at all but a hatchet edge; a flake of rock, which is +enabled to maintain itself in this sharp-edged state by its writhing +folds of sinewy granite. Its structure, on a larger scale, and seen +"edge on," is shown in Fig. 41. The whole aiguille is composed of a +series of such flakes, liable, indeed, to all kinds of fissure in other +directions, but holding, by their modes of vertical association, the +strongest authority over the form of the whole mountain. It is not in +all lights that they are seen plainly: for instance, in the morning +effect in Plate +30+ they are hardly traceable: but the longer we watch, +the more they are perceived; and their power of sustaining themselves +vertically is so great, that at the foot of the aiguille on the right a +few of them form a detached mass, known as the _Petit_ Charmoz, between +E and _c_ in Fig. 60, p. 210, of which the height of the uttermost +flake, between _c_ and _d_, is about five hundred feet. + +[Illustration: FIG. 41.] + +Important, however, as this curved cleavage is, it is so confused among +others, that it has taken me, as I said, ten years of almost successive +labor to develope, in any degree of completeness, its relations among +the aiguilles of Chamouni; and even of professed geologists, the only +person who has described it properly is De Saussure, whose _continual_ +sojourn among the Alps enabled him justly to discern the constant from +the inconstant phenomena. And yet, in his very first journey to Savoy, +Turner saw it at a glance, and fastened on it as the main thing to be +expressed in those mountains. + +In the opposite Plate (+32+), the darkest division, on the right, is a +tolerably accurate copy of Turner's rendering of the Aiguille Charmoz +(etched and engraved by himself), in the plate called the "Mer de +Glace," in the Liber Studiorum. Its outline is in local respects +inaccurate enough, being modified by Turnerian topography; but the flaky +character is so definite, that it looks as if it had been prepared for +an illustrative diagram of the points at present under discussion. + +§ 23. And do not let it be supposed that this was by chance, or that the +modes of mountain drawing at the period would in any wise have helped +Turner to discover these lines. The aiguilles had been drawn before this +time, and the figure on the left in Plate +32+ will show how. It is a +facsimile of a piece of an engraving of the Mer de Glace, by Woollett, +after William Pars, published in 1783, and founded on the general +Wilsonian and Claudesque principles of landscape common at the time. +There are, in the rest of the plate, some good arrangements of shadow +and true aerial perspective; and the piece I have copied, which is an +attempt to represent the Aiguille Dru, opposite the Charmoz, will serve, +not unfairly, to show how totally inadequate the draughtsmen of the time +were to perceive the character of mountains, and, also, how unable the +human mind is by itself to conceive anything like the variety of natural +form. The workman had not looked at the thing,--trusted to his "Ideal," +supposed that broken and rugged rocks might be shaped better out of his +own head than by Nature's laws,--and we see what comes of it. + +§ 24. And now, lastly, observe, in the laws by which this strange +curvilinear structure is given to the aiguilles, how the provision for +beauty of form is made in the first landscape materials we have to +study. We have permitted ourselves, according to that unsystematic mode +of proceeding pleaded for in the opening of our present task, to wander +hither and thither as this or that question rose before us, and +demanded, or tempted, our pursuit. But the reader must yet remember that +our special business in this section of the work is the observance of +the nature of _beauty_, and of the degrees in which the aspect of any +object fulfils the laws of beauty stated in the second volume. Now in +the fifteenth paragraph of the chapter on infinity, it was stated that +curvature was essential to all beauty, and that what we should "need +more especially to prove, was the constancy of curvature in all natural +forms whatsoever." And these aiguilles, which are the first objects we +have had definitely to consider, appeared as little likely to fulfil the +condition as anything we could have come upon. I am well assured that +the majority of spectators see no curves in them at all, but an +intensely upright, stern, spiry ruggedness and angularity. And we might +even beforehand have been led to expect, and to be contented in +expecting, nothing else from them than this; for since, as we have said +often, they are part of the earth's skeleton, being created to sustain +and strengthen everything else, and yet differ from a skeleton in this, +that the earth is not only supported by their strength, but fed by their +ruin; so that they are first composed of the hardest and least tractable +substance, and then exposed to such storm and violence as shall beat +large parts of them to powder;--under these desperate conditions of +being, I say, we might have anticipated some correspondent ruggedness +and terribleness of aspect, some such refusal to comply with ordinary +laws of beauty, as we often see in other things and creatures put to +hard work, and sustaining distress or violence. + +§ 25. And truly, at first sight, there is such refusal in their look, +and their shattered walls and crests seem to rise in a gloomy contrast +with the soft waves of bank and wood beneath; nor do I mean to press the +mere fact, that, as we look longer at them, other lines become +perceptible, because it might be thought no proof of their beauty that +they needed long attention in order to be discerned. But I think this +much at least is deserving of our notice, as confirmatory of foregone +conclusions, that the forms which in other things are produced by slow +increase, or gradual abrasion of surface, _are here produced by rough +fracture_, when rough fracture is to be the law of existence. A rose is +rounded by its own soft ways of growth, a reed is bowed into tender +curvature by the pressure of the breeze; but we could not, from these, +have proved any resolved preference, by Nature, of curved lines to +others, inasmuch as it might always have been answered that the curves +were produced, not for beauty's sake, but infallibly, by the laws of +vegetable existence; and, looking at broken flints or rugged banks +afterwards, we might have thought that we only liked the curved lines +because associated with life and organism, and disliked the angular +ones, because associated with inaction and disorder. But Nature gives us +in these mountains a more clear demonstration of her will. She is here +driven to make fracture the law of being. She cannot tuft the rock-edges +with moss, or round them by water, or hide them with leaves and roots. +She is bound to produce a form, admirable to human beings, by continual +breaking away of substance. And behold--so soon as she is compelled to +do this--she changes the law of fracture itself. "Growth," she seems to +say, "is not essential to my work, nor concealment, nor softness; but +curvature is: and if I must produce my forms by breaking them, the +fracture itself shall be in curves. If, instead of dew and sunshine, the +only instruments I am to use are the lightning and the frost, then their +forked tongues and crystal wedges shall still work out my laws of tender +line. Devastation instead of nurture may be the task of all my elements, +and age after age may only prolong the unrenovated ruin; but the +appointments of typical beauty which have been made over all creatures +shall not therefore be abandoned; and the rocks shall be ruled, in their +perpetual perishing, by the same ordinances that direct the bending of +the reed and the blush of the rose." + + +FOOTNOTES + + [57] See, for explanatory statements, Appendix 2. + + [58] I have been able to examine these conditions with much care in + the chain of Mont Blanc only, which I chose for the subject of + investigation both as being the most interesting to the general + traveller, and as being the only range of the central mountains + which had been much painted by Turner. But I believe the singular + arrangements of beds which take place in this chain have been found + by the German geologists to prevail also in the highest peaks of the + Western Alps; and there are a peculiar beauty and providence in them + which induce me to expect that farther inquiries may justify our + attributing them to some very extensive law of the earth's + structure. See the notes from De Saussure in Appendix 2. + + [59] That is to say, as it appears to me. There are some points of + the following statements which are disputed among geologists; the + reader will find them hereafter discussed at greater length. + + [60] Running, at that point very nearly, N. E. and S. W., and + dipping under the ice at an angle of about seventy degrees. + + [61] It was often of great importance to me to ascertain these + _apparent_ slopes with some degree of correctness. In order to do so + without the trouble of carrying any instrument (except my compass + and spirit-level), I had my Alpine pole made as even as a round rule + for about a foot in the middle of its length. Taking the bearing of + the mountain, placing the pole at right angles to the bearing, and + adjusting it by the spirit-level, I brought the edge of a piece of + finely cut pasteboard parallel, in a vertical plane (plumbed), with + the apparent slope of the hillside. A pencil line drawn by the pole + then gave me a horizon, with which the angle could be easily + measured at home. The measurements thus obtained are given under the + figures. + + [62] That is to say, in a cliff intended to _owe its outline to + dilapidation_. Where no dilapidation is to be permitted, the bedded + structure, well knit, is always used. Of this we shall see various + examples in the 16th chapter. + + [63] Given already as an example of curvature in the Stones of + Venice, vol. 1, plate 7. + + [64] The top of the aiguille of the Little Charmoz bearing, from the + point whence this sketch was made, about six degrees east of north. + + [65] The _summits_ of the aiguilles are often more fantastically + rent still. Fig. 39 is the profile of a portion of the upper edge of + the Aiguille du Moine, seen from the crest of Charmoz; Fig. 40 shows + the three lateral fragments, drawn to a larger scale. The height of + each of the upright masses must be from twenty to twenty-five feet. + I do not know if their rude resemblance to two figures, on opposite + sides of a table or altar, has had anything to do with the name of + the aiguille. + + [Illustration: FIG. 39.] + + [Illustration: FIG. 40.] + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +RESULTING FORMS:--SECONDLY, CRESTS. + + +§ 1. Between the aiguilles, or other conditions of central peak, and the +hills which are clearly formed, as explained in Chap. XII. § 11, by the +mere breaking of the edges of solid beds of coherent rock, there occurs +almost always a condition of mountain summit, intermediate in aspect, as +in position. The aiguille may generally be represented by the type _a_, +Fig. 42; the solid and simple beds of rock by the type _c_. The +condition _b_, clearly intermediate between the two, is, on the whole, +the most graceful and perfect in which mountain masses occur. It seems +to have attracted more of the attention of the poets than either of the +others; and the ordinary word, crest, which we carelessly use in +speaking of mountain summits, as if it meant little more than "edge" or +"ridge," has a peculiar force and propriety when applied to ranges of +cliff whose contours correspond thus closely to the principal lines of +the crest of a Greek helmet. + +[Illustration: FIG. 42.] + +§ 2. There is another resemblance which they can hardly fail to suggest +when at all irregular in form,--that of a wave about to break. Byron +uses the image definitely of Soracte; and, in a less clear way, it seems +to present itself occasionally to all minds, there being a general +tendency to give or accept accounts of mountain form under the image of +waves; and to speak of a hilly country, seen from above, as looking +like a "sea of mountains." + +Such expressions, vaguely used, do not, I think, generally imply much +more than that the ground is waved or undulated into bold masses. But if +we give prolonged attention to the mountains of the group _b_ we shall +gradually begin to feel that more profound truth is couched under this +mode of speaking, and that there is indeed an appearance of action and +united movement in these crested masses, nearly resembling that of sea +waves; that they seem not to be heaped up, but to leap or toss +themselves up; and in doing so, to wreathe and twist their summits into +the most fantastic, yet harmonious, curves, governed by some grand +under-sweep like that of a tide, running through the whole body of the +mountain chain. + +[Illustration: FIG 43.] + +For instance, in Fig. 43, which gives, rudely, the leading lines of the +junction of the "Aiguille pourri"[66] (Chamouni) with the Aiguilles +Rouges, the reader cannot, I think, but feel that there is something +which binds the mountains together--some common influence at their heart +which they cannot resist: and that, however they may be broken or +disordered, there is as true unity among them as in the sweep of a wild +wave, governed, through all its foaming ridges, by constant laws of +weight and motion. + +[Illustration: FIG. 44.] + +§ 3. How far this apparent unity is the result of elevatory force _in_ +mountain, and how far of the sculptural force of water _upon_ the +mountain, is the question we have mainly to deal with in the present +chapter. + +[Illustration: FIG. 45.] + +But first look back to Fig. 7, of Plate +8+, Vol. III., there given as +the typical representation of the ruling forces of growth in a leaf. +Take away the extreme portion of the curve on the left, and any segment +of the leaf remaining, terminated by one of its ribs, as _a_ or _b_, +Fig. 44, will be equally a typical contour of a common crested mountain. +If the reader will merely turn Plate +8+ so as to look at the figure +upright, with its stalk downwards, he will see that it is also the base +of the honeysuckle ornament of the Greeks. I may anticipate what we +shall have to note with respect to vegetation so far as to tell him that +it is also the base of form in all timber trees. + +[Illustration: FIG. 46.] + +§ 4. There seems something, therefore, in this contour which makes its +production one of the principal aims of Nature in all her compositions. +The cause of this appears to be, that as the cinqfoil is the simplest +expression of proportion, this is the simplest expression of opposition, +in unequal curved lines. If we take any lines, _a x_ and _e g_, Fig. 45, +both of varied curvature (not segments of circles), and one shorter than +the other, and join them together so as to form one line, as _b x_, _x +g_, we shall have one of the common lines of beauty; if we join them at +an angle, as _c x_, _x y_, we shall have the common crest, which is in +fact merely a jointed line of beauty. If we join them as at _a_, Fig. +46, they form a line at once monotonous and cramped, and the jointed +condition of this same line, _b_, is hardly less so. It is easily +proved, therefore, that the junction of lines _c x_, _x y_, is the +simplest and most graceful mode of opposition; and easily observed that +in branches of trees, wings of birds, and other more or less regular +organizations, such groups of line are continually made to govern the +contours. But it is not so easily seen why or how this form should be +impressed upon irregular heaps of mountain. + +[Illustration: FIG. 47.] + +§ 5. If a bed of coherent rock be raised, in the manner described in +Chap. XIII., so as to form a broken precipice with its edge, and a long +slope with its surface, as at _a_, Fig. 47 (and in this way nearly all +hills are raised), the top of the precipice has usually a tendency to +crumble down, and, in process of time, to form a heap of advanced ruins +at its foot. On the other side, the back or slope of the hill does not +crumble down, but is gradually worn away by the streams; and as these +are always more considerable, both in velocity and weight, at the bottom +of the slope than the top, the ground is faster worn away at the bottom, +and the straight slope is cut to a curve of continually increasing +steepness. Fig. 47 _b_ represents the contour to which the hill _a_ +would thus be brought in process of time; the dotted line indicating its +original form. The result, it will be seen, is a crest.[67] + +[Illustration: FIG. 48.] + +§ 6. But crests of this uniform substance and continuous outline occur +only among hills composed of the softest coherent rocks, and seldom +attain any elevation such as to make them important or impressive. The +notable crests are composed of the hard coherents or slaty crystallines, +and then the contour of the crests depends mainly on the question +whether in the original mass of it, the beds lie as at _a_ or as at _b_, +Fig. 48. If they lie as at _a_, then the resultant crest will have the +general appearance seen at _c_; the edges of the beds getting separated +and serrated by the weather. If the beds lie as at _b_, the resultant +crest will be of such a contour as that at _d_. + +The crests of the contour _d_ are formed usually by the harder coherent +rocks, and are notable chiefly for their bold precipices in front, and +regular slopes, or sweeping curves, at the back. We shall examine them +under the special head of _precipices_. But the crests of the form at c +belong usually to the slaty crystallines, and are those properly called +crests, their edges looking, especially when covered with pines, like +separated plumes. These it is our chief business to examine in the +present chapter. + +[Illustration: FIG. 49.] + +§ 7. In order to obtain this kind of crest, we first require to have our +mountain beds thrown up in the form _a_, Fig. 48. This is not easily +done on a large scale, except among the slaty crystallines forming the +flanks of the great chains, as in Fig. 29, p. 176. In that figure it +will be seen that the beds forming each side of the chain of Mont Blanc +are thrown into the required steepness, and therefore, whenever they +are broken towards the central mountain, they naturally form the front +of a crest, while the torrents and glaciers falling over their longer +slopes, carve them into rounded banks towards the valley. + +§ 8. But the beauty of a crest or bird's wing consists, in nature, not +merely in its curved terminal outline, but in the radiation of the +plumes, so that while each assumes a different curve, every curve shall +show a certain harmony of direction with all the others. + +We shall have to enter into the examination of this subject at greater +length in the 17th chapter; meanwhile, it is sufficient to observe the +law in a single example, such as Fig. 49, which is a wing of one of the +angels in Durer's woodcut of the Fall of Lucifer.[68] At first sight, +the plumes seem disposed with much irregularity, but there is a sense of +power and motion in the whole which the reader would find was at once +lost by a careless copyist; for it depends on the fact that if we take +the principal curves at any points of the wing, and continue them in the +lines which they are pursuing at the moment they terminate, these +continued lines will all meet in a single point, C. It is this law which +gives unity to the wing. + +All groups of curves set beside each other depend for their beauty upon +the observance of this law;[69] and if, therefore, the mountain crests +are to be perfectly beautiful, Nature must contrive to get this element +of radiant curvature into them in one way or another. Nor does it, at +first sight, appear easy for her to get, I do not say radiant curves, +but curves _at all_: for in the aiguilles, she actually bent their beds; +but in these slaty crystallines it seems not always convenient to her to +bend the beds; and when they are to remain straight, she must obtain the +curvature in some other way. + +[Illustration: FIG. 50.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 51.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 52.] + +§ 9. One way in which she gets it is curiously simple in itself, but +somewhat difficult to explain, unless the reader will be at the pains of +making a little model for himself out of paste or clay. Hitherto, +observe, we have spoken of these crests as seen at their sides, as a +Greek helmet is seen from the side of the wearer. By means presently to +be examined, these mountain crests are so shaped that, seen _in front_, +or from behind (as a helmet crest is seen in front of or behind the +wearer), they present the contour of a sharp ridge, or house gable. Now +if the breadth of this ridge at its base remains the same, while its +height gradually diminishes from the front of it to the back (as from +the top of the crest to the back of the helmet), it necessarily assumes +the form of such a quaint gable roof as that shown in profile in Fig. +50, and in perspective[70] in Fig. 51, in which the gable is steep at +the end farthest off, but depressed at the end nearest us; and the rows +of tiles, in consequence, though in reality quite straight, appear to +radiate as they retire, owing to their different slopes. When a mountain +crest is thus formed, and the concave curve of its front is carried into +its flanks, each edge of bed assuming this concave curve, and radiating, +like the rows of tiles, in perspective at the same time, the whole +crest is thrown into the form Fig. 52, which is that of the radiating +plume required. + +[Illustration: FIG. 53.] + +§ 10. It often happens, however, that Nature does not choose to keep the +ridge broad at the lower extremity, so as to diminish its steepness. But +when this is not so, and the base is narrowed so that the slope of side +shall be nearly equal everywhere, she almost always obtains her varied +curvature of the plume in another way, by merely turning the crest a +little round as it descends. I will not confuse the reader by examining +the complicated results of such turning on the inclined lines of the +strata; but he can understand, in a moment, its effect on another series +of lines, those caused by rivulets of water down the sides of the crest. +These lines are, of course, always, in general tendency, perpendicular. +Let _a_, Fig. 53, be a circular funnel, painted inside with a pattern of +vertical lines meeting at the bottom. Suppose these lines to represent +the ravines traced by the water. Cut off a portion of the lip of the +funnel, as at _b_, to represent the crest side. Cut the edge so as to +slope down towards you, and add a slope on the other side. Then give +each inner line the concave sweep, and you have your ridge _c_, of the +required form, with radiant curvature. + +§ 11. A greater space of such a crest is always seen on its concave than +on its convex side (the outside of the funnel); of this other +perspective I shall have to speak hereafter; meantime, we had better +continue the examination of the proper crest, the _c_ of Fig. 48, in +some special instance. + +The form is obtained usually in the greatest perfection among the high +ridges near the central chain, where the beds of the slaty crystallines +are steep and hard. Perhaps the most interesting example I can choose +for close examination will be that of a mountain in Chamouni, called +the Aiguille Bouchard, now familiar to the eye of every traveller, being +the ridge which rises, exactly opposite the Montanvert, beyond the Mer +de Glace. The structure of this crest is best seen from near the foot of +the Montanvert, on the road to the source of the Arveiron, whence the +top of it, _a_, presents itself under the outline given rudely in the +opposite plate (+33+), in which it will be seen that, while the main +energy of the mountain mass tosses itself against the central chain of +Mont Blanc (which is on the right hand), it is met by a group of +counter-crests, like the recoil of a broken wave cast against it from +the other side; and yet, as the recoiling water has a sympathy with the +under swell of the very wave against which it clashes, the whole mass +writhes together in strange unity of mountain passion; so that it is +almost impossible to persuade oneself, after long looking at it, that +the crests have not indeed been once fused and tossed into the air by a +tempest which had mastery over them, as the winds have over ocean. + +§ 12. And yet, if we examine the crest structure closely, we shall find +that nearly all these curvatures are obtained by Nature's skilful +handling of perfectly straight beds,--only the meeting of those two +waves of crest is indeed indicative of the meeting of two masses of +different rocks; it marks that junction of the slaty with the compact +crystallines, which has before been noticed as the principal mystery of +rock structure. To this junction my attention was chiefly directed +during my stay at Chamouni, as I found it was always at that point that +Nature produced the loveliest mountain forms. Perhaps the time I gave to +the study of it may have exaggerated its interest in my eyes; and the +reader who does not care for these geological questions, except in their +direct bearing upon art, may, without much harm, miss the next seven +paragraphs, and go on at the twenty-first. Yet there is one point, in a +Turner drawing presently to be examined, which I cannot explain without +inflicting the tediousness even of these seven upon him. + +[Illustration: J. Ruskin. R. P. Cuff. + 33. Leading Contours of Aiguille Bouchard.] + +§ 13. First, then, the right of the Aiguille Bouchard to be called a +crest at all depends, not on the slope from _a_ to _b_, Plate +33+, but +on that from _a_ to _h_. The slope from _a_ to _b_ is a perspective +deception; _b_ is much the highest point of the two. Seen from the +village of Chamouni, the range presents itself under the outline Fig. +54, the same points in each figure being indicated by the same letters. +From the end of the valley the supremacy of the mass _b c_ is still more +notable. It is altogether with mountains as with human spirits, you +never know which is greatest till they are far away. + +[Illustration: FIG. 54.] + +§ 14. It will be observed also, that the beauty of the crest, in both +Plate +33+ and Fig. 54, depends on the gradually increasing steepness of +the lines of slope between _a_ and _b_. This is in great part deceptive, +being obtained by the receding of the crest into a great mountain +crater, or basin, as explained in § 11. But this very recession is a +matter of interest, for it takes place exactly on the line above spoken +of, where the slaty crystallines of the crest join the compact +crystallines of the aiguilles; at which junction a correspondent chasm +or recession, of some kind or another, takes place along the whole front +of Mont Blanc. + +§ 15. In the third paragraph of the last chapter we had occasion to +refer to the junction of the slaty and compact crystallines at the roots +of the aiguilles. It will be seen in the figure there given, that this +change is not sudden, but gradated. The rocks to be joined are of the +two types represented in Fig. 3, p. 106 (for convenience' sake I shall +in the rest of this chapter call the slaty rock gneiss, and the compact +rock protogine, its usual French name). Fig. 55 shows the general +manner of junction, beds of gneiss occurring in the middle of the +protogine, and of protogine in the gneiss; sometimes one touching the +other so closely, that a hammer-stroke breaks off a piece of both; +sometimes one passing into the other by a gradual change, like the zones +of a rainbow; the only general phenomenon being this, that the higher up +the hill the gneiss is, the harder it is (so that while it often yields +to the pressure of the finger down in the valley, on the Montanvert it +is nearly as hard as protogine); and, on the other hand, the lower down +the hill, or the nearer the gneiss, the protogine is, the finer it is in +grain. But still the actual transition from one to the other is usually +within a few fathoms; and it is that transition, and the preparation for +it, which causes the great step, or jag, on the flank of the chain, and +forms the tops of the Aiguille Bouchard, Charmoz ridges, Tapia, Montagne +de la Côte, Montagne de Taconay, and Aiguille du Gouté. + +[Illustration: FIG. 55.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 56.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 57.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 58.] + +§ 16. But what most puzzled me was the intense _straightness_ of the +lines of the gneiss beds, dipping, as it seemed, under the Mont Blanc. +For it has been a chief theory with geologists that these central +protogine rocks have once been in fusion, and have risen up in molten +fury, overturning and altering all the rocks around. But every day, as +I looked at the crested flanks of the Mont Blanc, I saw more plainly the +exquisite _regularity_ of the slopes of the beds, ruled, it seemed, with +an architect's rule, along the edge of their every flake from the +summits to the valley. And this surprised me the more because I had +always heard it stated that the beds of the lateral crests, _a_ and _b_, +Fig. 56, varied in slope, getting less and less inclined as they +descended, so as to arrange themselves somewhat in the form of a fan. It +may be so; but I can only say that all my observations and drawings give +an opposite report, and that the beds seemed invariably to present +themselves to the eye and the pencil in parallelism, modified only by +the phenomena just explained (§§ 9, 10). Thus the entire mass of the +Aiguille Bouchard, of which only the top is represented in Plate +33+, +appeared to me in profile, as in Fig. 57, dependent for all its effect +and character on the descent of the beds in the directions of the dotted +lines, _a_, _b_, _d_. The interrupting space, _g g_, is the Glacier des +Bois; M is the Montanvert; _c_, _c_, the rocks under the glacier, much +worn by the fall of avalanches, but, for all that, showing the steep +lines still with the greatest distinctness. Again, looking down the +valley instead of up, so as to put the Mont Blanc on the left hand, the +principal crests which support it, Taconay and La Côte, always appeared +to me constructed as in Plate +35+ (p. 212), they also depending for all +their effect on the descent of the beds in diagonal lines towards the +left. Nay, half-way up the Breven, whence the structure of the Mont +Blanc is commanded, as far as these lower buttresses are concerned, +better than from the top of the Breven, I drew carefully the cleavages +of the beds, as high as the edge of the Aiguille de Gouté, and found +them exquisitely parallel throughout; and again on the Cormayeur side, +though less steep, the beds _a_, _b_, Fig. 58, traversing the vertical +irregular fissures of the great aiguille of the Allée Blanche, as seen +over the Lac de Combal, still appeared to me perfectly regular and +parallel.[71] I have not had time to trace them round, through the +Aiguille de Bionassay, and above the Col de Bonhomme, though I know the +relations of the beds of limestone to the gneiss on the latter col are +most notable and interesting. But, as far as was required for any +artistical purposes, I perfectly ascertained the fact that, whatever +their real structure might be, these beds did appear, through the softer +contours of the hill, as straight and parallel; that they continued to +appear so until near the tops of the crests; and that those tops seemed, +in some mysterious way, dependent on the junction of the gneissitic beds +with, or their transition into, the harder protogine of the aiguilles. + +Look back to Plate +33+. The peak of the Bouchard, _a_, is of gneiss, +and its beds run down in lines originally straight, but more or less +hollowed by weathering, to the point _h_, where they plunge under +débris. But the point _b_ is, I believe, of protogine; and all the +opposed writhing of the waves of rock to the right appears to be in +consequence of the junction. + +[Illustration: 34. Cleavages of Aiguille Bouchard.] + +§ 17. The way in which these curves are produced cannot, however, be +guessed at until we examine the junction more closely. Ascending about +five hundred feet above the cabin of the Montanvert, the opposite crest +of the Bouchard, from _a_ to _c_, Plate +33+, is seen more in front, +expanded into the jagged line, _a_ to _c_, Plate +34+, and the beds, +with their fractures, are now seen clearly throughout the mass, namely: + +1st. (See references on plate). The true gneiss beds dipping down in the +direction G H, the point H being the same as _h_ in Plate +33+. These +are the beds so notable for their accurate straightness and parallelism. + +2nd. The smooth fractures which in the middle of the etching seem to +divide the column of rock into a kind of brickwork. They are very neat +and sharp, running nearly at right angles with the true beds.[72] + +3rd. The curved fractures of the aiguilles (seen first under the letter +_b_, and seeming to push outwards against the gneiss beds[73]) +continuing through _c_ and the spur below. + +4th. An irregular cleavage, something like that of starch, showing +itself in broken vertical lines. + +5th. Writhing lines, cut by water. These have the greatest possible +influence on the aspect of the precipice: they are not merely caused by +torrents, but by falls of winter snow, and stones from the glacier +moraines, so that the cliff being continually worn away at the foot of +it, is wrought into a great amphitheatre, of which the receding sweep +continually varies the apparent steepness of the crest, as already +explained. I believe in ancient times the great Glacier des Bois itself +used to fill this amphitheatre, and break right up against the base of +the Bouchard. + +6th. Curvatures worn by water over the back of the crest towards the +valley, in the direction _g i_. + +7th. A tendency (which I do not understand) to form horizontal masses +at the levels _k_ and _l_.[74] + +[Illustration: FIG. 61.] + +§ 18. The reader may imagine what strange harmonies and changes of line +must result throughout the mass of the mountain from the varied +prevalence of one or other of these secret inclinations of its rocks +(modified, also, as they are by perpetual deceptions of perspective), +and how completely the rigidity or parallelism of any one of them is +conquered by the fitful urgencies of the rest,--a sevenfold action +seeming to run through every atom of crag. For the sake of clearness, I +have shown in this plate merely leading lines; the next (Plate +35+, +opposite) will give some idea of the complete aspect of two of the +principal crests on the Mont Blanc flanks, known as the Montagne de la +Côte, and Montagne de Taconay, _c_ and _t_ in Fig. 22, at page 163. In +which note, first, that the eminences marked _a a_, _b b_, _c c_, here, +in the reference figure (61), are in each of the mountains +correspondent, and indicate certain changes in the conditions of their +beds at those points. I have no doubt the two mountains were once one +mass, and that they have been sawn asunder by the great glacier of +Taconay, which descends between them; and similarly the Montagne de +la Côte sawn from the Tapia by the glacier des Bossons, B B in reference +figure. + +[Illustration: 35. Crests of La Côte and Taconay.] + +[Illustration: 36. Crest of La Côte.] + +§ 19. Note, secondly, the general tendency in each mountain to throw +itself into concave curves towards the Mont Blanc, and descend in +rounded slopes to the valley; more or less interrupted by the direct +manifestation of the straight beds, which are indeed, in this view of +Taconay, the principal features of it. They necessarily become, however, +more prominent in the outline etching than in the scene itself, because +in reality the delicate cleavages are lost in distance or in mist, and +the effects of light bring out the rounded forms of the larger masses; +and wherever the clouds fill the hollows between, as they are apt to do, +(the glaciers causing a chillness in the ravines, while the wind, +blowing _up_ the larger valleys, clears the edges of the crests,) the +summits show themselves as in Plate 36, dividing, with their dark +frontlets, the perpetual sweep of the glaciers and the clouds.[75] + +§ 20. Of the aqueous curvatures of this crest, we shall have more to say +presently; meantime let us especially observe how the providential laws +of beauty, acting with reversed data, arrive at similar results in the +aiguilles and crests. In the aiguilles, which are of such hard rock that +the fall of snow and trickling of streams do not affect them, the inner +structure is so disposed as to bring out the curvatures by the mere +fracture. In the crests and lower hills, which are of softer rock, and +largely influenced by external violence, the inner structure is +straight, and the necessary curvatures are produced by perspective, by +external modulation, and by the balancing of adverse influences of +cleavage. But, as the accuracy of an artist's eye is usually shown by +his perceiving the inner anatomy which regulates growth and form, and as +in the aiguilles, while we watch them, we are continually discovering +new curves, so in the crests, while we watch them, we are continually +discovering new straightnesses; and nothing more distinguishes good +mountain-drawing, or mountain-seeing, from careless and inefficient +mountain-drawing, than the observance of the marvellous parallelisms +which exist among the beds of the crests. + +[Illustration: FIG. 62.] + +§ 21. It indeed happens, not unfrequently, that in hills composed of +somewhat soft rock, the aqueous contours will so prevail over the +straight cleavage as to leave nothing manifest at the first glance but +sweeping lines like those of waves. Fig. 43, p. 196, is the crest of a +mountain on the north of the valley of Chamouni, known, from the rapid +decay and fall of its crags, as the Aiguille _Pourri_; and at first +there indeed seems little distinction between its contours and those of +the summit of a sea wave. Yet I think also, if it _were_ a wave, we +should immediately suppose the tide was running towards the right hand; +and if we examined the reason for this supposition, we should perceive +that along the ridge the steepest falls of crag were always on the +right-hand side; indicating a tendency in them to break rather in the +direction of the line _a b_ than any other. If we go half-way down the +Montanvert, and examine the left side of the crest somewhat more +closely, we shall find this tendency still more definitely visible, as +in Fig. 62. + +§ 22. But what, then, has given rise to all those coiled plungings of +the crest hither and thither, yet with such strange unity of motion? + +Yes. There is the cloud. How the top of the hill was first shaped so as +to let the currents of water act upon it in so varied a way we know not, +but I think that the appearance of _interior_ force of elevation is for +the most part deceptive. The series of beds would be found, if examined +in section, very uniform in their arrangement, only a little harder in +one place, and more delicate in another. A stream receives a slight +impulse this way or that, at the top of the hill, but increases in +energy and sweep as it descends, gathering into itself others from its +sides, and uniting their power with its own. A single knot of quartz +occurring in a flake of slate at the crest of the ridge may alter the +entire destinies of the mountain form. It may turn the little rivulet of +water to the right or left, and that little turn will be to the future +direction of the gathering stream what the touch of a finger on the +barrel of a rifle would be to the direction of the bullet. Each +succeeding year increases the importance of every determined form, and +arranges in masses yet more and more harmonious, the promontories shaped +by the sweeping of the eternal waterfalls. + +§ 23. The importance of the results thus obtained by the slightest +change of direction in the infant streamlets, furnishes an interesting +type of the formation of human characters by habit. Every one of those +notable ravines and crags is the expression, not of any sudden violence +done to the mountain, but of its little _habits_, persisted in +continually. It was created with one ruling instinct; but its destiny +depended nevertheless, for effective result, on the direction of the +small and all but invisible tricklings of water, in which the first +shower of rain found its way down its sides. The feeblest, most +insensible oozings of the drops of dew among its dust were in reality +arbiters of its eternal form; commissioned, with a touch more tender +than that of a child's finger,--as silent and slight as the fall of a +half-checked tear on a maiden's cheek,--to fix for ever the forms of +peak and precipice, and hew those leagues of lifted granite into the +shapes that were to divide the earth and its kingdoms. Once the little +stone evaded,--once the dim furrow traced,--and the peak was for ever +invested with its majesty, the ravine for ever doomed to its +degradation. Thenceforward, day by day, the subtle habit gained in +power; the evaded stone was left with wider basement; the chosen furrow +deepened with swifter-sliding wave; repentance and arrest were alike +impossible, and hour after hour saw written in larger and rockier +characters upon the sky, the history of the choice that had been +directed by a drop of rain, and of the balance that had been turned by a +grain of sand. + +[Illustration: FIG. 63.] + +§ 24. Such are the principal laws, relating to the crested mountains, +for the expression of which we are to look to art; and we shall +accordingly find good and intelligent mountain-drawing distinguished +from bad mountain-drawing, by an indication, first, of the artist's +recognition of some great harmony among the summits, and of their +tendency to throw themselves into tidal waves, closely resembling those +of the sea itself; sometimes in free tossing towards the sky, but more +frequently still in the form of _breakers_, concave and steep on one +side, convex and less steep on the other; secondly, by his indication of +straight beds or fractures, continually stiffening themselves through +the curves in some given direction. + +[Illustration: FIG. 64.] + +§ 25. Fig. 63 is a facsimile of a piece of the background in Albert +Durer's woodcut of the binding of the great Dragon in the Apocalypse. It +is one of his most careless and rudest pieces of drawing; yet, observe +in it how notably the impulse of the breaking wave is indicated; and +note farther, how different a thing good drawing may be from delicate +_drawing_ on the one hand, and how different it must be from ignorant +drawing on the other. Woodcutting, in Durer's days, had reached no +delicacy capable of expressing subtle detail or aerial perspective. But +all the subtlety and aerial perspective of modern days are useless, and +even barbarous, if they fail in the expression of the essential mountain +facts. + +§ 26. It will be noticed, however, that in this example of Durer's, the +recognition of straightness of line does not exist, and that for this +reason the hills look soft and earthy, not rocky. + +So, also, in the next example, Fig. 64, the crest in the middle distance +is exceedingly fine in its expression of mountain force; the two ridges +of it being thrown up like the two edges of a return wave that has just +been beaten back from a rock. It is still, however, somewhat wanting in +the expression of straightness, and therefore slightly unnatural. It was +not people's way in the Middle Ages to look at mountains carefully +enough to discover the most subtle elements of their structure. Yet in +the next example, Fig. 65, the parallelism and rigidity are definitely +indicated, the crest outline being, however, less definite. + +[Illustration: FIG. 65.] + +Note, also (in passing), the entire equality of the lines in all these +examples, whether turned to dark or light. All good outline drawing, as +noticed in the chapter on finish, agrees in this character. + +§ 27. The next figure (66) is interesting because it furnishes one of +the few instances in which Titian definitely took a suggestion from the +Alps, as he saw them from his house at Venice. It is from an old print +of a shepherd with a flock of sheep by the sea-side, in which he has +introduced a sea distance, with the Venetian church of St. Helena, some +subordinate buildings resembling those of Murano, and this piece of +cloud and mountain. The peak represented is one of the greater Tyrolese +Alps, which shows itself from Venice behind an opening in the chain, +and is their culminating point. In reality the mass is of the shape +given in Fig. 67. Titian has modified it into an energetic crest, +showing his feeling for the form, but I have no doubt that the woodcut +reverses Titian's original work (whatever it was), and that he gave the +crest the true inclination to the right, or east, which it has in +nature. + +[Illustration: FIG. 66.] + +§ 28. Now, it not unfrequently happens that in Claude's distances he +introduces actual outlines of Capri, Ischia, Monte St. Angelo, the Alban +Mount, and other chains about Rome and Naples, more or less faithfully +copied from nature. When he does so, confining himself to mere outline, +the grey contours seen against the distance are often satisfactory +enough; but as soon as he brings one of them nearer, so as to require +any drawing within its mass, it is quite curious to see the state of +paralysis into which he is thrown for want of any perception of the +mountain anatomy. Fig. 68 is one of the largest hills I can find in the +Liber Veritatis (No. 86), and it will be seen that there are only a few +lines inserted towards the edges, drawn in the direction of the sides of +the heap, or cone, wholly without consciousness of any interior +structure. + +[Illustration: FIG. 67.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 68.] + +§ 29. I put below it, outlined also in the rudest way (for as I take the +shade away from the Liber Veritatis, I am bound also to take it away +from Turner), Fig. 69, a bit of the crags in the drawing of Loch +Coriskin, partly described already in § 5 of the chapter on the Inferior +Mountains in Vol. I. The crest form is, indeed, here accidentally +prominent, and developed to a degree rare even with Turner; but note, +besides this, the way in which Turner leans on the _centre_ and body of +the hill, not on its edge; marking its strata stone by stone, just as a +good figure painter, drawing a limb, marks the fall and rise of the +joint, letting the outline sink back softened; and compare the exactly +opposite method of Claude, holding for life to his outline, as a Greek +navigator holds to the shore.[76] + +[Illustration: FIG. 69.] + +§ 30. Lest, however, it should be thought that I have unfairly chosen +my examples, let me take an instance at once less singular and more +elaborate. + +We saw in our account of Turnerian topography, Chap. II., § 14, that it +had been necessary for the painter, in his modification of the view in +the ravine of Faïdo, to introduce a passage from among the higher peaks; +which, being thus intended expressly to convey the general impression of +their character, must sufficiently illustrate what Turner felt that +character to be. Observe: it could not be taken from the great central +aiguilles, for none such exist at all near Faïdo; it could only be an +expression of what Turner considered the noblest attributes of the hills +next to these in elevation,--that is to say, those which we are now +examining. + +I have etched the portion of the picture which includes this passage, on +page 221, on its own scale, including the whole couloir above the +gallery, and the gallery itself, with the rocks beside it.[77] And now, +if the reader will look back to Plate +20+, which is the outline of the +_real_ scene, he will have a perfect example, in comparing the two, of +the operation of invention of the highest order on a given subject. I +should recommend him to put a piece of tracing paper over the etching, +Plate +37+, and with his pen to follow some of the lines of it as +carefully as he can, until he feels their complexity, and the redundance +of the imaginative power which amplified the simple theme, furnished by +the natural scene, with such detail; and then let him observe what great +mountain laws Turner has been striving to express in all these +additions. + +§ 31. The cleavages which govern the whole are precisely the same as +those of the Aiguille Bouchard, only wrought into grander combinations. +That the reader may the better distinguish them, I give the leading +lines coarsely for reference in Fig. 70, opposite. The cleavages and +lines of force are the following. + +[Illustration: J. M. W. Turner. J. Ruskin. + 37. Crests of the Slaty Crystallines.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 70.] + +1. A B and associated lines _a b_, _a b_, &c., over the whole plate. + True beds or cleavage beds (_g h_ in Aiguille Bouchard, Plate + +34+); here, observe, closing in retiring perspective with + exquisite subtlety, and giving the great unity of radiation to + the whole mass. + +2. D E and associated lines _d e_, _d e_, over all the plate. Cross + cleavage, the second in Aiguille Bouchard; straight and sharp. + Forming here the series of crests at B and D. + +3. _r s_, _r s_. Counter-crests, closely corresponding to + counter-fracture, the third in Aiguille Bouchard. + +4. _m n_, _m n_, &c., over the whole. Writhing aqueous lines falling + gradually into the cleavages. Fifth group in Aiguille Bouchard. + The starchy cleavage is not seen here, it being not generally + characteristic of the crests, and present in the Bouchard only + accidentally. + +5. _x x x_. Sinuous lines worn by the water, indicative of some softness + or flaws in the rock; these probably the occasion or consequence + of the formation of the great precipice or brow on the right. We + shall have more to say of them in Chap. XVII. + +[Illustration: FIG. 71.] + +6. _g f_, _g f_, &c. Broad aqueous or glacial curvatures. The sixth + group in Aiguille Bouchard. + +7. _k l_, _k l_. Concave curves wrought by the descending avalanche; + peculiar, of course, to this spot. + +8. _i h_, _i h_. Secondary convex curves, glacial or aqueous, + corresponding to _g f_, but wrought into the minor secondary + ravine. This secondary ravine is associated with the opponent + aiguillesque masses _r s_; and the cause of the break or gap + between these and the crests B D is indicated by the elbow or + joint of nearer rock, M, where the distortion of the beds or + change in their nature first takes place. Turner's idea of the + structure of the whole mass has evidently been that in section it + was as in Fig. 71, snapped asunder by elevation, with a nucleus + at M, which, allowing for perspective, is precisely on the line + of the chasm running in the direction of the arrow; but he gives + more of the curved aiguillesque fracture to these upper crests, + which are greater in elevation (and we saw, sometime ago, that + the higher the rock the harder). And that nucleus of change at M, + the hinge, as it were, on which all these promontories of upper + crest revolve, is the first or nearest of the evaded stones, + which have determined the course of streams and nod of cliffs + throughout the chain. + +§ 32. I can well believe that the reader will doubt the possibility of +all this being intended by Turner: and _intended_, in the ordinary +sense, it was not. It was simply seen and instinctively painted, +according to the command of the imaginative dream, as the true Griffin +was, and as all noble things are. But if the reader fancies that the +apparent truth came by mere chance, or that I am imagining purpose and +arrangement where they do not exist, let him be once for all assured +that no man goes through the kind of work which, by this time, he must +be beginning to perceive I _have_ gone through, either for the sake of +deceiving others, or with any great likelihood of deceiving himself. He +who desires to deceive the picture-purchasing public may do so cheaply; +and it is easy to bring almost any kind of art into notice without +climbing Alps or measuring cleavages. But any one, on the other hand, +who desires to ascertain facts, and will refer all art directly to +nature for many laborious years, will not at last find himself an easy +prey to groundless enthusiasms, or erroneous fancies. Foolish people are +fond of repeating a story which has gone the full round of the +artistical world,--that Turner, some day, somewhere, said to somebody +(time, place, or person never being ascertainable), that I discovered in +his pictures things which he did himself not know were there. Turner was +not a person apt to say things of this kind; being generally, respecting +all the movements of his own mind, as silent as a granite crest; and if +he ever did say it, was probably laughing at the person to whom he was +speaking. But he _might_ have said it in the most perfect sincerity; +nay, I am quite sure that, to a certain extent, the case really was as +he is reported to have declared, and that he neither was aware of the +value of the truths he had seized nor understood the nature of the +instinct that combined them. And yet the truth was assuredly +apprehended, and the instinct assuredly present and imperative; and any +artists who try to imitate the smallest portion of his work will find +that no happy chances will, for them, gather together the resemblances +of fact, nor, for them, mimic the majesty of invention.[78] + +§ 33. No happy chance--nay, no happy thought--no perfect knowledge--will +ever take the place of that mighty unconsciousness. I have often had to +repeat that Turner, in the ordinary sense of the words, neither knew nor +thought so much as other men. Whenever his _perception_ failed--that is +to say, with respect to scientific truths which produce no results +palpable to the eye--he fell into the frankest errors. For instance, in +such a thing as the relation of position between a rainbow and the sun, +there is not any definitely visible connection between them; it needs +attention and calculation to discover that the centre of the rainbow is +the shadow of the spectator's head.[79] And attention or calculation of +this abstract kind Turner appears to have been utterly incapable of; but +if he drew a piece of drapery, in which every line of the folds has a +_visible_ relation to the points of suspension, not a merely calculable +one, this relation he will see to the last thread; and thus he traces +the order of the mountain crests to their last stone, not because he +knows anything of geology, but because he instinctively seizes the last +and finest traces of any visible law. + +[Illustration: FIG. 72.] + +§ 34. He was, however, especially obedient to these laws of the crests, +because he heartily loved them. We saw in the early part of this chapter +how the crest outlines harmonized with nearly every other beautiful form +of natural objects, especially in the continuity of their external +curves. This continuity was so grateful to Turner's heart that he would +often go great lengths to serve it. For instance, in one of his drawings +of the town of Lucerne he has first outlined the Mont Pilate in pencil, +with a central peak, as indicated by the dotted line in Fig. 72. This is +nearly true to the local fact; but being inconsistent with the general +look of crests, and contrary to Turner's instincts, he strikes off the +refractory summit, and, leaving his pencil outline still in the sky, +touches with color only the contour shown by the continuous line in the +figure, thus treating it just as we saw Titian did the great Alp of the +Tyrol. He probably, however, would not have done this with so important +a feature of the scene as the Mont Pilate, had not the continuous line +been absolutely necessary to his composition, in order to oppose the +peaked towers of the town, which were his principal subject; the form of +the Pilate being seen only as a rosy shadow in the far off sky. We +cannot, however, yet estimate the importance, in his mind, of this +continuity of descending curve, until we come to the examination of the +lower hill _flanks_, hitherto having been concerned only with their +rocky summits; and before we leave those summits, or rather the harder +rocks which compose them, there is yet another condition of those rocks +to be examined; and that the condition which is commonly the most +interesting, namely, the Precipice. To this inquiry, however, we had +better devote a separate chapter. + + +FOOTNOTES + + [66] So called from the mouldering nature of its rocks. They are + slaty crystallines, but unusually fragile. + + [67] The materials removed from the slope are spread over the plain + or valley below. A nearly equal quantity is supposed to be removed + from the other side; but besides this _removed_ mass, the materials + crumble heavily from above, and form the concave curve. + + [68] The lines are a little too straight in their continuations, the + engraver having cut some of the curvature out of their thickness, + thinking I had drawn them too coarsely. But I have chosen this + coarsely lined example, and others like it, following, because I + wish to accustom the reader to distinguish between the mere fineness + of instrument in the artist's hand, and the precision of the line he + draws. Give Titian a blunt pen, and still Titian's line will be a + noble one: a tyro, with a pen well mended, may draw more neatly; but + his lines ought to be discerned from Titian's, if we understand + drawing. Every line in this woodcut of Durer's is _refined_; and + that in the noblest sense. Whether broad or fine does not matter, + the lines are _right_; and the most delicate false line is evermore + to be despised, in presence of the coarsest faithful one. + + [69] Not absolutely on the meeting of the curves in one point, but + on their radiating with some harmonious succession of difference in + direction. The difference between lines which are in true harmony of + radiation, and lines which are not, can, in complicated masses, only + be detected by a trained eye; yet it is often the chief difference + between good and bad drawing. A cluster of six or seven black plumes + forming the wing of one of the cherubs in Titian's Assumption, at + Venice, has a freedom and force about it in the painting which no + copyist or engraver has ever yet rendered, though it depends merely + on the subtlety of the curves, not on the color. + + [70] "_Out of_ perspective," I should have said: but it will show + what I mean. + + [71] Nor did any nearer observations ever induce me to form any + contrary opinion. It is not easy to get any consistent series of + _measurements_ of the slope of these gneiss beds; for, although + parallel on the great scale, they admit many varieties of dip in + minor projections. But all my notes unite, whether at the bottom or + top of the great slope of the Montanvert and La Côte, in giving an + angle of from 60° to 80° with the horizon; the consistent angle + being about 75°. I cannot be mistaken in the measurements + themselves, however inconclusive observations on minor portions of + rock may be; for I never mark an angle unless enough of the upper or + lower surface of the beds be smoothly exposed to admit of my pole + being adjusted to it by the spirit-level. The pole then indicates + the strike of the beds, and a quadrant with a plumb-line their dip; + to all intents and purposes accurately. There is a curious + distortion of the beds in the ravine between the Glacier des Bois + and foot of the Montanvert, near the ice, about a thousand feet + above the valley; the beds there seem to bend suddenly back under + the glacier, and in some places to be quite vertical. On the + opposite side of the glacier, below the Chapeau, the dip of the + limestone under the gneiss, with the intermediate bed, seven or + eight feet thick, of the grey porous rock which the French call + _cargneule_, is highly interesting; but it is so concealed by débris + and the soil of the pine forests, as to be difficult to examine to + any extent. On the whole, the best position for getting the angle of + the beds accurately, is the top of the Tapia, a little below the + junction there of the granite and gneiss (see notice of this + junction in Appendix 2); a point from which the summit of the + Aiguille du Gouté bears 11° south of west, and that of the Aiguille + Bouchard 17° north of east, the Aiguille Dru 5½° or 6° north of + east, the peak of it appearing behind the Petit Charmoz. The beds of + gneiss emerging from the turf under the spectator's feet may be + brought parallel by the eye with the slopes of the Aiguille du Gouté + on one side, and the Bouchard (and base of Aiguille d'Argentière) on + the other; striking as nearly as possible from summit to summit + through that on which the spectator stands, or from about 10° north + of east to 10° south of west, and dipping with exquisite uniformity + at an angle of 74 degrees with the horizon. But what struck me as + still more strange was, that from this point I could distinctly see + traces of the same straight structure running through the Petit + Charmoz, and the roots of the aiguilles themselves, as in Fig. 59; + nor could I ever, in the course of countless observations, fairly + determine any point where this slaty structure altogether had + ceased. It seemed only to get less and less traceable towards the + centre of the mass of Mont Blanc; and, from the ridge of the + Aiguille Bouchard itself, at the point _a_ in Plate 33, whence, + looking south-west, the aiguilles can be seen in the most accurate + profile obtainable throughout the valley of Chamouni, I noticed a + very singular parallelism even on the south-east side of the + Charmoz, _x y_ (Fig. 60), as if the continued influence of this + cleavage were carried on from the Little Charmoz, _c_, _d_ (in + which, seen on the opposite side, I had traced it as in Fig. 59), + through the central mass of rock _r_. In this profile, M is the Mont + Blanc itself; _m_, the Aiguille du Midi; P, Aiguille du Plan; _b_, + Aiguille Blaitière; C, Great Charmoz; _c_, Petit Charmoz; E, passage + called de l'Etala. + + [Illustration: FIG. 59.] + + [Illustration: FIG. 60.] + + [72] Many geologists think they _are_ the true beds. They run across + the gneissitic folia, and I hold with De Saussure, and consider them + a cleavage. + + [73] I tried in vain to get along the ridge of the Bouchard to this + junction, the edge of the precipice between _a_ and _b_ (Plate 33) + being too broken; but the point corresponds so closely to that of + the junction of the gneiss and protogine on the Charmoz ridge, that, + adding the evidence of the distant contour, I have no doubt as to + the general relations of the rocks. + + [74] De Saussure often refers to these as "assaissements." They + occur, here and there, in the aiguilles themselves. + + [75] The aqueous curves and roundings on the nearer crest (La Côte) + are peculiarly tender, because the gneiss of which it is composed is + softer in grain than that of the Bouchard, and remains so even to + the very top of the peak, _a_, in Fig. 61, where I found it mixed + with a yellowish and somewhat sandy quartz rock, and generally much + less protogenic than is usual at such elevations on other parts of + the chain. + + [76] It is worth while noting here, in comparing Fig. 66 and Fig. + 68, how entirely our judgment of some kinds of art depends upon + knowledge, not on feeling. Any person unacquainted with hills would + think Claude's right and Titian's ridiculous: but, after inquiring a + little farther into the matter, we find Titian's a careless and + intense expression of true knowledge, and Claude's a slow and + plausible expression of total ignorance. + + It will be observed that Fig. 69 is one of the second order of + crests, _d_, Fig. 48. The next instance given is of the first order + of crests, _c_, in the same figure + + [77] This etching, like that of the Bolton rocks, is prepared for + future mezzo-tint, and looks harsh in its present state; but will + mark all the more clearly several points of structure in question. + The diamond-shaped rock, however, (M, in the reference figure,) is + not so conspicuous here as it will be when the plate is finished, + being relieved in light from the mass behind, as also the faint + distant crests in dark from the sky. + + [78] An anecdote is related, more to our present purpose, and better + authenticated, inasmuch as the name of the artist to whom Turner was + speaking at the time is commonly stated, though I do not give it + here, not having asked his permission. The story runs that this + artist (one of our leading landscape painters) was complaining to + Turner that, after going to Domo d'Ossola, to find the site of a + particular view which had struck him several years before, he had + entirely failed in doing so; "it looked different when he went back + again." "What," replied Turner, "do you not know yet, at your age, + that you ought to _paint_ your _impressions_?" + + [79] So, in the exact length or shape of shadows in general, he will + often be found quite inaccurate; because the irregularity caused in + shadows by the shape of what they fall _on_, as well as what they + fall from, renders the law of connection untraceable by the eye or + the instinct. The chief _visible_ thing about a shadow is, that it + is always of some form which nobody would have thought of; and this + visible principle Turner always seizes, sometimes wrongly in + calculated fact, but always so rightly as to give more the look of a + real shadow than any one else. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +RESULTING FORMS:--THIRDLY, PRECIPICES. + + +§ 1. The reader was, perhaps, surprised by the smallness of the number +to which our foregoing analysis reduced Alpine summits bearing an +ascertainedly peaked or pyramidal form. He might not be less so if I +were to number the very few occasions on which I have seen a true +precipice of any considerable height. I mean by a true precipice, one by +which a plumb-line will swing clear, or without touching the face of it, +if suspended from a point a foot or two beyond the brow. Not only are +perfect precipices of this kind very rare, but even imperfect +precipices, which often produce upon the eye as majestic an impression +as if they were vertical, are nearly always curiously low in proportion +to the general mass of the hills to which they belong. They are for the +most part small steps or rents in large surfaces of mountain, and +mingled by Nature among her softer forms, as cautiously and sparingly as +the utmost exertion of his voice is, by a great speaker, with his tones +of gentleness. + +[Illustration: FIG. 73.] + +§ 2. Precipices, in the large plurality of cases, consist of the edge of +a bed of rock, sharply fractured, in the manner already explained in +Chap. XII., and are represented, in their connection with aiguilles and +crests, by _c_, in Fig. 42, p. 195. When the bed of rock slopes +backwards from the edge, as _a_, Fig. 73, a condition of precipice is +obtained more or less peaked, very safe, and very grand.[80] When the +beds are horizontal, _b_, the precipice is steeper, more dangerous, but +much less impressive. When the beds slope towards the precipice, the +front of it overhangs, and the noblest effect is obtained which is +possible in mountain forms of this kind. + +§ 3. Singularly enough, the type _b_ is in actual nature nearly always +the most dangerous of the three, and _c_ the safest, for horizontal beds +are usually of the softest rocks, and their cliffs are caused by some +violent agency in constant operation, as chalk cliffs by the wearing +power of the sea, so that such rocks are continually falling, in one +place or another. The form _a_ may also be assumed by very soft rocks. +But _c_ cannot exist at all on the large scale, unless it is built of +good materials, and it will then frequently stay in its fixed frown for +ages. + +§ 4. It occasionally happens that a precipice is formed among the higher +crests by the _sides_ of vertical beds of slaty crystallines. Such rocks +are rare, and never very high, but always beautiful in their smoothness +of surface and general trenchant and firm expression. One of the most +interesting I know is that of the summit of the Breven, on the north of +the valley of Chamouni. The mountain is formed by vertical sheets of +slaty crystallines, rather soft at the bottom, and getting harder and +harder towards the top, until at the very summit it is hard and compact +as the granite of Waterloo Bridge, though much finer in the grain, and +breaking into perpendicular faces of rock so perfectly cut as to feel +smooth to the hand. Fig. 4, p. 107, represents, of the real size, a bit +which I broke from the edge of the cliff, the shaded part underneath +being the surface which forms the precipice. The plumb-line from the +brow of this cliff hangs clear 124 English feet; it is then caught by a +ledge about three feet wide, from which another precipice falls to about +twice the height of the first; but I had not line enough to measure it +with from the top, and could not get down to the ledge. When I say the +line hangs _clear_, I mean when once it is off the actual brow of the +cliff, which is a little rounded for about fourteen or fifteen feet, +from _a_ to _b_, in the section, Fig. 75. Then the rock recedes in an +almost unbroken concave sweep, detaching itself from the plumb-line +about two feet at the point _c_ (the lateral dimensions are exaggerated +to show the curve), and approaching it again at the ledge _d_, which is +124 feet below _a_. The plumb-line, fortunately, can be seen throughout +its whole extent from a sharp bastion of the precipice farther on, for +the face of the cliff runs, in horizontal plan, very nearly to the +magnetic north and south, as shown in Fig. 74, the plumb-line swinging +at _a_, and seen from the advanced point P. It would give a similar +result at any other part of the cliff face, but may be most conveniently +cast from the point _a_, a little below, and to the north of the summit. + +[Illustration: FIG. 74.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 75.] + +§ 5. But although the other divisions of this precipice, below the ledge +which stops the plummet, give it altogether a height of about five +hundred feet,[81] the whole looks a mere step on the huge slope of the +Breven; and it only deserves mention among Alpine cliffs as one of +singular beauty and decision, yet perfectly approachable and examinable +even by the worst climbers; which is very rarely the case with cliffs of +the same boldness. I suppose that this is the reason for its having been +often stated in scientific works that no cliff could be found in the +Alps from which a plumb-line would swing two hundred feet. This can +_possibly_ be true (and even with this limitation I doubt it) of cliffs +conveniently approachable by experimental philosophers. For, indeed, one +way or another, it is curious how Nature fences out, as it were, the +brows of her boldest precipices. Wherever a plumb-line will swing, the +precipice is, almost without exception, of the type _c_, in Fig. 73, the +brow of it rounding towards the edge for, perhaps, fifty or a hundred +yards above, rendering it unsafe in the highest degree for any +inexperienced person to attempt approach. But it is often possible to +ascertain from a distance, if the cliff can be got relieved against the +sky, the approximate degree of its precipitousness. + +§ 6. It may, I think, be assumed, almost with certainty, that whenever a +precipice is very bold and very high, it is formed by beds more or less +approaching horizontally, out of which it has been cut, like the side of +a haystack from which part has been removed. The wonderfulness of this +operation I have before insisted upon; here we have to examine the best +examples of it. + +As, in forms of central rock, the Aiguilles of Chamouni, so in +notableness of lateral precipice, the Matterhorn, or Mont Cervin, +stands, on the whole, unrivalled among the Alps, being terminated, on +two of its sides, by precipices which produce on the imagination nearly +the effect of verticality. There is, however, only one point at which +they reach anything approaching such a condition; and that point is +wholly inaccessible either from below or above, but sufficiently +measurable by a series of observations. + +[Illustration: Fig. 77.] + +§ 7. From the slope of the hill above, and to the west of, the village +of Zermatt, the Matterhorn presents itself under the figure shown on the +right hand in the opposite plate (+38+). The whole height of the mass, +from the glacier out of which it rises, is about 4000 feet; and +although, as before noticed, the first slope from the top towards the +right is merely a perspective line, the part of the contour _c d_, Fig. +33, p. 181, which literally overhangs,[82] cannot be. An apparent slope, +however steep, so that it does not overpass the vertical, _may_ be a +horizontal line; but the moment it can be shown literally to overhang, +it _must_ be one of two things,--either an actually pendant _face_ of +rock, as at _a_, Fig. 77, or the under edge of an overhanging _cornice_ +of rock, _b_. Of course the latter condition, on such a scale as this of +the Matterhorn, would be the more wonderful of the two; but I was +anxious to determine which of these it really was. + +[Illustration: 38. The Cervin, from the East and North-east.] + +§ 8. My first object was to reach some spot commanding, as nearly as +might be, the lateral profile of the Mont Cervin. The most available +point for this purpose was the top of the Riffelhorn; which, however, +first attempting to climb by its deceitful western side, and being +stopped, for the moment, by the singular moat and wall which defend its +Malakhoff-like summit, fearing that I might not be able ultimately to +reach the top, I made the drawing of the Cervin, on the left hand in +Plate +38+, from the edge of the moat; and found afterwards the +difference in aspect, as it was seen from the true summit, so slight as +not to necessitate the trouble of making another drawing.[83] + +[Illustration: FIG. 78.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 79.] + +§ 9. It may be noted in passing, that this wall which with its regular +fosse defends the Riffelhorn on its western side, and a similar one on +its eastern side, though neither of them of any considerable height, are +curious instances of trenchant precipice, formed, I suppose, by slight +slips or faults of the serpentine rock. The summit of the horn, _a_, +Fig. 78, seems to have been pushed up in a mass beyond the rest of the +ridge, or else the rest of the ridge to have dropped from it on each +side, at _b c_, leaving the two troublesome faces of cliff right across +the crag, hard, green as a sea wave, and polished like the inside of a +seashell, where the weather has not effaced the surface produced by the +slip. It is only by getting past the eastern cliff that the summit can +be reached at all, for on its two lateral escarpments the mountain seems +quite inaccessible, being in its whole mass nothing else than the top of +a narrow wall with a raised battlement, as rudely shown in perspective +at _e d_; the flanks of the wall falling towards the glacier on one +side, and to the lower Riffel on the other, four or five hundred feet, +not, indeed, in unbroken precipice, but in a form quite incapable of +being scaled.[84] + +[Illustration: FIG. 79.] + +§ 10. To return to the Cervin. The view of it given on the left hand in +Plate +38+ shows the ridge in about its narrowest profile; and shows +also that this ridge is composed of beds of rock shelving across it, +apparently horizontal, or nearly so, at the top, and sloping +considerably southwards (to the spectator's left), at the bottom. How +far this slope is a consequence of the advance of the nearest angle +giving a steep perspective to the beds, I cannot say; my own belief +would have been that a great deal of it is thus deceptive, the beds +lying as the tiles do in the somewhat anomalous, but perfectly +conceivable house-roof, Fig. 79. Saussure, however, attributes to the +beds themselves a very considerable slope. But be this as it may, the +main facts of the thinness of the beds, their comparative horizontality, +and the daring swordsweep by which the whole mountain has been hewn out +of them, are from this spot comprehensible at a glance. Visible, I +_should_ have said; but eternally, and to the uttermost, +_in_comprehensible. Every geologist who speaks of this mountain seems +to be struck by the wonderfulness of its calm sculpture--the absence of +all aspect of convulsion, and yet the stern chiselling of so vast a mass +into its precipitous isolation leaving no ruin nor débris near it. +"Quelle force n'a-t-il pas fallu," exclaims M. Saussure, "pour rompre, +et pour _balayer_ tout ce qui manque à cette pyramide!" "What an +overturn of all ancient ideas in Geology," says Professor Forbes, "to +find a pinnacle of 15,000 feet high [above the sea] sharp as a pyramid, +and with perpendicular precipices of thousands of feet on every hand, to +be a representative of the older chalk formation; and what a difficulty +to conceive the nature of a convulsion (even with unlimited power), +which could produce a configuration like the Mont Cervin rising from the +glacier of Zmutt!" + +[Illustration: FIG 80.] + +§ 11. The term "perpendicular" is of course applied by the Professor in +the "poetical" temper of Reynolds,--that is to say, in one "inattentive +to minute exactness in details;" but the effect of this strange +Matterhorn upon the imagination is indeed so great, that even the +gravest philosophers cannot resist it; and Professor Forbes's drawing of +the peak, outlined at page 180, has evidently been made under the +influence of considerable excitement. For fear of being deceived by +enthusiasm also, I daguerreotyped the Cervin from the edge of the little +lake under the crag of the Riffelhorn, with the somewhat amazing result +shown in Fig. 80. So cautious is Nature, even in her boldest work, so +broadly does she extend the foundations, and strengthen the buttresses, +of masses which produce so striking an _impression_ as to be described, +even by the most careful writers, as perpendicular. + +§ 12. The only portion of the Matterhorn which approaches such a +condition is the shoulder, before alluded to, forming a step of about +one twelfth the height of the whole peak, shown by light on its snowy +side, or upper surface, in the right-hand figure of Plate +38+. Allowing +4000 feet for the height of the peak, this step or shoulder will be +between 300 and 400 feet in absolute height; and as it is not only +perpendicular, but assuredly overhangs, both at this snow-lighted angle +and at the other corner of the mountain (seen against the sky in the +same figure), I have not the slightest doubt that a plumb-line would +swing from the brow of either of these bastions, between 600 and 800 +feet, without touching rock. The intermediate portion of the cliff which +joins them is, however, not more than vertical. I was therefore anxious +chiefly to observe the structure of the two angles, and, to that end, to +see the mountain close on that side, from the Zmutt glacier. + +§ 13. I am afraid my dislike to the nomenclatures invented by the German +philosophers has been unreasonably, though involuntarily, complicated +with that which, crossing out of Italy, one necessarily feels for those +invented by the German peasantry. As travellers now every day more +frequently visit the neighborhood of the Monte Rosa, it would surely be +a permissible, because convenient, poetical license, to invent some +other name for this noble glacier, whose present title, certainly not +euphonious, has the additional disadvantage of being easily confounded +with that of the _Zermatt_ glacier, properly so called. I mean myself, +henceforward, to call it the Red glacier, because, for two or three +miles above its lower extremity, the whole surface of it is covered with +blocks of reddish gneiss, or other slaty crystalline rocks,--some fallen +from the Cervin, some from the Weisshorn, some brought from the Stockhi +and Dent d'Erin, but little rolled or ground down in the transit, and +covering the ice, often four or five feet deep, with a species of +macadamization on a large scale (each stone being usually some foot or +foot and a half in diameter), anything but convenient to a traveller in +haste. Higher up, the ice opens into broad white fields and furrows, +hard and dry, scarcely fissured at all, except just under the Cervin, +and forming a silent and solemn causeway, paved, as it seems, with white +marble from side to side; broad enough for the march of an army in line +of battle, but quiet as a street of tombs in a buried city, and bordered +on each hand by ghostly cliffs of that faint granite purple which seems, +in its far-away height, as unsubstantial as the dark blue that bounds +it;--the whole scene so changeless and soundless; so removed, not merely +from the presence of men, but even from their thoughts; so destitute of +all life of tree or herb, and so immeasurable in its lonely brightness +of majestic death, that it looks like a world from which not only the +human, but the spiritual, presences had perished, and the last of its +archangels, building the great mountains for their monuments, had laid +themselves down in the sunlight to an eternal rest, each in his white +shroud. + +§ 14. The first point from which the Matterhorn precipices, which I came +to examine, show their structure distinctly, is about half-way up the +valley, before reaching the glacier. The most convenient path, and +access to the ice, are on the south; but it is best, in order to watch +the changes of the Matterhorn, to keep on the north side of the valley; +and, at the point just named, the shoulder marked _e_ in Fig. 33, p. +181, is seen, in the morning sunlight, to be composed of zigzag beds, +apparently of eddied sand. (Fig. 81.) + +[Illustration: FIG. 81.] + +I have no doubt they once _were_ eddied sand; that is to say, sea or +torrent drift, hardened by fire into crystalline rock; but whether they +ever were or not, the certain fact is, that here we have a precipice, +trenchant, overhanging, and 500 feet in height, cut across the thin beds +which compose it as smoothly as a piece of fine-grained wood is cut with +a chisel. + +§ 15. From this point, also, the nature of the corresponding bastion, _c +d_, Fig 33, is also discernible. It is the edge of a great concave +precipice, cut out of the mountain, as the smooth hollows are out of the +rocks at the foot of a waterfall, and across which the variously colored +beds, thrown by perspective into corresponding curvatures, run exactly +like the seams of canvas in a Venetian felucca's sail. + +Seen from this spot, it seems impossible that the mountain should long +support itself in such a form, but the impression is only caused by the +concealment of the vast proportions of the mass behind, whose poise is +quite unaffected by this hollowing at one point. Thenceforward, as we +ascend the glacier, the Matterhorn every moment expands in apparent +width; and having reached the foot of the Stockhi (about a four hours' +walk from Zermatt), and getting the Cervin summit to bear S. 11½° E., I +made the drawing of it engraved opposite, which gives a true idea of the +relations between it and the masses of its foundation. The bearing +stated is that of the apparent summit only, as from this point the true +summit is not visible; the rocks which seem to form the greatest part of +the mountain being in reality nothing but its foundations, while the +little white jagged peak, relieved against the dark hollow just below +the seeming summit, is the rock marked _g_ in Fig. 33. But the structure +of the mass, and the long ranges of horizontal, or nearly horizontal, +beds which form its crest, showing in black points like arrow-heads +through the snow, where their ridges are left projecting by the +avalanche channels, are better seen than at any other point I reached, +together with the sweeping and thin zones of sandy gneiss below, bending +apparently like a coach-spring; and the notable point about the whole +is, that this under-bed, of seemingly the most delicate substance, is +that prepared by Nature to build her boldest precipice with, it being +this bed which emerges at the two bastions or shoulders before noticed, +and which by that projection causes the strange oblique distortion of +the whole mountain mass, as it is seen from Zermatt. + +[Illustration: J. Ruskin. J. C. Armytage. + 39. The Cervin, from the North-West.] + +§ 16. And our surprise will still be increased as we farther examine the +materials of which the whole mountain is composed. In many places its +crystalline slates, where their horizontal surfaces are exposed along +the projecting beds of their foundations, break into ruin so total that +the foot dashes through their loose red flakes as through heaps of +autumn leaves; and yet, just where their structure seems most delicate, +just where they seem to have been swept before the eddies of the streams +that first accumulated them, in the most passive whirls, there the after +ages have knit them into the most massive strength, and there have hewn +out of them those firm grey bastions of the Cervin,--overhanging, +smooth, flawless, unconquerable! For, unlike the 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,--delicate-fronted, softly colored, +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. + +§ 17. 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 those 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, (would it not have 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 _it_--poor, helpless, mica flake!--the wild north winds should +rage in vain; beneath _it_--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 it--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? + +§ 18. I have thought it worth while, for the sake of these lessons, and +the other interests connected with them, to lead the reader thus far +into the examination of the principal precipices among the Alps, +although, so far as our immediate purposes are concerned, the inquiry +cannot be very fruitful or helpful to us. For rocks of this kind, being +found only in the midst of the higher snow fields, are not only out of +the general track of the landscape painter, but are for the most part +quite beyond his power--even beyond Turner's. The waves of snow, when it +becomes a principal element in mountain form, are at once so subtle in +tone, and so complicated in curve and fold, that no skill will express +them, so as to keep the whole luminous mass in anything like a true +relation to the rock darkness. For the distant rocks of the upper peaks +are themselves, when in light, paler than white paper, and their true +size and relation to near objects cannot be exhibited unless they are +painted in the palest tones. Yet, as compared with their snow, they are +so dark that a daguerreotype taken for the proper number of seconds to +draw the snow shadows rightly, will always represent the rocks as +_coal-black_. In order, therefore, to paint a snowy mountain properly, +we should need a light as much brighter than white paper as white paper +is brighter than charcoal. So that although it is possible, with deep +blue sky, and purple rocks, and blue shadows, to obtain a very +interesting resemblance of snow effect, and a true one up to a certain +point (as in the best examples of the body-color drawings sold so +extensively in Switzerland) it is not possible to obtain any of those +refinements of form and gradation which a great artist's eye requires. +Turner felt that, among these highest hills, no serious or perfect work +could be done; and although in one or two of his vignettes (already +referred to in the first volume) he showed his knowledge of them, his +practice, in larger works, was always to treat the snowy mountains +merely as a far-away white cloud, concentrating the interest of his +picture on nearer and more tractable objects. + +§ 19. One circumstance, however, bearing upon art, we may note before +leaving these upper precipices, namely, the way in which they illustrate +the favorite expression of Homer and Dante--_cut_ rocks. However little +satisfied we had reason to be with the degree of affection shown towards +mountain scenery by either poet, we may now perceive, with some respect +and surprise, that they had got at one character which was in the +essence of the noblest rocks, just as the early illuminators got at the +principles which lie at the heart of vegetation. As distinguished from +all other natural forms,--from fibres which are torn, crystals which are +broken, stones which are rounded or worn, animal and vegetable forms +which are grown or moulded,--the true hard rock or precipice is notably +a thing _cut_, its inner _grain_ or structure seeming to have less to do +with its form than is seen in any other object or substance whatsoever; +and the aspect of subjection to some external sculpturing instrument +being distinct in almost exact proportion to the size and stability of +the mass. + +§ 20. It is not so, however, with the next groups of mountain which we +have to examine--those formed by the softer slaty coherents, when their +perishable and frail substance has been raised into cliffs in the manner +illustrated by Fig. 12 at p. 146,--cliffs whose front every frost +disorganizes into filmy shale, and of which every thunder-shower +dissolves tons in the swoln blackness of torrents. If this takes place +from the top downwards, the cliff is gradually effaced, and a more or +less rounded eminence is soon all that remains of it; but if the lower +beds only decompose, or if the whole structure is strengthened here and +there by courses of harder rock, the precipice is undermined, and +remains hanging in perilous ledges and projections until, the process +having reached the limit of its strength, vast portions of it fall at +once, leaving new fronts of equal ruggedness, to be ruined and cast down +in their turn. + +The whole district of the northern inferior Alps, from the mountains of +the Réposoir to the Gemmi, is full of precipices of this kind; the well +known crests of the Mont Doron, and of the Aiguille de Varens, above +Sallenches, being connected by the great cliffs of the valley of Sixt, +the dark mass of the Buet, the Dent du Midi de Bex, and the Diablerets, +with the great amphitheatre of rock in whose securest recess the path of +the Gemmi hides its winding. But the most frightful and most +characteristic cliff in the whole group is the range of the Rochers des +Fys, above the Col d'Anterne. It happens to have a bed of harder +limestone at the top than in any other part of its mass; and this bed, +protecting its summit, enables it to form itself into the most ghastly +ranges of pinnacle which I know among mountains. In one spot the upper +edge of limestone has formed a complete cornice, or rather bracket--for +it is not extended enough to constitute a cornice, which projects far +into the air over the wall of ashy rock, and is seen against the clouds, +when they pass into the chasm beyond, like the nodding coping-stone of a +castle--only the wall below is not less than 2500 feet in height,--not +vertical, but steep enough to seem so to the imagination. + +§ 21. Such precipices are among the most impressive as well as the most +really dangerous of mountain ranges; in many spots inaccessible with +safety either from below or from above; dark in color, robed with +everlasting mourning, for ever tottering like a great fortress shaken by +war, fearful as much in their weakness as in their strength, and yet +gathered after every fall into darker frowns and unhumiliated +threatening; for ever incapable of comfort or of healing from herb or +flower, nourishing no root in their crevices, touched by no hue of life +on buttress or ledge, but, to the utmost, desolate; knowing no shaking +of leaves in the wind, nor of grass beside the stream,--no motion but +their own mortal shivering, the deathful crumbling of atom from atom in +their corrupting stones; knowing no sound of living voice or living +tread, cheered neither by the kid's bleat nor the marmot's cry; haunted +only by uninterrupted echoes from far off, wandering hither and thither +among their walls, unable to escape, and by the hiss of angry torrents, +and sometimes the shriek of a bird that flits near the face of them, and +sweeps frightened back from under their shadow into the gulf of air: +and, sometimes, when the echo has fainted, and the wind has carried the +sound of the torrent away, and the bird has vanished; and the mouldering +stones are still for a little time,--a brown moth, opening and shutting +its wings upon a grain of dust, may be the only thing that moves, or +feels, in all the waste of weary precipice, darkening five thousand feet +of the blue depth of heaven. + +§ 22. It will not be thought that there is nothing in a scene such as +this deserving our contemplation, or capable of conveying useful +lessons, if it were fitly rendered by art. I cannot myself conceive any +picture more impressive than a faithful rendering of such a cliff would +be, supposing the aim of the artist to be the utmost tone of sad +sublime. I am, nevertheless, aware of no instance in which the slightest +attempt has been made to express their character; the reason being, +partly, the extreme difficulty of the task, partly the want of +temptation in specious color or form. For the majesty of this kind of +cliff depends entirely on its size: a low range of such rock is as +uninteresting as it is ugly; and it is only by making the spectator +understand the enormous scale of their desolation, and the space which +the shadow of their danger oppresses, that any impression can be made +upon his mind. And this scale cannot be expressed by any artifice; the +mountain cannot be made to look large by painting it blue or faint, +otherwise it loses all its ghastliness. It must be painted in its own +near and solemn colors, black and ashen grey; and its size must be +expressed by thorough drawing of its innumerable details--pure +_quantity_,--with certain points of comparison explanatory of the whole. +This is no light task; and, attempted by any man of ordinary genius, +would need steady and careful painting for three or four months; while, +to such a man, there would appear to be nothing worth his toil in the +gloom of the subject, unrelieved as it is even by variety of form; for +the soft rock of which these cliffs are composed rarely breaks into bold +masses; and the gloom of their effect partly depends on its not doing +so. + +§ 23. Yet, while painters thus reject the natural, and large sublime, +which is ready to their hand, how strangely do they seek after a false +and small sublime. It is not that they reprobate gloom, but they will +only have a gloom of their own making; just as half the world will not +see the terrible and sad truths which the universe is full of, but +surrounds itself with little clouds of sulky and unnecessary fog for its +own special breathing. A portrait is not thought grand unless it has a +thundercloud behind it (as if a hero could not be brave in sunshine); a +ruin is not melancholy enough till it is seen by moonlight or twilight; +and every condition of theatrical pensiveness or of the theatrical +terrific is exhausted in setting forth scenes or persons which in +themselves are, perhaps, very quiet scenes and homely persons; while +that which, without any accessories at all, is everlastingly melancholy +and terrific, we refuse to paint,--nay, we refuse even to observe it in +its reality, while we seek for the excitement of the very feelings it +was meant to address, in every conceivable form of our false ideal. + +For instance: there have been few pictures more praised for their +sublimity than the "Deluge" of Nicolas Poussin; of which, nevertheless, +the sublimity, such as it is, consists wholly in the painting of +everything grey or brown,--not the grey and brown of great painters, +full of mysterious and unconfessed colors, dim blue, and shadowy purple, +and veiled gold,--but the stony grey and dismal brown of the +conventionalist. Madame de Genlis, whose general criticisms on painting +are full of good sense--singularly so, considering the age in which she +lived[85]--has the following passage on this picture:-- + +"'I remember to have seen the painting you mention; but I own I found +nothing in it very beautiful.' + +"'You have seen it rain often enough?' + +"'Certainly.' + +"'Have you ever at such times observed the color of the clouds +attentively?--how the dusky atmosphere obscures all objects, makes them, +if distant, disappear, or be seen with difficulty? Had you paid a proper +attention to these effects of rain, you would have been amazed by the +exactitude with which they are painted by Poussin.'"[86] + +§ 24. Madame de Genlis is just in her appeal to nature, but had not +herself looked carefully enough to make her appeal accurate. She had +noticed one of the principal effects of rain, but not the other. It is +true that the dusky atmosphere "obscures all objects," but it is also +true that Nature, never intending the eye of man to be without delight, +has provided a rich compensation for this shading of the tints with +_darkness_, in their brightening by _moisture_. Every color, wet, is +twice as brilliant as it is when dry; and when distances are obscured by +mist, and bright colors vanish from the sky, and gleams of sunshine from +the earth, the foreground assumes all its loveliest hues, the grass and +foliage revive into their perfect green, and every sunburnt rock glows +into an agate. The colors of mountain foregrounds can never be seen in +perfection unless they _are_ wet; nor _can moisture be entirely +expressed except by fulness of color_. So that Poussin, in search of a +false sublimity, painting every object in his picture, vegetation and +all, of one dull grey and brown, has actually rendered it impossible for +an educated eye to conceive it as representing rain at all; it is a dry, +volcanic darkness. It may be said that had he painted the effect of rain +truly, the picture, composed of the objects he has introduced, would +have become too pretty for his purpose. But his error, and the error of +landscapists in general, is in seeking to express terror by false +treatment, instead of going to Nature herself to ask her what she has +appointed to be everlastingly terrible. The greatest genius would be +shown by taking the scene in its plainest and most probable facts; not +seeking to change pity into fear, by denying the beauty of the world +that was passing away. But if it were determined to excite fear, and +fear only, it ought to have been done by imagining the true ghastliness +of the tottering cliffs of Ararat or Caucasus, as the heavy waves first +smote against the promontories that until then had only known the thin +fanning of the upper air of heaven;--not by painting leaves and grass +slate-grey. And a new world of sublimity might be opened to us, if any +painter of power and feeling would devote himself, for a few months, to +these solemn cliffs of the dark limestone Alps, and would only paint one +of them, as it truly stands, not in rain nor storm, but in its own +eternal sadness: perhaps best on some fair summer evening, when its +fearful veil of immeasurable rock is breathed upon by warm air, and +touched with fading rays of purple; and all that it has of the +melancholy of ruin, mingled with the might of endurance, and the +foreboding of danger, rises in its grey gloom against the gentle sky; +the soft wreaths of the evening clouds expiring along its ridges one by +one, and leaving it, at last, with no light but that of its own +cascades, standing like white pillars here and there along its sides, +motionless and soundless in their distance. + +§ 25. Here, however, we must leave these more formidable examples of the +Alpine precipice, to examine those which, by Turner or by artists in +general, have been regarded as properly within the sphere of their art. + +Turner had in this respect some peculiar views induced by early +association. It has already been noticed, in my pamphlet on +Pre-Raphaelitism, that his first conceptions of mountain scenery seem to +have been taken from Yorkshire; and its rounded hills, far winding +rivers, and broken limestone scars, to have formed a type in his mind to +which he sought, as far as might be, to obtain some correspondent +imagery in all other landscape. Hence, he almost always preferred to +have a precipice _low down_ on the hillside, rather than near the top; +liked an extent of rounded slope above, and the vertical cliff to the +water or valley, better than the slope at the bottom and wall at the top +(compare Fig. 13, p. 148); and had his attention early directed to those +horizontal, or comparatively horizontal, beds of rock which usually form +the faces of precipices in the Yorkshire dales; not, as in the +Matterhorn, merely indicated by veined coloring on the surface of the +smooth cliff, but projecting, or mouldering away, in definite +successions of ledges, cornices, or steps. + +[Illustration: J. Ruskin. J. H. Le Keux. + 40. The Mountains of Villeneuve.] + +§ 26. This decided love of the slope, or bank above the wall, rather +than below it, is one of Turner's most marked idiosyncrasies, and gives +a character to his composition, as distinguished from that of other men, +perhaps more marked than any which are traceable in other features of it +(except, perhaps, in his pear-shaped ideal of trees, of which more +hereafter). For when mountains are striking to the general eye, they +almost always have the high crest or wall of cliff on the _top_ of their +slopes, rising from the plain first in mounds of meadow-land, and bosses +of rock, and studded softness of forest; the brown cottages peeping +through grove above grove, until just where the deep shade of the pines +becomes blue or purple in the haze of height, a red wall of upper +precipice rises from the pasture land, and frets the sky with glowing +serration. Plate +40+, opposite, represents a mass of mountain just +above Villeneuve, at the head of the Lake of Geneva, in which the type +of the structure is shown with singular clearness. Much of the scenery +of western Switzerland, and characteristically the whole of that of +Savoy, is composed of mountains of this kind; the isolated group between +Chambery and Grenoble, which holds the Grande Chartreuse in the heart +of it, is constructed entirely of such masses; and the Montagne de +Vergi, which in like manner encloses the narrow meadows and traceried +cloisters of the Convent of the Réposoir, forms the most striking +feature among all the mountains that border the valley of the Arve +between Cluse and Geneva; while ranges of cliffs presenting precisely +the same typical characters frown above the bridge and fortress of +Mont-Meillan, and enclose, in light blue calm, the waters of the Lake of +Annecy. + +[Illustration: FIG. 82.] + +§ 27. Now, although in many of his drawings Turner acknowledges this +structure, it seems always to be with some degree of reluctance; whereas +he seizes with instant eagerness, and every appearance of contentment, +on forms of mountain which are rounded into banks above, and cut into +precipices below, as is the case in most elevated table-lands; in the +chalk coteaux of the Seine, the basalt borders of the Rhine, and the +lower gorges of the Alps; so that while the most striking pieces of +natural mountain scenery usually rise from the plain under some such +outline as that at _a_, Fig. 82, Turner always formed his composition, +if possible, on such an arrangement as that at _b_. + +One reason for this is clearly the greater simplicity of the line. The +simpler a line is, so that it be cunningly varied _within_ its +simplicities, the grander it is; and Turner likes to enclose all his +broken crags by such a line as that at _b_, just as we saw the classical +composer, in our first plate, enclose the griffin's beak with breadth of +wing. Nevertheless, I cannot but attribute his somewhat wilful and +marked rejection of what sublimity there is in the other form, to the +influence of early affections; and sincerely regret that the fascination +exercised over him by memory should have led him to pass so much of his +life in putting a sublimity not properly belonging to them into the +coteaux of Clairmont and Meauves, and the vine terraces of Bingen and +Oberwesel; leaving almost unrecorded the natural sublimity, which he +could never have exaggerated, of the pine-fringed mountains of the +Iscre, and the cloudy diadem of the Mont Vergi. + +§ 28. In all cases of this kind, it is difficult to say how far harm and +how far good have resulted from what unquestionably has in it something +of both. It is to be regretted that Turner's studies should have been +warped, by early affection, from the Alps to the Rhine; but the fact of +his _feeling_ this early affection, and being thus strongly influenced +by it through his life, is indicative of that sensibility which was at +the root of all his greatness. Other artists are led away by foreign +sublimities and distant interests; delighting always in that which is +most markedly strange, and quaintly contrary to the scenery of their +homes. But Turner evidently felt that the claims upon his regard +possessed by those places which first had opened to him the joy, and the +labor, of his life, could never be superseded; no Alpine cloud could +efface, no Italian sunbeam outshine, the memory of the pleasant dales +and days of Rokeby and Bolton; and many a simple promontory, dim with +southern olive,--many a low cliff that stooped unnoticed over some alien +wave, was recorded by him with a love, and delicate care, that were the +shadows of old thoughts and long-lost delights, whose charm yet hung +like morning mist above the chanting waves of Wharfe and Greta. + +§ 29. The first instance, therefore, of Turner's mountain drawing which +I endeavored to give accurately, in this book, was from those shores of +Wharfe which, I believe, he never could revisit without tears; nay, +which for all the latter part of his life, he never could even speak of, +but his voice faltered. We will now examine this instance with greater +care. + +It is first to be remembered that in every one of his English or French +drawings, Turner's mind was, in two great instincts, at variance with +itself. The _affections_ of it clung, as we have just seen, to humble +scenery, and gentle wildness of pastoral life. But the _admiration_ of +it was, more than any other artist's whatsoever, fastened on largeness +of scale. With all his heart, he was attached to the narrow meadows and +rounded knolls of England; by all his imagination he was urged to the +reverence of endless vales and measureless hills; nor could any scene be +too contracted for his love, or too vast for his ambition. Hence, when +he returned to English scenery after his first studies in Savoy and +Dauphiné, he was continually endeavoring to reconcile old fondnesses +with new sublimities; and, as in Switzerland he chose rounded Alps for +the love of Yorkshire, so in Yorkshire he exaggerated scale, in memory +of Switzerland, and gave to Ingleborough, seen from Hornby Castle, in +great part the expression of cloudy majesty and height which he had seen +in the Alps from Grenoble. We must continually remember these two +opposite instincts as we examine the Turnerian topography of his subject +of Bolton Abbey. + +§ 30. The Abbey is placed, as most lovers of our English scenery know +well, on a little promontory of level park land, enclosed by one of the +sweeps of the Wharfe. On the other side of the river, the flank of the +dale rises in a pretty wooded brow, which the river, leaning against, +has cut into two or three somewhat bold masses of rock, steep to the +water's edge, but feathered above with copse of ash and oak. Above these +rocks, the hills are rounded softly upwards to the moorland; the entire +height of the brow towards the river being perhaps two hundred feet, and +the rocky parts of it not above forty or fifty, so that the general +impression upon the eye is that the hill is little more than twice the +height of the ruins, or of the groups of noble ash trees which encircle +them. One of these groups is conspicuous above the rest, growing on the +very shore of the tongue of land which projects into the river, whose +clear brown water, stealing first in mere threads between the separate +pebbles of shingle, and eddying in soft golden lines towards its central +currents, flows out of amber into ebony, and glides calm and deep below +the rock on the opposite shore. + +§ 31. Except in this stony bed of the stream, the scene possesses very +little more aspect of mountain character than belongs to some of the +park and meadow land under the chalk hills near Henley and Maidenhead; +and if it were faithfully drawn in all points, and on its true scale, +would hardly more affect the imagination of the spectator, unless he +traced, with such care as is never from any spectator to be hoped, the +evidence of nobler character in the pebbled shore and unconspicuous +rock. But the scene in reality does affect the imagination strongly, and +in a way wholly different from lowland hill scenery. A little farther up +the valley the limestone summits rise, and that steeply, to a height of +twelve hundred feet above the river, which foams between them in the +narrow and dangerous channel of the Strid. Noble moorlands extend above, +purple with heath, and broken into scars and glens, and around every +soft tuft of wood, and gentle extent of meadow, throughout the dale, +there floats a feeling of this mountain power, and an instinctive +apprehension of the strength and greatness of the wild northern land. + +§ 32. It is to the association of this power and border sternness with +the sweet peace and tender decay of Bolton Priory, that the scene owes +its distinctive charm. The feelings excited by both characters are +definitely connected by the melancholy tradition of the circumstances to +which the Abbey owes its origin; and yet farther darkened by the nearer +memory of the death, in the same spot which betrayed the boy of +Egremont, of another, as young, as thoughtless, and as beloved. + + "The stately priory was reared, + And Wharfe, as he moved along, + To matins joined a mournful voice, + Nor failed at evensong." + +All this association of various awe, and noble mingling of mountain +strength with religious fear, Turner had to suggest, or he would not +have drawn Bolton Abbey. He goes down to the shingly shore; for the +Abbey is but the child of the Wharfe;--it is the river, the great cause +of the Abbey, which shall be his main subject; only the extremity of the +ruin itself is seen between the stems of the ash tree; but the waves of +the Wharfe are studied with a care which renders this drawing unique +among Turner's works, for its expression of the eddies of a slow +mountain stream, and of their pausing in treacherous depth beneath the +hollowed rocks. + +[Illustration: 12. The Shores of Wharfe.] + +On the opposite shore is a singular jutting angle of the shales, forming +the principal feature of the low cliffs at the water's edge. Turner +fastens on it as the only available mass; draws it with notable care, +and then magnifies it, by diminishing the trees on its top to one fifth +of their real size, so that what would else have been little more than a +stony bank becomes a true precipice, on a scale completely suggestive of +the heights behind. The hill beyond is in like manner lifted into a more +rounded, but still precipitous, eminence, reaching the utmost admissible +elevation of ten or twelve hundred feet (measurable by the trees upon +it). I have engraved this entire portion of the drawing of the real +size, on the opposite page; the engraving of the whole drawing, +published in the England Series, is also easily accessible. + +[Illustration: FIG. 83.] + +§ 33. Not knowing accurately to what group of the Yorkshire limestones +the rocks opposite the Abbey belonged, or their relation to the +sandstones at the Strid, I wrote to ask my kind friend Professor +Phillips, who instantly sent me a little geological sketch of the +position of these "Yoredale Shales," adding this interesting note: "The +black shales opposite the Abbey are curiously tinted at the surface, and +are contorted. Most artists give them the appearance of solid massive +rocks; nor is this altogether wrong, especially when the natural joints +of the shale appear prominent after particular accidents; they should, +however, never be made to resemble [i.e. in solidity] limestone or +gritstone." + +Now the Yoredale shales are members of the group of rocks which I have +called slaty coherents, and correspond very closely to those portions of +the Alpine slates described in Chap. X. § 4; their main character is +continual separation into fine flakes, more or less of Dante's +"iron-colored grain;" which, however, on a large scale, form those +somewhat solid-looking masses to which Mr. Phillips alludes in his +letter, and which he describes, in his recently published Geology, in +the following general terms: "The shales of this tract are usually dark, +close, and fissile, and traversed by extremely long straight joints, +dividing the rock into rhomboidal prisms" (i.e. prisms of the shape +_c_, Fig. 83, in the section). + +§ 34. Turner had, therefore, these four things to show:--1. Flaky +division horizontally; 2. Division by rhomboidal joints; 3. Massy +appearance occasionally, somewhat concealing the structure; 4. Local +contortion of the beds. (See passage quoted of Mr. Phillips's letter). + +[Illustration: FIG. 84.] + +Examine, then, the plate just given (12 A). The cleavage of the shales +runs diagonally up from left to right; note especially how delicately it +runs up through the foreground rock, and is insisted upon, just at the +brow of it, in the angular step-like fragments; compare also the etching +in the first volume. Then note the upright pillars in the distance, +marked especially as rhomboidal by being drawn with the cleavage still +sloping up on the returning side, as at _a_, Fig. 83, not as at _b_, +which would be their aspect if they were square; and then the indication +of interruption in the structure at the brow of the main cliff, where, +as well as on the nearer mass, exposure to the weather has rounded away +the cleavages. + +This projection, as before mentioned, does exist at the spot; and I +believe is partly an indication of the contortion in the beds alluded to +by Mr. Phillips; but no one but Turner would have fastened on it, as in +anywise deserving special attention. + +For the rest, no words are of any use to explain the subtle fidelity +with which the minor roundings and cleavages have been expressed by him. +Fidelity of this kind can only be estimated by workers: if the reader +can himself draw a bit of natural precipice in Yoredale shale, and then +copy a bit of the etching, he will find some measure of the difference +between Turner's work and other people's, and not otherwise; although, +without any such labor, he may at once perceive that there is a +difference, and a wide one,--so wide, that I have literally nothing to +compare the Turnerian work with in previous art. Here, however, Fig. 84, +is a rock of Claude's (Liber Veritatis, No. 91, on the left hand), which +is something of the shape of Turner's, and professes to be crested in +like manner with copse-wood. The reader may "compare" as much as he +likes, or can, of it. + +[Illustration: FIG. 85.] + +§ 35. In fact, as I said some time ago, the whole landscape of Claude +was nothing but a more or less softened continuance of the old +traditions of missal-painting, of which I gave examples in the previous +volume. The general notion of rock which may be traced in the earliest +work, as Figs. 1 and 2 in Plate +10+ Vol. III. is of an upright mass cut +out with an adze; as art advances, the painters begin to perceive +horizontal stratification, and, as in all the four other examples of +that plate, show something like true rendering of the fracture of rocks +in vertical joints with superimposed projecting masses. They insist on +this type, thinking it frowning or picturesque, and usually exhibit it +to more advantage by putting a convent, hermitage, or castle on the +projection of the crag. In the blue backgrounds of the missals the +projection is often wildly extravagant; for instance, the MS. +Additional, 11,696 Brit. Mus., has all its backgrounds composed of blue +rocks with towers upon them, of which Fig. 85 is a characteristic +example (magnified in scale about one-third; but, I think, rather +diminished in extravagance of projection). It is infinitely better drawn +than Claude's rocks ever are, in the expression of cleavage; but +certainly somewhat too bold in standing. Then, in more elaborate work, +we get conditions of precipice like Fig. 3 in Plate +10+, which, indeed, +is not ill-drawn in many respects; and the book from which it is taken +shows other evidences of a love of nature sufficiently rare at the +period, though joined quaintly with love of the grotesque: for instance, +the writer, giving an account of the natural productions of Saxony, +illustrates his chapter with a view of the salt mines; he represents +the brine-spring, conducted by a wooden trough from the rock into an +evaporating-house where it is received in a pan, under which he has +painted scarlet flames of fire with singular skill; and the rock out of +which the brine flows is in its general cleavages the best I ever saw +drawn by mediæval art. But it is carefully wrought to the resemblance of +a grotesque human head. + +[Illustration: FIG. 86.] + +§ 36. This bolder quaintness of the missals is very slightly modified in +religious paintings of the period. Fig. 86, by Cima da Conegliano, a +Venetian, No. 173 in the Louvre, compared with Fig. 3 of Plate +10+ +(Flemish), will show the kind of received tradition about rocks current +throughout Europe. Claude takes up this tradition, and, merely making +the rocks a little clumsier, and more weedy, produces such conditions as +Fig. 87 (Liber Veritatis, No. 91, with Fig. 84 above); while the +orthodox door or archway at the bottom is developed into the Homeric +cave, shaded with laurels, and some ships are put underneath it, or seen +through it, at impossible anchorages. + +[Illustration: J. Ruskin. J. H. Le Keux + 41. The Rocks of Arona.] + +§ 37. Fig. 87 is generally characteristic, not only of Claude, but of +the other painters of the Renaissance period, because they were all +equally fond of representing this overhanging of rocks with buildings on +the top, and weeds drooping into the air over the edge, always thinking +to get sublimity by exaggerating the projection, and never able to feel +or understand the simplicity of real rock lines; not that they were in +want of examples around them: on the contrary, though the main idea was +traditional, the modifications of it are always traceable to the lower +masses of limestone and tufa which skirt the Alps and Apennines, and +which have, in reality, long contracted habits of nodding over their +bases; being, both by Virgil and Homer, spoken of always as "hanging" or +"over-roofed" rocks. But then they have a way of doing it rather +different from the Renaissance ideas of them. Here, for instance (Plate ++41+), is a real hanging rock, with a castle on the top of it, and +([Greek: katêrephês]) laurel, all plain fact, from Arona, on the Lago +Maggiore; and, I believe, the reader, though we have not as yet said +anything about lines, will at once, on comparing it with Fig. 87, +recognize the difference between the true parabolic flow of the +rock-lines and the humpbacked deformity of Claude; and, still more, the +difference between the delicate overhanging of the natural cliff, +cautiously diminished as it gets higher[87], and the ideal danger of the +Liber Veritatis. + +[Illustration: FIG. 87.] + +§ 38. And the fact is, generally, that natural cliffs are very cautious +how they overhang, and that the artist who represents them as doing so +in any extravagant degree entirely destroys the sublimity which he hoped +to increase, for the simple reason that he takes away the whole +rock-nature, or at least that part of it which depends upon weight. The +instinct of the observer refuses to believe that the rock is ponderous +when it overhangs so far, and it has no more real effect upon him than +the imagined rocks of a fairy tale. + +[Illustration: FIG. 88.] + +Though, therefore, the subject sketched on this page is sufficiently +trifling in itself, it is important as a perfect general type of the +overhanging of that kind of precipices, and of the mode in which they +are connected with the banks above. Fig. 88 shows its abstract leading +lines, consisting of one great parabolic line _x y_ falling to the brow, +curved aqueous lines down the precipice face, and the springing lines of +its vegetation, opposed by contrary curves on the farther cliff. Such an +arrangement, with or without vegetation, may take place on a small or +large scale; but a bolder projection than this, except by rare accident, +and on a small scale, cannot. If the reader will glance back to Plate ++37+, and observe the arrangement of the precipices on the right hand, +he will now better understand what Turner means by them. But the whole +question of the beauty of this form, or mode of its development, rests +on the nature of the bank above the cliffs, and of the aqueous forces +that carved it; and this discussion of the nature of banks, as it will +take some time, had better be referred to next chapter. One or two more +points are, however, to be stated here. + +§ 39. For the reader has probably been already considering how it is +that these overhanging cliffs are formed at all, and why they appear +thus to be consumed away at the bottom. Sometimes if of soft material +they actually _are_ so consumed by the quicker trickling of streamlets +at the base than at the summit, or by the general action of damp in +decomposing the rock. But in the noblest instances, such cliffs are +constructed as at c in Fig. 73, above, and the inward retirement of the +precipice is the result of their tendency to break at right angles to +the beds, modified according to the power of the rock to support itself, +and the aqueous action from above or below. + +I have before alluded (in p. 157) to this somewhat perilous arrangement +permitted in the secondary strata. The danger, be it observed, is not of +the fall of the _brow_ of the precipice, which never takes place on a +large scale in rocks of this kind (compare § 3 of this chapter), but of +the sliding of one bed completely away from another, and the whole mass +coming down together. But even this, though it has several times +occurred in Switzerland, is not a whit more likely to happen when the +precipice is terrific than when it is insignificant. The danger results +from the imperfect adhesion of the mountain beds; not at all from the +external form of them. A cliff, which is in aspect absolutely awful, may +hardly, in the part of it that overhangs, add one thousandth part to the +gravitating power of the entire mass of the rocks above; and, for the +comfort of nervous travellers, they may be assured that they are often +in more danger under the gentle slopes of a pleasantly wooded hill, than +under the most terrific cliffs of the Eiger or Jungfrau. + +[Illustration: FIG. 89.] + +§ 40. The most interesting examples of these cliffs are usually to be +seen impendent above strong torrents, which, if forced originally to run +in a valley, such as _a_ in Fig. 89, bearing the relation there shown to +the inclination of beds on each side, will not, if the cleavage is +across the beds, cut their channel straight down, but in an inclined +direction, correspondent to the cleavage, as at _b_. If the operation be +carried far, so as to undermine one side of the ravine too seriously, +the undermined masses fall, partially choke the torrent, and give it a +new direction of force, or diminish its sawing power by breaking it +among the fallen masses, so that the cliff never becomes very high in +such an impendent form; but the trench is hewn downwards in a direction +irregularly vertical. Among the limestones on the north side of the +Valles, they being just soft enough to yield easily to the water, and +yet so hard as to maintain themselves in massy precipices, when once +hewn to the shape, there are defiles of whose depth and proportions I am +almost afraid to state what I believe to be the measurements, so much do +they differ from any which I have seen assigned by scientific men as the +limits of precipitous formation. I can only say that my deliberate +impression of the great ravine cut by the torrent which descends from +the Aletsch glacier, about half way between the glacier and Brieg, was, +that its depth is between a _thousand and fifteen hundred_ feet, by a +breadth of between _forty and a hundred_. + +But I could not get to the edge of its cliffs, for the tops rounded away +into the chasm, and, of course, all actual measurement was impossible. +There are other similar clefts between the Bietschhorn and the Gemmi; +and the one before spoken of at Ardon, about five miles below Sion, +though quite unimportant in comparison, presents some boldly overhanging +precipices easily observed by the passing traveller, as they are close +to the road. The glen through which the torrent of the Trient descends +into the valley of the Rhone, near Martigny, though not above three or +four hundred feet deep, is also notable for its narrowness, and for the +magnificent hardness of the rock through which it is cut,--a gneiss +twisted with quartz into undulations like those of a Damascus sabre, and +as compact as its steel. + +§ 41. It is not possible to get the complete expression of these +ravines, any more than of the apse of a Gothic cathedral, into a +picture, as their elevation cannot be drawn on a vertical plane in front +of the eye, the head needing to be thrown back, in order to measure +their height, or stooped to penetrate their depth. But the structure and +expression of the entrance to one of them have been made by Turner the +theme of his sublime mountain-study (Mill near the Grande Chartreuse) in +the Liber Studiorum; nor does he seem ever to have been weary of +recurring for various precipice-subject, to the ravines of the Via Mala +and St. Gothard. I will not injure any of these--his noblest works--by +giving imperfect copies of them; the reader has now data enough whereby +to judge, when he meets with them, whether they are well done or ill; +and, indeed, all that I am endeavoring to do here, as often aforesaid, +is only to get some laws of the simplest kind understood and accepted, +so as to enable people who care at all for justice to make a stand at +once beside the modern mountain-drawing, as distinguished from +Salvator's, or Claude's, or any other spurious work. Take, for instance, +such a law as this of the general oblique inclination of a torrent's +sides, Fig. 89, and compare the Turnerian gorge in the distance of Plate ++21+ here, or of the Grande Chartreuse subject in the Liber Studiorum, +and consider whether anywhere else in art you can find similar +expressions of the law. + +"Well; but you have come to no conclusions in this chapter respecting +the Beauty of Precipices; and that was your professed business with +them." + +I am not sure that the idea of beauty was meant in general to be very +strictly connected with such mountain forms: one does not, +instinctively, speak or think of a "Beautiful Precipice." They have, +however, their beauty, and it is infinite; yet so dependent on help or +change from other things, on the way the pines crest them, or the +waterfalls color them, or the clouds isolate them, that I do not choose +to dwell here on any of their perfect aspects, as they cannot be +reasoned of by anticipating inquiries into other materials of landscape. + +Thus, I have much to say of the cliffs of Grindelwald and the +Chartreuse, but all so dependent upon certain facts belonging to pine +vegetation, that I am compelled to defer it to the next volume; nor do I +much regret this; because it seems to me that, without any setting +forth, or rather beyond all setting forth, the Alpine precipices have a +fascination about them which is sufficiently felt by the spectator in +general, and even by the artist; only they have not been properly drawn, +because people do not usually attribute the magnificence of their effect +to the trifling details which really are its elements; and, therefore, +in common drawings of Swiss scenery we see all kinds of efforts at +sublimity by exaggeration of the projection of the mass, or by +obscurity, or blueness or aerial tint,--by everything, in fact, except +the one needful thing,--plain drawing of the rock. Therefore in this +chapter I have endeavored to direct the reader to a severe mathematical +estimate of precipice outline, and to make him dwell, not on the +immediately pathetic or impressive aspect of cliffs, which all men feel +readily enough, but on their internal structure. For he may rest assured +that, as the Matterhorn is built of mica flakes, so every great +pictorial impression in scenery of this kind is to be reached by little +and little; the cliff must be built in the picture as it was probably in +reality--inch by inch; and the work will, in the end, have most power +which was begun with most patience. No man is fit to paint Swiss scenery +until he can place himself front to front with one of those mighty +crags, in broad daylight, with no "effect" to aid him, and work it out, +boss by boss, only with such conventionality as its infinitude renders +unavoidable. We have seen that a literal facsimile is impossible, just +as a literal facsimile of the carving of an entire cathedral front is +impossible. But it is as vain to endeavor to give any conception of an +Alpine cliff without minuteness of detail, and by mere breadth of +effect, as it would be to give a conception of the façades of Rouen or +Rheims, without indicating any statues or foliation. When the statues +and foliation are once got, as much blue mist and thundercloud as you +choose, but not before. + +§ 43. I commend, therefore, in conclusion, the precipice to the artist's +_patience_; to which there is this farther and final encouragement, +that, though one of the most difficult of subjects, it is one of the +kindest of sitters. A group of trees changes the color of its leafage +from week to week, and its position from day to day; it is sometimes +languid with heat, and sometimes heavy with rain; the torrent swells or +falls in shower or sun; the best leaves of the foreground may be dined +upon by cattle, or trampled by unwelcome investigators of the chosen +scene. But the cliff can neither be eaten nor trampled down; neither +bowed by the shower nor withered by the heat: it is always ready for us +when we are inclined to labor; will always wait for us when we would +rest; and, what is best of all, will always talk to us when we are +inclined to converse. With its own patient and victorious presence, +cleaving daily through cloud after cloud, and reappearing still through +the tempest drift, lofty and serene amidst the passing rents of blue, it +seems partly to rebuke, and partly to guard, and partly to calm and +chasten, the agitations of the feeble human soul that watches it; and +that must be indeed a dark perplexity, or a grievous pain, which will +not be in some degree enlightened or relieved by the vision of it, when +the evening shadows are blue on its foundation, and the last rays of the +sunset resting in the fair height of its golden Fortitude. + + +FOOTNOTES + + [80] Distinguished from a _crest_ by being the _face_ of a large + contiguous bed of rock, not the end of a ridge. + + [81] The contour of the whole cliff, seen from near its foot as it + rises above the shoulder of the Breven, is as at Fig. 76 opposite. + The part measured is _a d_; but the precipice recedes to the summit + _b_, on which a human figure is discernible to the naked eye merely + as a point. The bank from which the cliff rises, _c_, _recedes_ as + it falls to the left; so that five hundred feet may perhaps be an + under-estimate of the height below the summit. The straight sloping + lines are cleavages, across the beds. Finally, Fig. 4, Plate 25, + gives the look of the whole summit as seen from the village of + Chamouni beneath it, at a distance of about two miles, and some four + or five thousand feet above the spectator. It appears, then, like a + not very formidable projection of crag overhanging the great slopes + of the mountain's foundation. + + [Illustration: FIG. 76.] + + [82] At an angle of 79° with the horizon. See the Table of angles, + p. 181. The line _a e_ in Fig. 33, is too steep, as well as in the + plate here; but the other slopes are approximately accurate. I would + have made them quite so, but did not like to alter the sketch made + on the spot. + + [83] Professor Forbes gives the bearing of the Cervin from the top + of the Riffelhorn as 351°, or N. 9° W., supposing local attraction + to have caused an error of 65° to the northward, which would make + the true bearing N. 74° W. From the point just under the Riffelhorn + summit, _e_, in Fig. 78, at which my drawing was made, I found the + Cervin bear N. 79° W. without any allowance for attraction; the + disturbing influence would seem therefore confined, or nearly so, to + the summit _a_. I did not know at the time that there was any such + influence traceable, and took no bearing from the summit. For the + rest, I cannot vouch for bearings as I can for angles, as their + accuracy was of no importance to my work, and I merely noted them + with a common pocket compass and in the sailor's way (S. by W. and ½ + W. & C.), which involves the probability of error of from two to + three degrees on either side of the true bearing. The other drawing + in Plate +38+ was made from a point only a degree or two to the + westward of the village of Zermatt. I have no note of the bearing; + but it must be about S. 60° or 65° W. + + [84] Independent travellers may perhaps be glad to know the way to + the top of the Riffelhorn. I believe there is only one path; which + ascends (from the ridge of the Riffel) on its eastern slope, until, + near the summit, the low but perfectly smooth cliff, extending from + side to side of the ridge, seems, as on the western slope, to bar + all farther advance. This cliff may, however, by a good climber, be + mastered even at the southern extremity; but it is dangerous there: + at the opposite or northern side of it, just at its base, is a + little cornice, about a foot broad, which does not look promising at + first, but widens presently; and when once it is past, there is no + more difficulty in reaching the summit. + + [85] I ought before to have mentioned Madame de Genlis as one of the + few writers whose influence was always exerted to restore to + truthful feelings, and persuade to simple enjoyments and pursuits, + the persons accessible to reason in the frivolous world of her + times. + + [86] Veillées du Château, vol. ii. + + [87] The actual extent of the projection remaining the same + throughout, the angle of suspended slope, for that reason, + diminishes as the cliff increases in height. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +RESULTING FORMS:--FOURTHLY, BANKS. + + +§ 1. During all our past investigations of hill form, we have been +obliged to refer continually to certain results produced by the action +of descending streams or falling stones. The actual contours assumed by +any mountain range towards its foot depend usually more upon this +torrent sculpture than on the original conformation of the masses; the +existing hill side is commonly an accumulation of débris; the existing +glen commonly an excavated watercourse; and it is only here and there +that portions of rock, retaining impress of their original form, jut +from the bank, or shelve across the stream. + +§ 2. Now this sculpture by streams, or by gradual weathering, is the +finishing work by which Nature brings her mountain forms into the state +in which she intends us generally to observe and love them. The violent +convulsion or disruption by which she first raises and separates the +masses may frequently be intended to produce impressions of terror +rather than of beauty; but the laws which are in constant operation on +all noble and enduring scenery must assuredly be intended to produce +results grateful to men. Therefore, as in this final pencilling of +Nature's we shall probably find her ideas of mountain beauty most +definitely expressed, it may be well that, before entering on this part +of our subject, we should recapitulate the laws respecting beauty of +form which we arrived at in the abstract. + +§ 3. Glancing back to the fourteenth and fifteenth paragraphs of the +chapter on Infinity, in the second volume, and to the third and tenth of +the chapters on Unity, the reader will find that abstract beauty of form +is supposed to depend on continually varied curvatures of line and +surface, associated so as to produce an effect of some unity among +themselves, and opposed, in order to give them value, by more or less +straight or rugged lines. + +The reader will, perhaps, here ask why, if both the straight and curved +lines are necessary, one should be considered more beautiful than the +other. Exactly as we consider light beautiful and darkness ugly, in the +abstract, though both are essential to all beauty. Darkness mingled with +color gives the delight of its depth or power; even pure blackness, in +spots or chequered patterns, is often exquisitely delightful; and yet we +do not therefore consider, in the abstract, blackness to be beautiful. + +[Illustration: FIG. 90.] + +Just in the same way straightness mingled with curvature, that is to +say, the close approximation of part of any curve to a straight line, +gives to such curve all its spring, power, and nobleness: and even +perfect straightness, limiting curves, or opposing them, is often +pleasurable: yet, in the abstract, straightness is always ugly, and +curvature always beautiful. + +Thus, in the figure at the side, the eye will instantly prefer the +semicircle to the straight line; the trefoil (composed of three +semicircles) to the triangle; and the cinqfoil to the pentagon. The +mathematician may perhaps feel an opposite preference; but he must be +conscious that he does so under the influence of feelings quite +different from those with which he would admire (if he ever does admire) +a picture or statue; and that if he could free himself from those +associations, his judgment of the relative agreeableness of the forms +would be altered. He may rest assured that, by the natural instinct of +the eye and thought, the preference is given instantly, and always, to +the curved form; and that no human being of unprejudiced perceptions +would desire to substitute triangles for the ordinary shapes of clover +leaves, or pentagons for those of potentillas. + +§ 4. All curvature, however, is not equally agreeable; but the +examination of the laws which render one curve more beautiful than +another, would, if carried out to any completeness, alone require a +volume. The following few examples will be enough to put the reader in +the way of pursuing the subject for himself. + +[Illustration: FIG. 91.] + +Take any number of lines, _a b_, _b c_, _c d_, &c., Fig. 91, bearing any +fixed proportion to each other. In this figure, _b c_ is one third +longer than _a b_, and _c d_ than _b c_; and so on. Arrange them in +succession, keeping the inclination, or angle, which each makes with the +preceding one always the same. Then a curve drawn through the +extremities of the lines will be a beautiful curve; for it is governed +by consistent laws; every part of it is connected by those laws with +every other, yet every part is different from every other; and the mode +of its construction implies the possibility of its continuance to +infinity; it would never return upon itself though prolonged for ever. +These characters must be possessed by every perfectly beautiful curve. + +If we make the difference between the component or measuring lines less, +as in Fig. 92, in which each line is longer than the preceding one only +by a fifth, the curve will be more contracted and less beautiful. If we +enlarge the difference, as in Fig. 93, in which each line is double the +preceding one, the curve will suggest a more rapid proceeding into +infinite space, and will be more beautiful. Of two curves, the same in +other respects, that which suggests the quickest attainment of infinity +is always the most beautiful. + +[Illustration: FIG. 92.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 93.] + +§ 5. These three curves being all governed by the same general law, with +a difference only in dimensions of lines, together with all the other +curves so constructible, varied as they may be infinitely, either by +changing the lengths of line, or the inclination of the lines to each +other, are considered by mathematicians only as one curve, having this +peculiar character about it, different from that of most other infinite +lines, that any portion of it is a magnified repetition of the preceding +portion; that is to say, the portion between _e_ and _g_ is precisely +what that between _c_ and _e_ would look, if seen through a lens which +magnified somewhat more than twice. There is therefore a peculiar +equanimity and harmony about the look of lines of this kind, differing, +I think, from the expression of any others except the circle. Beyond the +point _a_ the curve may be imagined to continue to an infinite degree of +smallness, always circling nearer and nearer to a point, which, however, +it can never reach. + +[Illustration: FIG. 94.] + +§ 6. Again: if, along the horizontal line, A B, Fig. 94, we measure any +number of equal distances, A _b_, _b c_, &c., and raise perpendiculars +from the points _b_, _c_, _d_, &c., of which each perpendicular shall be +longer, by some given proportion (in this figure it is one third), than +the preceding one, the curve _x y_, traced through their extremities, +will continually change its direction, but will advance into space in +the direction of _y_ as long as we continue to measure distances along +the line A B, always inclining more and more to the nature of a straight +line, yet never becoming one, even if continued to infinity. It would, +in like manner, continue to infinity in the direction of _x_, always +approaching the line A B, yet never touching it. + +§ 7. An infinite number of different lines, more or less violent in +curvature according to the measurements we adopt in designing them, are +included, or defined, by each of the laws just explained. But the number +of these laws themselves is also infinite. There is no limit to the +multitude of conditions which may be invented, each producing a group of +curves of a certain common nature. Some of these laws, indeed, produce +single curves, which, like the circle, can vary only in size; but, for +the most part, they vary also, like the lines we have just traced, in +the rapidity of their curvature. Among these innumerable lines, however, +there is one source of difference in character which divides them, +infinite as they are in number, into two great classes. The first class +consists of those which are limited in their course, either ending +abruptly, or returning to some point from which they set out; the second +class, of those lines whose nature is to proceed for ever into space. +Any portion of a circle, for instance, is, by the law of its being, +compelled, if it continue its course, to return to the point from which +it set out; so also any portion of the oval curve (called an ellipse), +produced by cutting a cylinder obliquely across. And if a single point +be marked on the rim of a carriage wheel, this point, as the wheel rolls +along the road, will trace a curve in the air from one part of the road +to another, which is called a cycloid, and to which the law of its +existence appoints that it shall always follow a similar course, and be +terminated by the level line on which the wheel rolls. All such curves +are of inferior beauty: and the curves which are incapable of being +completely drawn, because, as in the two cases above given, the law of +their being supposes them to proceed for ever into space, are of a +higher beauty. + +§ 8. Thus, in the very first elements of form, a lesson is given us as +to the true source of the nobleness and chooseableness of all things. +The two classes of curves thus sternly separated from each other, may +most properly be distinguished as the "Mortal and Immortal Curves;" the +one having an appointed term of existence, the other absolutely +incomprehensible and endless, only to be seen or grasped during a +certain moment of their course. And it is found universally that the +class to which the human mind is attached for its chief enjoyment are +the Endless or Immortal lines. + +§ 9. "Nay," but the reader answers, "what right have you to say that one +class is more beautiful than the other? Suppose I like the finite curves +best, who shall say which of us is right?" + +No one. It is simply a question of experience. You will not, I think, +continue to like the finite curves best as you contemplate them +carefully, and compare them with the others. And if you should do so, it +then yet becomes a question to be decided by longer trial, or more +widely canvassed opinion. And when we find on examination that every +form which, by the consent of human kind, has been received as lovely, +in vases, flowing ornaments, embroideries, and all other things +dependent on abstract line, is composed of these infinite curves, and +that Nature uses them for every important contour, small or large, which +she desires to recommend to human observance, we shall not, I think, +doubt that the preference of such lines is a sign of healthy taste, and +true instinct. + +§ 10. I am not sure, however, how far the delightfulness of such line, +is owing, not merely to their expression of infinity, but also to that +of restraint or moderation. Compare Stones of Venice, vol. iii. chap. i. +§ 9, where the subject is entered into at some length. Certainly the +beauty of such curvature is owing, in a considerable degree, to both +expressions; but when the line is sharply terminated, perhaps more to +that of moderation than of infinity. For the most part, gentle or +subdued sounds, and gentle or subdued colors, are more pleasing than +either in their utmost force; nevertheless, in all the noblest +compositions, this utmost power is permitted, but only for a short time, +or over a small space. Music must rise to its utmost loudness, and fall +from it; color must be gradated to its extreme brightness, and descend +from it; and I believe that absolutely perfect treatment would, in +either case, permit the intensest sound and purest color only for a +point or for a moment. + +[Illustration: 42. Leaf Curvature. Magnolia and Laburnum.] + +[Illustration: 43. Leaf Curvature. Dead Laurel.] + +[Illustration: 44. Leaf Curvature. Young Ivy.] + +Curvature is regulated by precisely the same laws. For the most part, +delicate or slight curvature is more agreeable than violent or rapid +curvature; nevertheless, in the best compositions, violent +curvature is permitted, but permitted only over small spaces in the +curve. + +§ 11. The right line is to the curve what monotony is to melody, and +what unvaried color is to gradated color. And as often the sweetest +music is so low and continuous as to approach a monotone; and as often +the sweetest gradations so delicate and subdued as to approach to +flatness, so the finest curves are apt to hover about the right line, +nearly coinciding with it for a long space of their curve; never +absolutely losing their own curvilinear character, but apparently every +moment on the point of merging into the right line. When this is the +case, the line generally returns into vigorous curvature at some part of +its course, otherwise it is apt to be weak, or slightly rigid; +multitudes of other curves, not approaching the right line so nearly, +remain less vigorously bent in the rest of their course; so that the +quantity[88] of curvature is the same in both, though differently +distributed. + +[Illustration: FIG. 95.] + +§ 12. The modes in which Nature produces variable curves on a large +scale are very numerous, but may generally be resolved into the gradual +increase or diminution of some given force. Thus, if a chain hangs +between two points A and B, Fig. 95, the weight of chain sustained by +any given link increases gradually from the central link at C, which has +only its own weight to sustain, to the link at B, which sustains, +besides its own, the weight of all the links between it and C. This +increased weight is continually pulling the curve of the swinging chain +more nearly straight as it ascends towards B; and hence one of the most +beautifully gradated natural curves--called the catenary--of course +assumed not by chains only, but by all flexible and elongated +substances, suspended between two points. If the points of suspension be +near each other, we have such curves as at D; and if, as in nine cases +out of ten will be the case, one point of suspension is lower than the +other, a still more varied and beautiful curve is formed, as at E. Such +curves constitute nearly the whole beauty of general contour in falling +drapery, tendrils and festoons of weeds over rocks, and such other +pendent objects.[89] + +§ 13. Again. If any object be cast into the air, the force with which it +is cast dies gradually away, and its own weight brings it downwards; at +first slowly, then faster and faster every moment, in a curve which, as +the line of fall necessarily nears the perpendicular, is continually +approximating to a straight line. This curve--called the parabola--is +that of all projected or bounding objects. + +§ 14. Again. If a rod or stick of any kind gradually becomes more +slender or more flexible, and is bent by any external force, the force +will not only increase in effect as the rod becomes weaker, but the rod +itself, once bent, will continually yield more willingly, and be more +easily bent farther in the same direction, and will thus show a +continual increase of curvature from its thickest or most rigid part to +its extremity. This kind of line is that assumed by boughs of trees +under wind. + +§ 15. Again. Whenever any vital force is impressed on any organic +substance, so as to die gradually away as the substance extends, an +infinite curve is commonly produced by its outline. Thus, in the budding +of the leaf, already examined, the gradual dying away of the +exhilaration of the younger ribs produces an infinite curve in the +outline of the leaf, which sometimes fades imperceptibly into a right +line,--sometimes is terminated sharply, by meeting the opposite curve at +the point of the leaf. + +§ 16. Nature, however, rarely condescends to use one curve only in any +of her finer forms. She almost always unites two infinite ones, so as to +form a reversed curve for each main line, and then modulates each of +them into myriads of minor ones. In a single elm leaf, such as Fig. 4, +Plate +8+, she uses three such--one for the stalk, and one for each of +the sides,--to regulate their _general_ flow; dividing afterwards each +of their broad lateral lines into some twenty less curves by the jags of +the leaf, and then again into minor waves. Thus, in any complicated +group of leaves whatever, the infinite curves are themselves almost +countless. In a single extremity of a magnolia spray, the uppermost +figure in Plate +42+, including only sixteen leaves, each leaf having +some three to five distinct curves along its edge, the lines for +separate study, including those of the stems, would be between sixty and +eighty. In a single spring-shoot of laburnum, the lower figure in the +same plate, I leave the reader to count them for himself; all these, +observe, being seen at one view only, and every change of position +bringing into sight another equally numerous set of curves. For +instance, in Plate +43+ is a group of four withered leaves, in four +positions, giving, each, a beautiful and well composed group of curves, +variable gradually into the next group as the branch is turned. + +§ 17. The following Plate (+44+), representing a young shoot of +independent ivy, just beginning to think it would like to get something +to cling to, shows the way in which Nature brings subtle curvature into +forms that at first seem rigid. The stems of the young leaves look +nearly straight, and the sides of the projecting points, or bastions, of +the leaves themselves nearly so; but on examination it will be found +that there is not a stem nor a leaf-edge but is a portion of one +infinite curve, if not of two or three. The main line of the supporting +stem is a very lovely one; and the little half-opened leaves, in their +thirteenth-century segmental simplicity (compare Fig. 9, Plate 8 in Vol. +III.), singularly spirited and beautiful. It may, perhaps, interest the +general reader to know that one of the infinite curves derives its name +from its supposed resemblance to the climbing of ivy up a tree. + +[Illustration: FIG. 97.] + +§ 18. I spoke just now of "well-composed" curves,--I mean curves so +arranged as to oppose and set each other off, and yet united by a common +law; for as the beauty of every curve depends on the unity of its +several component lines, so the beauty of each group of curves depends +on their submission to some general law. In forms which quickly attract +the eye, the law which unites the curves is distinctly manifest; but, in +the richer compositions of Nature, cunningly concealed by delicate +infractions of it;--wilfulnesses they seem, and forgetfulnesses, which, +if once the law be perceived, only increase our delight in it by showing +that it is one of equity, not of rigor, and allows, within certain +limits, a kind of individual liberty. Thus the system of unison which +regulates the magnolia shoot, in Plate +42+, is formally expressed in +Fig. 97. Every line has its origin in the point p, and the curves +generally diminish in intensity towards the extremities of the leaves, +one or two, however, again increasing their sweep near the points. In +vulgar ornamentation, entirely rigid laws of line are always observed; +and the common Greek honeysuckle and other such formalisms are +attractive to uneducated eyes, owing to their manifest compliance with +the first conditions of unity and symmetry, being to really noble +ornamentation what the sing-song of a bad reader of poetry, laying +regular emphasis on every required syllable of every foot, is to the +varied, irregular, unexpected, inimitable cadence of the voice of a +person of sense and feeling reciting the same lines,--not incognisant of +the rhythm, but delicately bending it to the expression of passion, and +the natural sequence of the thought. + +§ 19. In mechanically drawn patterns of dress, Alhambra and common +Moorish ornament, Greek mouldings, common flamboyant traceries, common +Corinthian and Ionic capitals, and such other work, lines of this +declared kind (generally to be classed under the head of "doggerel +ornamentation") may be seen in rich profusion; and they are necessarily +the only kind of lines which can be felt or enjoyed by persons who have +been educated without reference to natural forms; their instincts being +blunt, and their eyes actually incapable of perceiving the inflexion of +noble curves. But the moment the perceptions have been refined by +reference to natural form, the eye requires perpetual variation and +transgression of the formal law. Take the simplest possible condition of +thirteenth-century scroll-work, Fig. 98. The law or cadence established +is of a circling tendril, terminating in an ivy-leaf. In vulgar design, +the curves of the circling tendril would have been similar to each +other, and might have been drawn by a machine, or by some mathematical +formula. But in good design all imitation by machinery is impossible. No +curve is like another for an instant; no branch springs at an expected +point. A cadence is observed, as in the returning clauses of a beautiful +air in music; but every clause has its own change, its own surprises. +The enclosing form is here stiff and (nearly) straight-sided, in order +to oppose the circular scroll-work; but on looking close it will be +found that each of its sides is a portion of an infinite curve, almost +too delicate to be traced; except the short lowest one, which is made +quite straight, to oppose the rest. + +[Illustration: FIG. 98.] + +I give one more example from another leaf of the same manuscript, Fig. +99, merely to show the variety introduced by the old designers between +page and page. And, in general, the reader may take it for a settled law +that, whatever can be done by machinery, or imitated by formula, is not +worth doing or imitating at all. + +§ 20. The quantity of admissible transgression of law varies with the +degree in which the ornamentation involves or admits imitation of +nature. Thus, if these ivy leaves in Fig. 99 were completely drawn in +light and shade, they would not be properly connected with the more or +less regular sequences of the scroll; and in every subordinate ornament, +something like complete symmetry may be admitted, as in bead mouldings, +chequerings, &c. Also, the ways in which the transgression may be +granted vary infinitely; in the finest compositions it is perpetual, and +yet so balanced and atoned for as always to bring about more beauty than +if there had been no transgression. In a truly fine mountain or organic +line, if it is looked at in detail, no one would believe in its being a +continuous curve, or being subjected to any fixed law. It seems broken, +and bending a thousand ways; perfectly free and wild, and yielding to +every impulse. But, after following with the eye three or four of its +impulses, we shall begin to trace some strange order among them; every +added movement will make the ruling intent clearer; and when the whole +life of the line is revealed at last, it will be found to have been, +throughout, as obedient to the true law of its course as the stars in +their orbits. + +[Illustration: FIG. 99.] + + + The four systems of mountain line. + +§ 21. Thus much may suffice for our immediate purpose respecting +beautiful lines in general. We have now to consider the particular +groups of them belonging to mountains. + +The lines which are produced by course of time upon hill contours are +mainly divisible into four systems. + +1. Lines of Fall. Those which are wrought out on the solid mass by the +fall of water or of stones. + +2. Lines of Projection. Those which are produced in débris by the +bounding of the masses, under the influence of their falling force. + +3. Lines of Escape. Those which are produced by the spreading of débris +from a given point over surfaces of varied shape. + +4. Lines of Rest. Those which are assumed by débris when in a state of +comparative permanence and stability. + + + 1. Lines of Fall. + + 1. Lines of Fall. Produced by falling bodies upon hill-surfaces. + +However little the reader may be acquainted with hills, I believe that, +almost instinctively, he will perceive that the form supposed to belong +to a wooded promontory at _a_, Fig. 100, is an impossible one; and that +the form at _b_ is not only a possible but probable one. The lines are +equally formal in both. But in _a_, the curve is a portion of a circle, +meeting a level line: in _b_ it is an infinite line, getting less and +less steep as it ascends. + +[Illustration: FIG. 100.] + +Whenever a mass of mountain is worn gradually away by forces descending +from its top, it _necessarily_ assumes, more or less perfectly, +according to the time for which it has been exposed, and the tenderness +of its substance, such contours as those at _b_, for the simple reason +that every stream and every falling grain of sand gains in velocity and +erosive power as it descends. Hence, cutting away the ground gradually +faster and faster, they produce the most rapid curvature (provided the +rock be hard enough) towards the bottom of the hill.[90] + +§ 22. But farther: in _b_ it will be noticed that the lines always get +steeper as they fall more and more to the right; and I should think the +reader must feel that they look more natural, so drawn, than, as at _a_, +in unvarying curves. + +[Illustration: FIG. 101.] + +This is no less easily accounted for. The simplest typical form under +which a hill can occur is that of a cone. Let A C B, Fig. 101, have been +its original contour. Then the aqueous forces will cut away the shaded +portions, reducing it to the outline _d_ C _e_. Farther, in doing so, +the water will certainly have formed for itself gullies or channels from +top to bottom. These, supposing them at equal distances round the cone, +will appear, in perspective, in the lines _g h i_. It does not, of +course, matter whether we consider the lines in this figure to represent +the bottom of the ravines, or the ridges between, both being formed on +similar curves; but the rounded lines in Fig. 100 would be those of +forests seen on the edges of each detached ridge. + +§ 23. Now although a mountain is rarely perfectly conical, and never +divided by ravines at exactly equal distances, the law which is seen in +entire simplicity in Fig. 101, applies with a sway more or less +interrupted, but always manifest, to every convex and retiring mountain +form. All banks that thus turn away from the spectator necessarily are +thrown into perspectives like that of one side of this figure; and +although not divided with equality, their irregular divisions crowd +gradually together towards the distant edge, being then less steep, and +separate themselves towards the body of the hill, being then more steep. + +[Illustration: FIG. 102.] + +§ 24. It follows, also, that not only the whole of the nearer curves, +will be steeper, but, if seen from below, the steepest parts of them +will be the more important. Supposing each, instead of a curve, divided +into a sloping line and a precipitous one, the perspective of the +precipice, raising its top continually, will give the whole cone the +shape of _a_ or _b_ in Fig. 102, in which, observe, the precipice is of +more importance, and the slope of less, precisely in proportion to the +nearness of the mass. + +§ 25. Fig. 102, therefore, will be the general type of the form of a +convex retiring hill symmetrically constructed. The precipitous part of +it may vary in height or in slope according to original conformation; +but the heights being supposed equal along the whole flank, the contours +will be as in that figure; the various rise and fall of real height +altering the perspective appearance accordingly, as we shall see +presently, after examining the other three kinds of line. + + + 2. Lines of Projection. + + 2. Lines of Projection. Produced by fragments bounding or carried + forward from the bases of hills. + +§ 26. The fragments carried down by the torrents from the flanks of the +hill are of course deposited at the base of it. But they are deposited +in various ways, of which it is most difficult to analyze the laws; for +they are thrown down under the influence partly of flowing water, partly +of their own gravity, partly of projectile force caused by their fall +from the higher summits of the hill; while the débris itself, after it +has fallen, undergoes farther modification by surface streamlets. But in +a general way débris descending from the hill side, _a b_, Fig. 103, +will arrange itself in a form approximating to the concave line _d c_, +the larger masses remaining undisturbed at the bottom, while the smaller +are gradually carried farther and farther by surface streams. + +[Illustration: FIG. 103.] + + + 3. Lines of Escape. + + 3. Lines of Escape. Produced by the lateral dissemination of the + fragments. + +§ 27. But this form is much modified by the special direction of the +descending force as it escapes from confinement. For a stream coming +down a ravine is kept by the steep sides of its channel in concentrated +force: but it no sooner reaches the bottom, and escapes from its ravine, +than it spreads in all directions, or at least tries to choose a new +channel at every flood. Let _a b c_, Fig. 104, be three ridges of +mountain. The two torrents coming down the ravine between them meet, at +_d_ and _e_, with the heaps of ground formerly thrown down by their own +agency. These heaps being more or less in the form of cones, the torrent +has a tendency to divide upon their apex, like water poured on the top +of a sugar-loaf, and branch into the radiating channels _e x_, _e y_, +&c. The stronger it is, the more it is disposed to rush straightforward, +or with little curvature, as in the line _e x_, with the impetus it has +received in coming down the ravine; the weaker it is, the more readily +it will lean to one side or the other, and fall away in the lines of +escape, _e y_, or _e h_; but of course at times of highest flood it +fills all its possible channels, and invents a few new ones, of which +afterwards the straightest will be kept by the main stream, and the +lateral curves occupied by smaller branches; the whole system +corresponding precisely to the action of the ribs of the young leaf, as +shown in Plate +8+ of Vol. III., especially in Fig. 6,--the main +torrent, like the main rib, making the largest fortune, i. e. raising +the highest heap of gravel and dust. + +[Illustration: FIG. 104.] + +§ 28. It may easily be imagined that when the operation takes place on a +large scale, the mass of earth thus deposited in a gentle slope at the +mountain's foot becomes available for agricultural purposes, and that +then it is of the greatest importance to prevent the stream from +branching into various channels at its will, and pouring fresh sand over +the cultivated fields. Accordingly, at the mouth of every large ravine +in the Alps, where the peasants know how to live and how to work, the +stream is artificially embanked, and compelled as far as possible to +follow the central line down the cone. Hence, when the traveller passes +along any great valley,--as that of the Rhone or Arve,--into which +minor torrents are poured by lateral ravines, he will find himself every +now and then ascending a hill of moderate slope, at the _top_ of which +he will cross a torrent, or its bed, and descend by another gradual +slope to the usual level of the valley. In every such case, his road has +ascended a tongue of débris, and has crossed the embanked torrent +carried by force along its centre. + +Under such circumstances, the entire tongue or heap of land ceases of +course to increase, until the bed of the confined torrent is partially +choked by its perpetual deposit. Then in some day of violent rain the +waves burst their fetters, branch at their own will, cover the fields of +some unfortunate farmer with stones and slime, according to the +torrent's own idea of the new form which it has become time to give to +the great tongue of land, carry away the road and the bridge together, +and arrange everything to their own liking. But the road is again +painfully traced among the newly fallen débris; the embankment and +bridge again built for the stream, now satisfied with its outbreak; and +the tongue of land submitted to new processes of cultivation for a +certain series of years. When, however, the torrent is exceedingly +savage, and generally of a republican temper, the outbreaks are too +frequent and too violent to admit of any cultivation of the tongue of +land. A few straggling alder or thorn bushes, their roots buried in +shingle, and their lower branches fouled with slime, alone relieve with +ragged spots of green the broad waste of stones and dust. The utmost +that can be done is to keep the furious stream from choosing a new +channel in every one of its fits of passion, and remaining in it +afterwards, thus extending its devastation in entirely unforeseen +directions. The land which it has brought down must be left a perpetual +sacrifice to its rage; but in the moment of its lassitude it is brought +back to its central course, and compelled to forego for a few weeks or +months the luxury of deviation. + +§ 29. On the other hand, when, owing to the nature of the valley above, +the stream is gentle, and the sediment which it brings down small in +quantity, it may be retained for long years in its constant path, while +the sides of the bank of earth it has borne down are clothed with +pasture and forest, seen in the distance of the great valley as a +promontory of sweet verdure, along which the central stream passes with +an influence of blessing, submitting itself to the will of the +husbandman for irrigation, and of the mechanist for toil; now nourishing +the pasture, and now grinding the corn, of the land which it has first +formed, and now waters. + +§ 30. I have etched above, Plate +35+, a portion of the flank of the +valley of Chamouni, which presents nearly every class of line under +discussion, and will enable the reader to understand their relations at +once. It represents, as was before stated, the crests of the Montagnes +de la Côte and Taconay, shown from base to summit, with the Glacier des +Bossons and its moraine. The reference figure given at p. 212 will +enable the reader to distinguish its several orders of curves, as +follows: + +_h r_. Aqueous curves of fall, at the base of the Tapia; very + characteristic. Similar curves are seen in multitude on the two + crests beyond as _b c_, _c_ B. + +_d e_. First lines of projection. The débris falling from the glacier + and the heights above. + +_k_, _l_, _n_.Three lines of escape. A considerable torrent (one of whose + falls is the well-known Cascade des Pélerins[91]) descends from + behind the promontory _h_: its natural or proper course would be + to dash straight forward down the line _f g_, and part of it does + so; but erratic branches of it slide away round the promontory, + in the lines of escape, _k_, _l_, &c. Each row of trees marks, + therefore, an old torrent bed, for the torrent always throws + heaps of stones up along its banks, on which the pines, growing + higher than on the neighboring ground, indicate its course by + their supremacy. When the escaped stream is feeble, it steals + quietly away down the steepest part of the slope; that is to say, + close under the promontory, at _i_. If it is stronger, the + impetus from the hill above shoots it farther out, in the line + _k_; if stronger still, at _l_; in each case it curves gradually + round as it loses its onward force, and falls more and more + languidly to leeward, down the slope of the débris. + +_r s_. A line which, perhaps, would be more properly termed of + limitation than of escape, being that of the base or termination + of the heap of torrent débris, which in shape corresponds exactly + to the curved lip of a wave, after it has broken, as it slowly + stops upon a shallow shore. Within this line the ground is + entirely composed of heaps of stones, cemented by granite dust + and cushioned with moss, while outside of it, all is smooth + pasture. The pines enjoy the stony ground particularly, and hold + large meetings upon it, but the alders are shy of it; and, when + it has come to an end, form a triumphal procession all round its + edge, following the concave line. The correspondent curves above + are caused by similar lines in which the débris has formerly + stopped. + +[Illustration: 45. Débris Curvature.] + +§ 31. I found it a matter of the greatest difficulty to investigate the +picturesque characters of these lines of projection and escape, because, +as presented to the eye, they are always modified by perspective; and +it is almost a physical impossibility to get a true profile of any of +the slopes, they round and melt so constantly into one another. Many of +them, roughly measured, are nearly circular in tendency;[92] but I +believe they are all portions of infinite curves either modified by the +concealment or destruction of the lower lips of débris, or by their +junction with straight lines of slope above, throwing the longest limb +of the curve upwards. Fig. 1, in Plate +45+ opposite, is a simple but +complete example from Chamouni; the various overlapping and concave +lines at the bottom being the limits of the mass at various periods, +more or less broken afterwards by the peasants, either by removing +stones for building, or throwing them back at the edges here and there, +out of the way of the plough; but even with all these breaks, their +natural unity is so sweet and perfect, that, if the reader will turn the +plate upside down, he will see I have no difficulty (merely adding a +quill or two) in turning them into a bird's wing (Fig. 2), a little +ruffled indeed, but still graceful, and not of such a form as one would +have supposed likely to be designed and drawn, as indeed it was, by the +rage of a torrent. + +But we saw in Chap. VII. § 10 that this very rage was, in fact, a +beneficent power,--creative, not destructive; and as all its apparent +cruelty is overruled by the law of love, so all its apparent disorder is +overruled by the law of loveliness: the hand of God, leading the wrath +of the torrent to minister to the life of mankind, guides also its grim +surges by the laws of their delight; and bridles the bounding rocks, and +appeases the flying foam, till they lie down in the same lines that lead +forth the fibres of the down on a cygnet's breast. + +§ 32. The straight slopes with which these curves unite themselves +below, in Plate +33+ (_f g_ in reference figure), are those spoken of +in the outset as lines of rest. But I defer to the next chapter the +examination of these, which are a separate family of lines (not curves +at all), in order to reassemble the conclusions we have now obtained +respecting _curvature_ in mountains, and apply them to questions of art. + +And, first, it is of course not to be supposed that these symmetrical +laws are so manifest in their operation as to force themselves on the +observance of men in general. They are interrupted, necessarily, by +every fantastic accident in the original conformation of the hills, +which, according to the hardness of their rocks, more or less accept or +refuse the authority of general law. Still, the farther we extend our +observance of hills, the more we shall be struck by the continual +roundness and softness which it seems the object of nature to give to +every form; so that, when crags look sharp and distorted, it is not so +much that they are unrounded, as that the various curves are more subtly +accommodated to the angles, and that, instead of being worn into one +sweeping and smooth descent, like the surface of a knoll or down, the +rock is wrought into innumerable minor undulations, its own fine anatomy +showing through all. + +[Illustration: J. Ruskin. J. H. Le Keux. + 46. The Buttresses of an Alp.] + +§ 33. Perhaps the mountain which I have drawn on the opposite page +(Plate +46+[93]) is, in its original sternness of mass, and in the +complexity of lines into which it has been chiselled, as characteristic +an instance as could be given by way of general type. It is one of no +name or popular interest, but of singular importance in the geography of +Switzerland, being the angle buttress of the great northern chain of the +Alps (the chain of the Jungfrau and Gemmi), and forming the promontory +round which the Rhone turns to the north-west, at Martigny. It is +composed of an intensely hard gneiss (slaty crystalline), in which the +plates of mica are set for the most part against the angle, running +nearly north and south, as in Fig. 105, and giving the point, therefore, +the utmost possible strength, which, however, cannot prevent it from +being rent gradually by enormous curved fissures, and separated into +huge vertical flakes and chasms, just at the lower promontory, as seen +in Plate +46+, and (in plan) in Fig. 105. The whole of the upper +surface of the promontory is wrought by the old glaciers into furrows +and striæ more notable than any I ever saw in the Alps. + +§ 34. Now observe, we have here a piece of Nature's work which she has +assuredly been long in executing, and which is in peculiarly firm and +stable material. It is in her best rock (slaty crystalline), at a point +important for all her geographical purposes, and at the degree of +mountain elevation especially adapted to the observation of mankind. We +shall therefore probably ascertain as much of Nature's mind about these +things in this piece of work as she usually allows us to see all at +once. + +[Illustration: FIG. 105.] + +§ 35. If the reader will take a pencil, and, laying tracing paper over +the plate, follow a few of its lines, he will (unless before accustomed +to accurate mountain-drawing) be soon amazed by the complexity, +endlessness, and harmony of the curvatures. He will find that there is +not one line in all that rock which is not an infinite curve, and united +in some intricate way with others, and suggesting others unseen; and if +it were the reality, instead of my drawing, which he had to deal with, +he would find the infinity, in a little while, altogether overwhelm him. +But even in this imperfect sketch, as he traces the multitudinous +involution of flowing line, passing from swift to slight curvature, or +slight to swift, at every instant, he will, I think, find enough to +convince him of the truth of what has been advanced respecting the +natural appointment of curvature as the first element of all loveliness +in form. + +§ 36. "Nay, but there are hard and straight lines mingled with those +curves continually." True, as we have said so often, just as shade is +mixed with light. Angles and undulations may rise and flow continually, +one through or over the other; but the opposition is in quantity nearly +always the same, if the mass is to be pleasant to the eye. In the +example previously given (Plate +40+), the limestone bank above +Villeneuve, it is managed in a different way, but is equal in degree; +the lower portion of the hill is of soft rock in thin laminæ; the upper +mass is a solid and firm bed, yet not so hard as to stand all weathers. +The lower portion, therefore, is rounded into almost unbroken softness +of bank; the upper surmounts it as a rugged wall, and the opposition of +the curve and angle is just as complete as in the first example, in +which one was continually mingled with the other. + +§ 37. Next, note the _quantity_ in these hills. It is an element on +which I shall have to insist more in speaking of vegetation; but I must +not pass it by, here, since, in fact, it constitutes one of the +essential differences between hills of first-rate magnificence, and +inferior ones. Not that there is want of quantity even in the lower +ranges, but it is a quantity of inferior things, and therefore more +easily represented or suggested. On a Highland hill side 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 _quantity_ 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. + +§ 38. This is no poetical exaggeration. Look close into that plate +(+46+). Every little circular stroke in it among the rocks means, not a +clump of copse nor wreath of fern, but a walnut tree, or a Spanish +chestnut, fifty or sixty feet high. Nor are the little curves, thus +significative of trees, laid on at random. They are not indeed counted, +tree by tree, but they are most carefully distributed in the true +proportion and quantity; or if I have erred at all, it was, from mere +fatigue, on the side of sparingness. 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 _parks_ 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, unseen in the drawing, nestle +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. + +§ 39. And it is this very richness of incident and detail which renders +Switzerland so little attractive in its subjects to the ordinary artist. +Observe, this study of mine in Plate +46+ does not profess to be a +_picture_ at all. It is a mere sketch or catalogue of all that there is +on the mountain side, faithfully written out, but no more than should be +put down by any conscientious painter for mere guidance, before he +begins his work, properly so called; and in finishing such a subject no +trickery nor shorthand is of any avail whatsoever; there are a certain +number of trees to be drawn; and drawn they must be, or the place will +not bear its proper character. They are not misty wreaths of soft wood +suggestible by a sweep or two of the brush; but arranged and lovely +clusters of trees, clear in the mountain sunlight, each specially +grouped and as little admitting any carelessness of treatment, though +five miles distant, as if they were within a few yards of us; the whole +meaning and power of the scene being involved in that one fact of +quantity. It is not large merely by multitudes of tons of rock,--the +number of tons is not measurable; it is not large by elevation of angle +on the horizon,--a house-roof near us rises higher; it is not large by +faintness of aerial perspective,--in a clear day it often looks as if we +could touch the summit with the hand. But it is large by this one +unescapable fact that, from the summit to the base of it, there are of +timber trees so many countable thousands. The scene differs from +subjects not Swiss by including hundreds of other scenes within itself, +and is mighty, not by scale, but by aggregation. + +§ 40. And this is more especially and humiliatingly true of pine forest. +Nearly all other kinds of wood may be reduced, over large spaces, to +undetailed masses; but there is nothing but patience for pines; and this +has been one of the principal reasons why artists call Switzerland +"unpicturesque." There may perhaps be, in the space of a Swiss valley +which comes into a picture, from five to ten millions of well grown +pines.[94] Every one of these pines must be drawn before the scene can +be. And a pine cannot be represented by a round stroke, nor by an +upright one, nor even by an angular one; no conventionalism will express +a pine; it must be legitimately drawn, with a light side and a dark +side, and a soft gradation from the top downwards, or it does not look +like a pine at all. Most artists think it not desirable to choose a +subject which involves the drawing of ten millions of trees; because, +supposing they could even do four or five in a minute, and worked for +ten hours a day, their picture would still take them ten years before +they had finished its pine forests. For this, and other similar reasons, +it is declared usually that Switzerland is ugly and unpicturesque; but +that is not so; it is only that _we_ cannot paint it. If we could, it +would be as interesting on the canvas as it is in reality; and a painter +of fruit and flowers might just as well call a human figure +unpicturesque, because it was to him unmanageable, as the ordinary +landscape-effect painter speak in depreciation of the Alps. + +§ 41. It is not probable that any subjects such as we have just been +describing, involving a necessity of ten years' labor, will be executed +by the modern landscape school,--at least, until its Pre-Raphaelitic +tendencies become much more developed than they are yet; nor was it +desirable that they should have been by Turner, whose fruitful invention +would have been unwisely arrested for a length of time on any single +subject, however beautiful. But with his usual certainty of perception, +he fastened at once on this character of "quantity," as the thing to be +expressed, in one way or another, in all grand mountain-drawing; and the +subjects of his on which I have chiefly dwelt in the First Volume +(chapter on the Inferior Mountains, § 16, &c.) are distinguished from +the work of other painters in nothing so much as in this redundance. +Beautiful as they are in color, graceful in fancy, powerful in +execution,--in none of these things do they stand so much alone as in +plain, calculable quantity; he having always on the average twenty trees +or rocks where other people have only one, and winning his victories not +more by skill of generalship than by overwhelming numerical superiority. + +§ 42. I say his works are distinguished in this more than in anything +else, not because this is their highest quality, but because it is +peculiar to them. Invention, color, grace of arrangement, we may find in +Tintoret and Veronese in various manifestation; but the expression of +the infinite redundance of natural landscape had never been attempted +until Turner's time; and the treatment of the masses of mountain in the +Daphne and Leucippus, Golden Bough, and Modern Italy, is wholly without +precursorship in art. + +Nor, observe, do I insist upon this quantity _merely_ as arithmetical, +or as if it were producible by repetition of similar things. It would be +easy to be redundant, if multiplication of the same idea constituted +fulness; and since Turner first introduced these types of landscape, +myriads of vulgar imitations of them have been produced, whose +perpetrators have supposed themselves disciples or rivals of Turner, in +covering their hills with white dots for forest, and their foregrounds +with yellow sparklings for herbage. But the Turnerian redundance is +never monotonous. Of the thousands of groups of touches which, with him, +are necessary to constitute a single bank of hill, not one but has some +special character, and is as much a separate invention as the whole plan +of the picture. Perhaps this may be sufficiently understood by an +attentive examination of the detail introduced by him in his St. Gothard +subject, as shown in Plate +37+. + +§ 43. I do not, indeed, know if the examples I have given from natural +scenes, though they are as characteristic as I could well choose, are +enough to accustom the reader to the character of true mountain lines, +and to enable him to recognize such lines in other instances; but if +not, at all events they may serve to elucidate the main points, and +guide to more complete examination of the subject, if it interests him, +among the hills themselves. And if, after he has pursued the inquiry +long enough to feel the certitude of the laws which I have been +endeavoring to illustrate, he turns back again to art, I am well assured +it will be with a strange recognition of unconceived excellence, and a +newly quickened pleasure in the unforeseen fidelity, that he will trace +the pencilling of Turner upon his hill drawings. I do not choose to +spend, in this work, the labor and time which would be necessary to +analyze, as I have done the drawing of the St. Gothard, any other of +Turner's important mountain designs; for the reader must feel the +disadvantage they are under in being either reduced in scale, or divided +into fragments: and therefore these chapters are always to be considered +merely as memoranda for reference before the pictures which the reader +may have it in his power to examine. But this one drawing of the St. +Gothard, as it has already elucidated for us Turner's knowledge of crest +structure, will be found no less wonderful in the fulness with which it +illustrates his perception of the lower aqueous and other curvatures. If +the reader will look back to the etching of the entire subject, Plate ++21+, he will now discern, I believe, without the necessity of my +lettering them for him, the lines of fall, rounded down from the crests +until they plunge into the overhanging precipices; the lines of +projection, where the fallen stones extend the long concave sweep from +the couloir, pushing the torrent against the bank on the other side; in +the opening of the ravine he will perceive the oblique and parallel +inclination of its sides, following the cleavage of the beds in the +diagonal line A B of the reference figure; and, finally, in the great +slope and precipice on the right of it, he will recognize one of the +grandest types of the peculiar mountain mass which Turner always chose +by preference to illustrate, the "slope above wall" of _d_ in Fig. 13, +p. 148; compare also the last chapter, §§ 26, 27. It will be seen, by +reference to my sketch of the spot, Plate +20+, that this conformation +does actually exist there with great definiteness: Turner has only +enlarged and thrown it into more numerous alternations of light and +shade. As these could not be shown in the etching, I have given, in the +frontispiece, this passage nearly of its real size: the exquisite greys +and blues by which Turner has rounded and thrown it back are necessarily +lost in the plate; but the grandeur of his simple cliff and soft curves +of sloping bank above is in some degree rendered. + +We must yet dwell for a moment on the detail of the rocks on the left in +Plate +37+, as they approach nearer the eye, turning at the same time +from the light. It cost me trouble to etch this passage, and yet half +its refinements are still missed; for Turner has put his whole strength +into it, and wrought out the curving of the gneiss beds with a subtlety +which could not be at all approached in the time I had to spare for this +plate. Enough, however, is expressed to illustrate the points in +question. + +§ 44. We have first, observe, a rounded bank, broken, at its edges, into +cleavages by inclined beds. I thought it would be well, lest the reader +should think I dwelt too much on this particular scene, to give an +instance of similar structure from another spot; and therefore I +daguerreotyped the cleavages of a slope of gneiss just above the Cascade +des Pélerins, Chamouni, corresponding in position to this bank of +Turner's. Plate +48+ (facing p. 303), copied by Mr. Armytage from the +daguerreotype, represents, necessarily in a quite unprejudiced and +impartial way, the structure at present in question; and the reader may +form a sufficient idea, from this plate, of the complexity of descending +curve and foliated rent, in even a small piece of mountain +foreground,[95] where the gneiss beds are tolerably continuous. But +Turner had to add to such general complexity the expression of a more +than ordinary undulation in the beds of the St. Gothard gneiss. + +§ 45. If the reader will look back to Chapter II. § 13, he will find it +stated that this scene is approached out of the defile of Dazio Grande, +of which the impression was still strong on Turner's mind, and where +only he could see, close at hand, the nature of the rocks in a good +section. It most luckily happens that De Saussure was interested by the +rocks at the same spot, and has given the following account of them, +Voyages, §§ 1801, 1802:-- + +"À une lieue de Faïdo, l'on passe le Tésin pour le repasser bientôt +après [see the old bridge in Turner's view, carried away in mine], et +l'on trouve sur sa rive droite des couches d'une roche feuilletée, qui +montent du Côté du Nord. + +"On voit clairement que depuis que les granits veinés ont été remplacés +par des pierres moins solides, tantôt les rochers se sont éboulés et ont +été recouverts par la terre végétale, tantôt leur situation primitive a +subi des changements irréguliers. + +"§ 1802. Mais bientôt après, _on monte par un chemin en corniche au +dessus du Tésin, qui se précipite entre des rochers avec la plus grande +violence_. Ces rochers sont là si serrés, qu'il n'y a de place que pour +la rivière et pour le chemin, et même en quelques endroits, celui-ci est +entièrement pris sur le roc. Je fis à pied cette montée, pour examiner +avec soin ces beaux rochers, _dignes de toute l'attention d'un amateur_. + +"Les veinés de ce granit forment en plusieurs endroits des _zigzags +redoublés_, précisément comme ces anciennes tapisseries, connues sous le +nom de points d'Hongrie; et là, on ne peut pas prononcer, si les veinés +de la pierre, sont ou ne sont pas parallèles à ses couches. Cependant +ces veinés reprennent aussi dans quelques places, une direction +constante, et cette direction est bien la même que celle des couches. Il +paroît même qu'en divers endroits, où ces veinés ont la forme d'un +_sigma_ ou d'une M couchée M, ce sont les grandes jambes du _sigma_, qui +ont la direction des couches. Enfin, j'observai plusieurs couches, qui +dans le milieu de leur épaisseur paroissoient remplies de ces veinés en +zigzag, tandis qu'auprès de leurs bords, on les voyoit toutes en lignes +droites." + +§ 46. If the reader will now examine Turner's work at the point _x_ in +the reference figure, and again on the stones in the foreground, +comparing it finally with the fragment of the rocks which happened +fortunately to come into my foreground in Plate +20+, rising towards the +left, and of which I have etched the structure with some care, though at +the time I had quite forgotten Saussure's notice of the peculiar +M-shaped zigzags of the gneiss at the spot, I believe he will have +enough evidence before him, taken all in all, to convince him of +Turner's inevitable perception, and of the entire supremacy of his +mountain drawing over all that had previously existed. And if he is able +to refer, even to the engravings (though I desire always that what I +state should be _tested_ by the drawings only) of any others of his +elaborate hill-subjects, and will examine their details with careful +reference to the laws explained in this chapter, he will find that the +Turnerian promontories and banks are always simply _right_, and that in +all respects; that their gradated curvatures, and nodding cliffs, and +redundant sequence of folded glen and feathery glade, are, in all their +seemingly fanciful beauty, literally the most downright plain speaking +that has as yet been uttered about hills; and differ from all antecedent +work, not in being ideal, but in being, so to speak, pictorial _casts_ +of the ground. Such a drawing as that of the Yorkshire Richmond, looking +down the river, in the England Series, is even better than a model of +the ground, because it gives the aerial perspective, and is better than +a photograph of the ground, because it exaggerates no shadows, while it +unites the veracities both of model and photograph. + +§ 47. Nor let it be thought that it was an easy or creditable thing to +treat mountain ground with this faithfulness in the days when Turner +executed those drawings. In the Encyclopædia Britannica (Edinburgh, +1797), under article "Drawing," the following are the directions given +for the production of a landscape:-- + +"If he is to draw a landscape from nature, let him take his station on a +rising ground, where he will have a large horizon, and mark his tablet +into three divisions, downwards from top to the bottom; and divide in +his own mind the landscape he is to take into three divisions also. Then +let him turn his face directly opposite to the midst of the horizon, +keeping his body fixed, and draw what is directly before his eyes upon +the middle division of the tablet: then _turn his head, but not his +body_,[96] to the left hand and delineate what he views there, joining +it properly to what he had done before; and, lastly, do the same by +what is to be seen upon his right hand, laying down everything exactly, +both with respect to distance and proportion. One example is given in +plate clxviii. + +"The best artists of late, in drawing their landscapes, make them shoot +away, one part lower than another. Those who make their landscapes mount +up higher and higher, as if they stood at the bottom of a hill to take +the prospect, commit a great error; the best way is to get upon a rising +ground, make the nearest objects in the piece the highest, and those +that are farther off to shoot away lower and lower till they come almost +level with the line of the horizon, lessening everything proportionably +to its distance, and observing also to make the objects fainter and less +distinct the farther they are removed from the eye. He must make all his +lights and shades fall one way, and let every thing have its proper +motion: as trees shaken by the wind, the small boughs bending more and +the large ones less; water agitated by the wind, and dashing against +ships or boats, or falling from a precipice upon rocks and stones, and +spirting up again into the air, and sprinkling all about; clouds also in +the air now gathered with the winds; now violently condensed into hail, +rain, and the like,--always remembering, that whatever motions are +caused by the wind must be made all to move the same way, because the +wind can blow but one way at once." + +Such was the state of the public mind, and of public instruction, at the +time when Claude, Poussin, and Salvator were in the zenith of their +reputation; such were the precepts which, even to the close of the +century, it was necessary for a young painter to comply with during the +best part of the years he gave to study. Take up one of Turner's views +of our Yorkshire dells, seen from about a hawk's height of pause above +the sweep of its river, and with it in your hand, side by side with the +old Encyclopædia paragraph, consider what must have been the man's +strength, who, on a sudden, passed from such precept to such practice. + +§ 48. On a sudden it was; for, even yet a youth, and retaining profound +respect for all older artist's ways of _work_, he followed his own will +fearlessly in choice of _scene_; and already in the earliest of his +coast drawings there are as daring and strange decisions touching the +site of the spectator as in his latest works; lookings down and up into +coves and clouds, as defiant of all former theories touching possible +perspective, or graceful componence of subject, as, a few years later, +his system of color was of the theory of the brown tree. Nor was the +step remarkable merely for its magnitude,--for the amount of progress +made in a few years. It was much more notable by its direction. The +discovery of the true structure of hill banks had to be made by Turner, +not merely in _advance_ of the men of his day, but in _contradiction_ to +them. Examine the works of contemporary and preceding landscapists, and +it will be found that the universal practice is to make the tops of all +cliffs broken and rugged, their bases smooth and soft, or concealed with +wood. No one had ever observed the contrary structure, the bank rounded +at the top, and broken on the flank. And yet all the hills of any +importance which are met with throughout Lowland Europe are, properly +speaking, high banks, for the most part following the courses of rivers, +and forming a step from the high ground, of which the country generally +consists, to the river level. Thus almost the whole of France, though, +on the face of it, flat, is raised from 300 to 500 feet above the level +of the sea, and is traversed by valleys either formed by, or directing, +the course of its great rivers. In these valleys lie all its principal +towns, surrounded, almost without exception, by ranges of hills covered +with wood or vineyard. Ascending these hills, we find ourselves at once +in an elevated plain, covered with corn and lines of apple trees, +extending to the next river side, where we come to the brow of another +hill, and descend to the city and valley beneath it. Our own valleys in +Northumberland, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Devonshire, are cut in the +same manner through vast extents of elevated land; the scenery which +interests the traveller chiefly, as he passes through even the most +broken parts of those counties, being simply that of the high _banks_ +which rise from the shores of the Dart or the Derwent, the Wharfe or the +Tees. In all cases, when these banks are surmounted, the sensation is +one of disappointment, as the adventurer finds himself, the moment he +has left the edge of the ravine, in a waste of softly undulating moor or +arable land, hardly deserving the title of hill country. As we advance +into the upper districts the fact remains still the same, although the +banks to be climbed are higher, the ravines grander, and the +intermediate land more broken. The majesty of an isolated peak is still +comparatively rare, and nearly all the most interesting pieces of +scenery are glens or passes, which, if seen from a height great enough +to command them in all their relations, would be found in reality little +more than trenches excavated through broad masses of elevated land, and +expanding at intervals into the wide basins which are occupied by the +glittering lake or smiling plain. + +[Illustration: FIG. 106.] + +[Illustration: J. Ruskin. J. H. Le Keux. + 47. The Quarries of Carrara.] + +§ 49. All these facts had been entirely ignored by artists; nay, almost +by geologists, before Turner's time. He saw them at once; fathomed them +to the uttermost, and, partly owing to early association, partly, +perhaps, to the natural pleasure of working a new mine discovered by +himself, devoted his best powers to their illustration, passing by with +somewhat less attention the conditions of broken-summited rock, which +had previously been the only ones known. And if we now look back to his +treatment of the crest of Mont Pilate, in the figure given at the close +of the last chapter, we shall understand better the nature and strength +of the instinct which compelled him to sacrifice the peaked summit, and +to bring the whole mountain within a lower enclosing line. In that +figure, however, the dotted peak interferes with the perception of the +form finally determined upon, which therefore I repeat here (Fig. 106), +as Turner gave it in color. The eye may not at first detect the law of +ascent in the peaks, but if the height of any one of them were altered, +the general form would instantly be perceived to be less agreeable. Fig. +107 shows that they are disposed within an infinite curve, A _c_, from +which the last crag falls a little to conceal the law, while the +terminal line at the other extremity, A _b_, is a minor echo of the +whole contour. + +[Illustration: FIG. 107.] + +§ 50. I must pause to make one exception to my general statement that +this structure had been entirely ignored. The reader was, perhaps, +surprised by the importance I attached to the fragment of mountain +background by Masaccio, given in Plate +13+ of the third volume. If he +looks back to it now, his surprise will be less. It was a complete +recognition of the laws of the lines of aqueous sculpture, asserted as +Turner's was, in the boldest opposition to the principles of rock +drawing of the time. It presents even smoother and broader masses than +any which I have shown as types of hill form; but it must be remembered +that Masaccio had seen only the softer contours of the Apennine +limestone. I have no memorandum by me of the hill lines near Florence; +but Plate +47+ shows the development of limestone structure, at a spot +which has, I think, the best right to be given as an example of the +Italian hills, the head of the valley of Carrara. The white scar on the +hill side is the principal quarry; and the peaks above deserve +observation, not so much for anything in their forms, as for the +singular barrenness which was noted in the fifteenth chapter of the last +volume (§ 8) as too often occurring in the Apennines. Compare this plate +with the previous one. The peak drawn in Plate +46+ rises at least 7500 +feet above the sea,--yet is wooded to its top; this Carrara crag not +above 5000,[97]--yet it is wholly barren. + +§ 51. Masaccio, however, as we saw, was taken away by death before he +could give any one of his thoughts complete expression. Turner was +spared to do _his_ work, in this respect at least, completely. It might +be thought that, having had such adverse influence to struggle with, he +would prevail against it but in part; and, though showing the way to +much that was new, retain of necessity some old prejudices, and leave +his successors to pursue in purer liberty, and with happier power, the +path he had pointed out. But it was not so: he did the work so +completely on the ground which he chose to illustrate, that nothing is +left for future artists to accomplish in that kind. Some classes of +scenery, as often pointed out in the preceding pages, he was unfamiliar +with, or held in little affection, and out of that scenery, untouched by +him, new motives may be obtained; but of such landscape as his favorite +Yorkshire Wolds, and banks of Rhenish and French hill, and rocky +mountains of Switzerland, like the St. Gothard, already so long dwelt +upon, he has expressed the power in what I believe to be for ever a +central and unmatchable way. I do not say this with positiveness, +because it is not demonstrable. Turner may be beaten on his own +ground--so may Tintoret, so may Shakespeare, Dante, or Homer: but my +_belief_ is that all these first-rate men are lonely men; that the +particular work they did was by them done for ever in the best way; and +that this work done by Turner among the hills, joining the most intense +appreciation of all tenderness with delight in all magnitude, and memory +for all detail, is never to be rivalled, or looked upon in similitude +again. + + +FOOTNOTES + + [88] _Quantity_ of curvature is as measurable as quantity of + anything else; only observe that it depends on the nature of the + line, not on its magnitude; thus, in simple circular curvature, _a + b_, Fig. 96, being the fourth of a large circle, and _b c_ the half + of a smaller one, the quantity of the element of circular curvature + in the entire line _a c_ is three fourths of that in _any_ + circle,--the the same as the quantity in the line _e f_. + + [Illustration: FIG 96.] + + [89] The catenary is not properly a curve capable of infinity, if + its direction does not alter with its length; but it is capable of + infinity, implying such alteration by the infinite removal of the + points of suspension. It entirely corresponds in its effect on the + eye and mind to the infinite curves. I do not know the exact nature + of the apparent curves of suspension formed by a high and weighty + waterfall; they are dependent on the gain in rapidity of descent by + the central current, where its greater body is less arrested by the + air; and I apprehend, are catenary in character, though not in + cause. + + [90] I am afraid of becoming tiresome by going too far into the + intricacies of this most difficult subject; but I say "_towards_ the + bottom of the hill," because, when a certain degree of verticality + is reached, a counter protective influence begins to establish + itself, the stones and waterfalls bounding away from the brow of the + precipice into the air, and wearing it at the top only. Also it is + evident that when the curvature falls into a vertical cliff, as + often happens, the maximum of curvature must be somewhere _above_ + the brow of the cliff, as in the cliff itself it has again died into + a straight line. + + [91] The following extract from my private diary, giving an account + of the destruction of the beauty of this waterfall in the year 1849, + which I happened to witness, may be interesting to those travellers + who remember it before that period. The house spoken of as + "Joseph's," is that of the guide Joseph Coutet, in a village about a + mile below the cascade, between it and the Arve: that noticed as of + the "old avalanche" is a hollow in the forest, cleft by a great + avalanche which fell from the Aiguille du Midi in the spring of + 1844. It struck down about a thousand full-grown pines, and left an + open track in the midst of the wood, from the cascade nearly down to + the village. + + "Evening, Thursday, June 28th. I set out for the Cascade des + Pélerins as usual; when we reached Joseph's house, we heard a sound + from the torrent like low thunder, or like that of a more distant + and heavier fall. A peasant said something to Joseph, who stopped to + listen, then nodded, and said to me, 'La cascade vient de se + déborder.' Thinking there would be time enough afterwards to ask for + explanations, I pushed up the hill almost without asking a question. + When we reached the place of the old avalanche, Joseph called to me + to stop and see the torrent increase. There was at this time a dark + cloud on the Aiguille du Midi, down to its base; the upper part of + the torrent was brown, the lower white, not larger than usual. The + brown part came down, I thought, with exceeding slowness, reaching + the cascade gradually; as it did so, the fall rose to about once and + a half its usual height, and in the five minutes' time that I paused + (it could not be more) turned to the color of slate. I then pushed + on as hard as I could. When I reached the last ascent I was obliged + to stop for breath, but got up before the fall could sensibly have + diminished in body of water. It was then nearly twice as far cast + out from the rock as last night, and the water nearly black in + color; and it had the appearance, as it broke and separated at the + outer part of the fall, of a shower of fragments of flat slate. The + reason of this appearance I could not comprehend, unless the water + was so mixed with mud that it drew out flat and unctuously when it + broke; but so it was: instead of spray it looked like a shower of + dirty flat bits of slate--only with a lustre, as if they had been + wet first. This, however, was the least of it, for the torrent + carried with it nearly as much weight of stone as water; the stones + varying in size, the average being, I suppose, about that of a hen's + egg; but I do not suppose that at any instant the arch of water was + without four or five as large as a man's fist, and often came larger + ones,--all vomited forth with the explosive power of a small + volcano, and falling in a continual shower as thick, constant, and, + had it not been mixed with the crash of the fall, as loud as a heavy + fire of infantry; they bounded and leaped in the basin of the fall + like hailstones in a thunder-shower. As we watched the fall it + seemed convulsively to diminish, and suddenly showed, as it + shortened, the rock underneath it, which I could hardly see + yesterday: as I cried out to Joseph it rose again, higher than ever, + and continued to rise, till it all but reached the snow on the rock + opposite. It then became very fantastic and variable, increasing and + diminishing in the space of two or three seconds, and partially + changing its direction. After watching it for half an hour or so, I + determined to try and make some memoranda. Coutet brought me up a + jug of water: I stooped to dip my brush, when Coutet caught my arm, + saying, 'Tenez;' at the same instant I heard a blow, like the going + off of a heavy gun, two or three miles away; I looked up, and as I + did, the cascade sank before my eyes, and fell back to the rock. + Neither of us spoke for an instant or two; then Coutet said, 'C'est + une pierre, qui est logée dans le creux,' or words to that effect: + in fact, he had seen the stone come down as he called to me. I + thought also that nothing more had happened, and watched the + destroyed fall only with interest, until, as suddenly as it had + fallen, it rose again, though not to its former height; and Coutet, + stooping down, exclaimed, 'Ce n'est pas ça, le roc est percé;' in + effect, a hole was now distinctly visible in the cup which turned + the stream, through which the water whizzed as from a burst pipe. + The cascade, however, continued to increase, until this new channel + was concealed, and I was maintaining to Coutet that he must have + been mistaken (and that the water only _struck_ on the outer rock, + having changed its mode of fall above), when again it fell; and the + two girls, who had come up from the châlet, expressed their opinion + at once, that the 'cascade est finie.' This time all was plain; the + water gushed in a violent jet d'eau through the new aperture, hardly + any of it escaping above. It rose again gradually, as the hole was + choked with stones, and again fell; but presently sprang out almost + to its first elevation (the water being by this time in much less + body), and retained very nearly the form it had yesterday, until I + got tired of looking at it, and went down to the little châlet, and + sat down before its door. I had not been there five minutes before + the cascade fell, and rose no more." + + [92] It might be thought at first that the line to which such curves + would approximate would be the cycloid, as the line of quickest + descent. But in reality the contour is modified by perpetual sliding + of the débris under the influence of rain; and by the bounding of + detached fragments with continually increased momentum. I was quite + unable to get at anything like the expression of a constant law + among the examples I studied in the Alps, except only the great laws + of delicacy and changefulness in all curves whatsoever. + + [93] I owe Mr. Le Keux sincere thanks, and not a little admiration, + for the care and skill with which he has followed, on a much reduced + scale, the detail of this drawing. + + [94] Allow ten feet square for average space to each pine; suppose + the valley seen only for five miles of its length, and the pine + district two miles broad on each side--a low estimate of breadth + also: this would give five millions. + + [95] The white spots on the brow of the little cliff are lichens, + only four or five inches broad. + + [96] What a _comfortable_, as well as intelligent, operation, + sketching from nature must have been in those days! + + [97] It is not one of the highest points of the Carrara chain. The + chief summits are much more jagged, and very noble. See Chap. XX. § + 20. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +RESULTING FORMS:--FIFTHLY, STONES. + + +§ 1. It is somewhat singular that the indistinctness of treatment which +has been so often noticed as characteristic of our present art shows +itself always most when there is least apparent reason for it. Modern +artists, having some true sympathy with what is vague in nature, draw +all that is uncertain and evasive without evasion, and render faithfully +whatever can be discerned in faithless mist or mocking vapors; but +having no sympathy with what is solid and serene, they seem to become +uncertain themselves in proportion to the certainty of what they see; +and while they render flakes of far-away cloud, or fringes of +inextricable forest, with something like patience and fidelity, give +nothing but the hastiest indication of the ground they can tread upon or +touch. It is only in modern art that we find any complete representation +of clouds, and only in ancient art that, generally speaking, we find any +careful realization of Stones. + +§ 2. This is all the more strange, because, as we saw some time back, +the _ruggedness_ of the stone is more pleasing to the modern than the +mediæval, and he rarely completes any picture satisfactorily to himself +unless large spaces of it are filled with irregular masonry, rocky +banks, or shingly shores: whereas the mediæval could conceive no +desirableness in the loose and unhewn masses; associated them generally +in his mind with wicked men, and the Martyrdom of St. Stephen; and +always threw them out of his road, or garden, to the best of his power. + +Yet with all this difference in predilection, such was the honesty of +the mediæval, and so firm his acknowledgment of the necessity to paint +completely whatever was to be painted at all, that there is hardly a +strip of earth under the feet of a saint, in any finished work of the +early painters, but more, and better painted, stones are to be found +upon it than in an entire exhibition full of modern mountain scenery. + +§ 3. Not better painted in every respect. In those interesting and +popular treatises on the art of drawing, which tell the public that +their colors should neither be too warm nor too cold, and that their +touches should always be characteristic of the object they are intended +to represent, the directions given for the manufacture of stones usually +enforce "crispness of outline" and "roughness of texture." And, +accordingly, in certain expressions of frangibility, irregular +accumulation, and easy resting of one block upon another, together with +some conditions of lichenous or mossy texture, modern stone-painting is +far beyond the ancient; for these are just the characters which first +strike the eye, and enable the foreground to maintain its picturesque +influence, without inviting careful examination. The mediæval painter, +on the other hand, not caring for this picturesque general effect, nor +being in anywise familiar with mountain scenery, perceived in stones, +when he was forced to paint them, eminently the characters which they +had in common with figures; that is to say, their curved outlines, +rounded surfaces, and varieties of delicate color, and, accordingly, was +somewhat too apt to lose their angular and fragmentary character in a +series of muscular lines resembling those of an anatomical preparation; +for, although in large rocks the cleavable or frangible nature was the +thing that necessarily struck him most, the pebbles under his feet were +apt to be oval or rounded in the localities of almost all the important +schools of Italy. In Lombardy, the mass of the ground is composed of +nothing but Alpine gravel, consisting of rolled oval pebbles, on the +average about six inches long by four wide--awkward building materials, +yet used in ingenious alternation with the bricks in all the lowland +Italian fortresses. Besides this universal rotundity, the qualities of +stones which rendered them valuable to the lapidary were forced on the +painter's attention by the familiar arts of inlaying and mosaic. Hence, +in looking at a pebble, his mind was divided between its roundness and +its veins; and Leonardo covers the shelves of rock under the feet of St. +Anne with variegated agates; while Mantegna often strews the small +stones about his mountain caves in a polished profusion, as if some +repentant martyr princess had been just scattering her caskets of +pearls into the dust. + +§ 4. Some years ago, as I was talking of the curvilinear forms in a +piece of rock to one of our academicians, he said to me, in a somewhat +despondent accent, "If you look for curves, you will see curves; if you +look for angles, you will see angles." + +The saying appeared to me an infinitely sad one. It was the utterance of +an experienced man; and in many ways true, for one of the most singular +gifts, or, if abused, most singular weaknesses, of the human mind is its +power of persuading itself to see whatever it chooses;--a great gift, if +directed to the discernment of the things needful and pertinent to its +own work and being; a great weakness, if directed to the discovery of +things profitless or discouraging. In all things throughout the world, +the men who look for the crooked will see the crooked, and the men who +look for the straight will see the straight. But yet the saying was a +notably sad one; for it came of the conviction in the speaker's mind +that there was in reality _no_ crooked and _no_ straight; that all so +called discernment was fancy, and that men might, with equal rectitude +of judgment, and good-deserving of their fellow-men, perceive and paint +whatever was convenient to them. + +§ 5. Whereas things may always be seen truly by candid people, though +never _completely_. 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. + +§ 6. There are no natural objects out of which more can be thus 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. + +§ 7. 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 color,--the last +quality being, in fact, so noble in most stones of good birth (that is +to say, fallen from the crystalline mountain-ranges), that I shall be +less able to illustrate this part of my subject satisfactorily by means +of engraving than perhaps any other, except the color of skies. I say, +_shall_ be less able, because the beauty of stone surface is in so great +a degree dependent on the mosses and lichens which root themselves upon +it, that I must place my richest examples in the section on vegetation. +For instance, in the plate opposite, though the mass of rock is large +and somewhat distant, the effect of it is as much owing to the white +spots of silvery lichen in the centre and left, and to the flowing lines +in which the darker mosses, growing in the cranny, have arranged +themselves beyond, as to the character of the rock itself; nor could the +beauty of the whole mass be explained, if we were to approach the least +nearer, without more detailed drawing of this vegetation. For the +present I shall only give a few examples of the drawing of stones +roughly broken, or worn so as not to be materially affected by +vegetation. + +[Illustration: 48. Bank of Slaty Crystallines.] + +§ 8. We have already seen an example of Titian's treatment of mountain +crests as compared with Turner's; here is a parallel instance, from +Titian, of stones in the bed of a torrent (Fig. 108), in many ways good +and right, and expressing in its writhed and variously broken lines far +more of real stone structure than the common water-color dash of the +moderns. Observe, especially, how Titian has understood that the +fracture of the stone more or less depends on the undulating grain of +its crystalline structure, following the cavity of the largest stone in +the middle of the figure, with concentric lines; and compare in Plate ++21+ the top of Turner's largest stones on the left. + +[Illustration: FIG. 108.] + +§ 9. If the reader sees nothing in this drawing (Fig. 108) that he can +like,--although, indeed, I would have him prefer the work of +Turner,--let him be assured that he does not yet understand on what +Titian's reputation is founded. No painter's name is oftener in the +mouth of the ordinary connoisseur, and no painter was ever less +understood. His power of color is indeed perfect, but so is +Bonifazio's. Titian's _supremacy_ above all the other Venetians, except +Tintoret and Veronese, consists in the firm truth of his portraiture, +and more or less masterly understanding of the nature of stones, trees, +men, or whatever else he took in hand to paint; so that, without some +correlative understanding in the spectator, Titian's work, in its +highest qualities, must be utterly dead and unappealing to him. + +[Illustration: FIG. 109.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 110.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 111.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 112.] + +§ 10. I give one more example from the lower part of the same print +(Fig. 109), in which a stone, with an eddy round it, is nearly as well +drawn as it can be in the simple method of the early wood-engraving. +Perhaps the reader will feel its truth better by contrast with a +fragment or two of modern Idealism. Here, for instance (Fig. 110), is a +group of stones, highly entertaining in their variety of form, out of +the subject of "Christian vanquishing Apollyon," in the outlines to the +Pilgrim's Progress, published by the Art-Union, the idealism being here +wrought to a pitch of extraordinary brilliancy by the exciting nature +of the subject. Next (Fig. 111) is another poetical conception, one of +Flaxman's, representing the eddies and stones of the Pool of Envy +(Flaxman's Dante), which may be conveniently compared with the +Titianesque stones and streams. And, finally, Fig. 112 represents, also +on Flaxman's authority, those stones of an "Alpine" character, of which +Dante says that he + + "Climbed with heart of proof the adverse steep." + +It seems at first curious that every one of the forms that Flaxman has +chanced upon should be an impossible one--a form which a stone never +could assume: but this is the Nemesis of false idealism, and the +inevitable one. + +§ 11. The chief incapacity in the modern work is not, however, so much +in its outline, though that is wrong enough, as in the total absence of +any effort to mark the surface roundings. It is not the _outline_ of a +stone, however true, that will make it solid or heavy; it is the +interior markings, and thoroughly understood perspectives of its sides. +In the opposite plate the upper two subjects are by Turner, foregrounds +out of the Liber Studiorum (Source of Arveron, and Ben Arthur); the +lower by Claude, Liber Veritatis, No. 5. I think the reader cannot but +feel that the blocks in the upper two subjects are massy and ponderous; +in the lower, wholly without weight. If he examine their several +treatment, he will find that Turner has perfect imaginative conception +of every recess and projection over the whole surface, and _feels_ the +stone as he works over it; every touch, moreover, being full of tender +gradation. But Claude, as he is obliged to hold to his outline in hills, +so also clings to it in the stones,--cannot round them in the least, +leaves their light surfaces wholly blank, and puts a few patches of dark +here and there about their edges, as chance will have it. + +[Illustration: 49. Truth and Untruth of Stones.] + +§ 12. Turner's way of wedging the stones of the glacier moraine together +in strength of disorder, in the upper subject, and his indication of the +springing of the wild stems and leafage out of the rents in the boulders +of the lower one, will hardly be appreciated unless the reader is +_fondly_ acquainted with the kind of scenery in question; and I cannot +calculate on this being often the case, for few persons ever look at any +near detail closely, and perhaps least of all at the heaps of débris +which so often seem to encumber and disfigure mountain ground. But for +the various reasons just stated (§ 7), Turner found more material for +his power, and more excitement to his invention, among the fallen stones +than in the highest summits of mountains; and his early designs, among +their thousand excellences and singularities, as opposed to all that had +preceded them, count for not one of the least the elaborate care given +to the drawing of torrent beds, shaly slopes, and other conditions of +stony ground which all canons of art at the period pronounced +inconsistent with dignity of composition; a convenient principle, since, +of all foregrounds, one of loose stones is beyond comparison the most +difficult to draw with any approach to realization. The Turnerian +subjects, "Junction of the Greta and Tees" (Yorkshire Series, and +illustrations to Scott); "Wycliffe, near Rokeby" (Yorkshire); "Hardraw +Fall" (Yorkshire); "Ben Arthur" (Liber Studiorum); "Ulleswater" and the +magnificent drawing of the "Upper Fall of the Tees" (England Series), +are sufficiently illustrative of what I mean. + +§ 13. It is not, however, only, in their separate condition, as +materials of foreground, that we have to examine the effect of stones; +they form a curiously important element of distant landscape in their +aggregation on a large scale. + +It will be remembered that in the course of the last chapter we wholly +left out of our account of mountain lines that group which was called +"Lines of Rest." One reason for doing so was that, as these lines are +produced by débris in a state of temporary repose, their beauty, or +deformity, or whatever character they may possess, is properly to be +considered as belonging to stones rather than to rocks. + +§ 14. Whenever heaps of loose stones or sand are increased by the +continual fall of fresh fragments from above, or diminished by their +removal from below, yet not in such mass or with such momentum as +entirely to disturb those already accumulated, the materials on the +surface arrange themselves in an equable slope, producing a straight +line of profile in the bank or cone. + +The heap formed by the sand falling in an hour-glass presents, in its +straight sides, the simplest result of such a condition; and any heap +of sand thrown up by the spade will show the slopes here and there, +interrupted only by knotty portions, held together by moisture, or +agglutinated by pressure,--interruptions which cannot occur to the same +extent on a large scale, unless the soil is really hardened nearly to +the nature of rock. As long as it remains incoherent, every removal of +substance at the bottom of the heap, or addition of it at the top, +occasions a sliding disturbance of the whole slope, which smooths it +into rectitude of line; and there is hardly any great mountain mass +among the Alps which does not show towards its foundation perfectly +regular descents of this nature, often two or three miles long without a +break. Several of considerable extent are seen on the left of Plate ++46+. + +§ 15. I call these lines of rest, because, though the bulk of the mass +may be continually increasing or diminishing, the line of the profile +does not change, being fixed at a certain angle by the nature of the +earth. It is usually stated carelessly as an angle of about 45 degrees, +but it never really reaches such a slope. I measured carefully the +angles of a very large number of slopes of mountain in various parts of +the Mont Blanc district. The few examples given in the note below are +enough to exhibit the general fact that loose débris lies at various +angles up to about 30° or 32°; débris protected by grass or pines may +reach 35°, and rocky slopes 40° or 41°, but in continuous lines of rest +I never found a steeper angle.[98] + +§ 16. I speak of some rocky slopes as lines of rest, because, whenever +a mountain side is composed of soft stone which splits and decomposes +fast, it has a tendency to choke itself up with the ruins, and gradually +to get abraded or ground down towards the débris slope; so that vast +masses of the sides of Alpine valleys are formed by ascents of nearly +uniform inclination, partly loose, partly of jagged rocks, which break, +but do not materially alter the general line of ground. In such cases +the fragments usually have accumulated without disturbance at the foot +of the slope, and the pine forests fasten the soil and prevent it from +being carried down in large masses. But numerous instances occur in +which the mountain is consumed away gradually by its own torrents, not +having strength enough to form clefts or precipices, but falling on each +side of the ravines into even banks, which slide down from above as they +are wasted below. + +§ 17. By all these various expedients, Nature secures, in the midst of +her mountain curvatures, vast series of perfectly straight lines +opposing and relieving them; lines, however, which artists have almost +universally agreed to alter or ignore, partly disliking them +intrinsically, on account of their formality, and partly because the +mind instantly associates them with the idea of mountain decay. Turner, +however, saw that this very decay having its use and nobleness, the +contours which were significative of it ought no more to be omitted +than, in the portrait of an aged man, the furrows on his hand or brow; +besides, he liked the lines themselves, for their contrast with the +mountain wildness, just as he liked the straightness of sunbeams +penetrating the soft waywardness of clouds. He introduced them +constantly into his noblest compositions; but in order to the full +understanding of their employment in the instance I am about to give, +one or two more points yet need to be noticed. + +§ 18. Generally speaking, the curved lines of convex, _fall_ belong to +mountains of hard rock, over whose surfaces the fragments _bound_ to the +valley, and which are worn by wrath of avalanches and wildness of +torrents, like that of the Cascade des Pélerins, described in the note +above. Generally speaking, the straight lines of _rest_ belong to softer +mountains, or softer surfaces and places of mountains, which, exposed to +no violent wearing from external force, nevertheless keep slipping and +mouldering down spontaneously or receiving gradual accession of material +from incoherent masses above them. + +§ 19. It follows, rather, that where the gigantic wearing forces are in +operation, the stones or fragments of rock brought down by the torrents +and avalanches are likely, however hard, to be rounded on all their +edges; but where the straight shaly slopes are found, the stones which +glide or totter down their surfaces frequently retain all their angles, +and form jagged and flaky heaps at the bottom. + +And farther, it is to be supposed that the rocks which are habitually +subjected to these colossal forces of destruction are in their own mass +firm and secure, otherwise they would long ago have given way; but that +where the gliding and crumbling surfaces are found without much external +violence, it is very possible that the whole framework of the mountain +may be full of flaws; and a danger exist of vast portions of its mass +giving way, or slipping down in heaps, as the sand suddenly yields in an +hour-glass after some moments of accumulation. + +§ 20. Hence, generally, in the mind of any one familiar with mountains, +the conditions will be associated, on the one hand, of the curved, +convex, and overhanging bank or cliff, the roaring torrent, and the +rounded boulder of massive stone; and, on the other, of the straight and +even slope of bank, the comparatively quiet and peaceful lapse of +streams, and the sharp-edged and unworn look of the fallen stones, +together with a sense of danger greater, though more occult, than in the +wilder scenery. + +[Illustration: J. M. W. Turner J. Cousen. + 50. Goldau.] + +The drawing of the St. Gothard, which we have so laboriously analyzed, +was designed, as before mentioned, from a sketch taken in the year 1843. +But with it was made another drawing. Turner brought home in that year a +series of sketches taken in the neighborhood of the pass; among others, +one of the Valley of Goldau, covered as it is by the ruins of the +Rossberg. Knowing his fondness for fallen stones, I chose this Goldau +subject as a companion to the St. Gothard. The plate opposite will give +some idea of the resultant drawing. + +§ 21. _Some_ idea only. It is a subject which, like the St. Gothard, is +far too full of detail to admit of reduction; and I hope, therefore, +soon to engrave it properly of its real size. It is, besides, more than +usually difficult to translate this drawing into black and white, +because much of the light on the clouds is distinguished merely by +orange or purple color from the green greys, which, though not darker +than the warm hues, have the effect of shade from their coldness, but +cannot be marked as shade in the engraving without too great increase of +depth. Enough, however, has been done to give some idea of the elements +of Turner's design. + +§ 22. Detailed accounts of the Rossberg Fall may be found in any +ordinary Swiss Guide; the only points we have to notice respecting it +are, that the mountain was composed of an indurated gravel, disposed in +oblique beds sloping _towards_ the valley. A portion of one of these +beds gave way, and half filled the valley beneath, burying five +villages, together with the principal one of Goldau, and partially +choking up a little lake, the streamlets which supplied it now forming +irregular pools among the fallen fragments. I call the rock, and +accurately, indurated gravel; but the induration is so complete that the +mass breaks _through_ the rolled pebbles chiefly composing it, and may +be considered as a true rock, only always in its blocks rugged and +formless when compared with the crystalline formations. Turner has +chosen his position on some of the higher heaps of ruin, looking down +towards the Lake of Zug, which is seen under the sunset, the spire of +the tower of Aart on its shore just relieved against the light of the +waves. + +The Rossberg itself, never steep, and still more reduced in terror by +the fall of a portion of it, was not available to him as a form +_explanatory_ of the catastrophe; and even the slopes of the Righi on +the left are not, in reality, as uninterrupted in their slope as he has +drawn them; but he felt the connection of this structure with the ruin +amidst which he stood, and brought the long lines of danger clear +against the sunset, and as straight as its own retiring rays. + +§ 23. If the reader will now glance back to the St. Gothard subject, as +illustrated in the two Plates +21+ and +37+, and compare it with this of +Goldau, keeping in mind the general conclusions about the two great +classes of mountain scenery which I have just stated, he will, I hope, +at last cease to charge me with enthusiasm in anything that I have said +of Turner's imagination, as always instinctively possessive of those +truths which lie deepest, and are most essentially linked together, in +the expression of a scene. I have only taken two drawings (though these +of his best period) for the illustration of all the structures of the +Alps which, in the course of half a volume, it has been possible for me +to explain; and all my half-volume is abstracted in these two drawings, +and that in the most consistent and complete way, as if they had been +made on purpose to contain a perfect summary of Alpine truth. + +§ 24. There are one or two points connected with them of yet more +touching interest. They are the last drawings which Turner ever made +with unabated power. The one of the St. Gothard, speaking with strict +accuracy, is _the_ last drawing; for that of Goldau, though majestic to +the utmost in conception, is less carefully finished, and shows, in the +execution of parts of the sky, signs of impatience, caused by the first +feeling of decline of strength. Therefore I called the St. Gothard (Vol. +III. Ch. XV. § 5) the last mountain drawing he ever executed with +perfect power. But the Goldau is still a noble companion to it--more +solemn in thought, more sublime in color, and, in certain points of +poetical treatment, especially characteristic of the master's mind in +earlier days. He was very definitely in the habit of indicating the +association of any subject with circumstances of death, especially the +death of multitudes, by placing it under one of his most deeply +_crimsoned_ sunset skies. The color of blood is this plainly taken for +the leading tone in the storm-clouds above the "Slave-ship." It occurs +with similar distinctness in the much earlier picture of Ulysses and +Polypheme, in that of Napoleon at St. Helena, and, subdued by softer +hues, in the Old Témeraire. The sky of this Goldau is, in its scarlet +and crimson, the deepest in tone of all that I know in Turner's +drawings. Another feeling traceable in several of its former works, is +an acute sense of the contrast between the careless interests and idle +pleasures of daily life, and the state of those whose time for labor, or +knowledge, or delight is passed for ever. There is evidence of this +feeling in the introduction of the boys at play in the churchyard of +Kirkby Lonsdale, and the boy climbing for his kite among the thickets +above the little mountain churchyard of Brignal-banks; it is in the same +tone of thought that he has placed here the two figures fishing, leaning +against these shattered flanks of rock,--the sepulchral stones of the +great mountain Field of Death. + +§ 25. Another character of these two drawings, which gives them especial +interest as connected with our inquiries into mediæval landscape, is, +that they are precisely and accurately illustrative of the two principal +ideas of Dante about the Alps. I have already explained the rise of the +first drawing out of Turner's early study of the "Male Bolge" of the +Splugen and St. Gothard. The Goldau, on the other hand, might have been +drawn in purposeful illustration of the lines before referred to (Vol. +III. Ch. XV. § 13) as descriptive of a "loco _Alpestro_." I give now +Dante's own words: + + "Qual' è quella ruina, che nel fianco + Di quà da Trento l'Adice percosse, + O per tremuoto, o per sostegni manco, + Che da cima del monte, onde si mosse, + Al piano è sì la roccia discoscesa + Che alcuna via darebbe a chi su fosse; + Cotal di quel burrato era la scesa." + + "As is that landslip, ere you come to Trent, + That smote the flank of Adige, through some stay + Sinking beneath it, or by earthquake rent; + For from the summit, where of old it lay, + Plainwards the broken rock unto the feet + Of one above it might afford some way; + Such path adown this precipice we meet." + + CAYLEY. + +§ 26. Finally, there are two lessons to be gathered from the opposite +conditions of mountain decay, represented in these designs, of perhaps a +wider range of meaning than any which were suggested even by the states +of mountain strength. In the first, we find the unyielding rock, +undergoing no sudden danger, and capable of no total fall, yet, in its +hardness of heart, worn away by perpetual trampling of torrent waves, +and stress of wandering storm. Its fragments, fruitless and restless, +are tossed into ever-changing heaps: no labor of man can subdue them to +his service, nor can his utmost patience secure any dwelling-place among +them. In this they are the type of all that humanity which, suffering +under no sudden punishment or sorrow, remains "stony ground," afflicted, +indeed, continually by minor and vexing cares, but only broken by them +into fruitless ruin of fatigued life. Of this ground not +"corn-giving,"--this "rough valley, neither eared nor sown,"[99] of the +common world, it is said, to those who have set up their idols in the +wreck of it-- + + "Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion. They, they + are thy lot."[100] + +But, as we pass beneath the hills which have been shaken by earthquake +and torn by convulsion, we find that periods of perfect repose succeeded +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-twilight, 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 naught, 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 +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." + + +FOOTNOTES + + [98] + + Small fragments of limestone, five or six inches across, and + flattish, sharp, angular on edges, and quite loose; slope ° + near fountain of Maglans 31½ + Somewhat larger stones, nearer Maglans; quite loose 31¾ + Similar débris, slightly touched with vegetation 35 + Débris on southern side of Maglans 33½ + Slope of Montagne de la Côte, at the bottom, as seen from the + village of Chamouni 40¾ + Average slope of Montagne de Taconay, seen from Chamouni 38 + Maximum slope of side of Breven 41 + Slope of débris from ravine of Breven down to the village + of Chamouni 14 + Slopes of débris set with pines under Aiguille Verte, seen + from Argentière 36 + General slope of Tapia, from Argentière 34 + Slopes of La Côte and Taconay, from Argentière 27¾ + Profile of Breven, from near the Chapeau (a point commanding the + valley of Chamouni in its truest longitude) 32½ + Average slope of Montanvert, from same point 39½ + Slope of La Côte, same point 36½ + Eastern slope of Pain de Sucre, seen from Vevay 33 + Western " " " 36½ + Slope of foot of Dent de Morcles, seen from Vevay 38½ + " " Midi, " " 40 + + [99] Deut. xxi. 4. So Amos, vi. 12: "Shall horses run upon the rock; + will one plow here with oxen?" + + [100] Is. lvii. 5, 6. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +THE MOUNTAIN GLOOM. + + +§ 1. We have now cursorily glanced over those conditions of mountain +structure which appear constant in duration, and universal in extent; +and we have found them, invariably, calculated for the delight, the +advantage, or the teaching of men; prepared, it seems, so as to contain, +alike in fortitude or feebleness, in timeliness or in terror, some +beneficence of gift, or profoundness of counsel. We have found that +where at first all seemed disturbed and accidental, the most tender laws +were appointed to produce forms of perpetual beauty; and that where to +the careless or cold observer it seemed severe or purposeless, the +well-being of man has been chiefly consulted, and his rightly directed +powers, and sincerely awakened intelligence, may find wealth in every +falling rock, and wisdom in every talking wave. + +It remains for us to consider what actual effect upon the human race has +been produced by the generosity, or the instruction of the hills; how +far, in past ages, they have been thanked, or listened to; how far, in +coming ages, it may be well for us to accept them for tutors, or +acknowledge them for friends. + +§ 2. What they have already taught us may, one would think, be best +discerned in the midst of them,--in some place where they have had their +own way with the human soul; where no veil has been drawn between it and +them, no contradicting voice has confused their ministries of sound, or +broken their pathos of silence: where war has never streaked their +streams with bloody foam, nor ambition sought for other throne than +their cloud-courtiered pinnacles, nor avarice for other treasure than, +year by year, is given to their unlaborious rocks, in budded jewels, and +mossy gold. + +§ 3. I do not know any district possessing 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 coloring 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 strip 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 shadow, 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 the 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 their 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 these 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 sorrow, and yet effaced and melted utterly into the air by +that last sunbeam that has crossed to them from between the two golden +clouds. + +§ 4. 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 gayly over the edge of the mountain road, sees +with a glance of delight the clusters of nut-brown cottages that nestle +among 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 deathbeds 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. + +§ 5. Do not let this be thought a darkened picture of the life of these +mountaineers. It is literal fact. No contrast can be more painful than +that between the dwelling of any well-conducted English cottager, and +that of the equally honest Savoyard. The one, set in the midst of its +dull flat fields and uninteresting hedgerows, shows in itself the love +of brightness and beauty; its daisy-studded garden beds, its smoothly +swept brick path to the threshold, its freshly sanded floor and orderly +shelves of household furniture, all testify to energy of heart, and +happiness in the simple course and simple possessions of daily life. The +other cottage, in the midst of an inconceivable, inexpressible beauty, +set on some sloping bank of golden sward, with clear fountains flowing +beside it, and wild flowers, and noble trees, and goodly rocks gathered +round into a perfection as of Paradise, is itself a dark and plague-like +stain in the midst of the gentle landscape. Within a certain distance +of its threshold the ground is foul and cattle-trampled; its timbers are +black with smoke, its garden choked with weeds and nameless refuse, its +chambers empty and joyless, the light and wind gleaming and filtering +through the crannies of their stones. All testifies that to its +inhabitant the world is labor and vanity; that for him neither flowers +bloom, nor birds sing, nor fountains glisten; and that his soul hardly +differs from the grey cloud that coils and dies upon his hills; except +in having no fold of it touched by the sunbeams. + +§ 6. Is it not strange to reflect, that hardly an evening passes in +London or Paris but one of those cottages is painted for the better +amusement of the fair and idle, and shaded with pasteboard pines by the +scene-shifter; and that good and kind people,--poetically +minded,--delight themselves in imagining the happy life led by peasants +who dwell by Alpine fountains, and kneel to crosses upon peaks of rock? +that nightly we lay down our gold to fashion forth simulacra of +peasants, in gay ribands and white bodices, singing sweet songs, and +bowing gracefully to the picturesque crosses; and all the while the +veritable peasants are kneeling, songlessly, to veritable crosses, in +another temper than the kind and fair audiences dream of, and assuredly +with another kind of answer than is got out of the opera catastrophe; an +answer having reference, it may be, in dim futurity, to those very +audiences themselves? If all the gold that has gone to paint the +simulacra of the cottages, and to put new songs in the mouths of the +simulacra of the peasants, had gone to brighten the existent cottages, +and to put new songs into the mouths of the existent peasants, it might +in the end, perhaps, have turned out better so, not only for the +peasants, but for even the audience. For that form of the False Ideal +has also its correspondent True Ideal,--consisting not in the naked +beauty of statues, nor in the gauze flowers and crackling tinsel of +theatres, but in the clothed and fed beauty of living men, and in the +lights and laughs of happy homes. Night after night, the desire of such +an ideal springs up in every idle human heart; and night after night, as +far as idleness can, we work out this desire in costly lies. We paint +the faded actress, build the lath landscape, feed our benevolence with +fallacies of felicity, and satisfy our righteousness with poetry of +justice. The time will come when, as the heavy-folded curtain falls upon +our own stage of life, we shall begin to comprehend that the justice we +loved was intended to have been done in fact, and not in poetry, and the +felicity we sympathized in, to have been bestowed and not feigned. We +talk much of money's worth, yet perhaps may one day be surprised to find +that what the wise and charitable European public gave to one night's +rehearsal of hypocrisy,--to one hour's pleasant warbling of Linda or +Lucia,--would have filled a whole Alpine Valley with happiness, and +poured the waves of harvest over the famine of many a Lammermoor.[101] + +§ 7. "Nay," perhaps the reader answers, "it is vain to hope that this +could ever be. The perfect beauty of the ideal must always be +fictitious. It is rational to amuse ourselves with the fair imagination; +but it would be madness to endeavor to put it into practice, in the face +of the ordinances of Nature. Real shepherdesses must always be rude, and +real peasants miserable; suffer us to turn away our gentle eyes from +their coarseness and their pain, and to seek comfort in cultivated +voices and purchased smiles. We cannot hew down the rocks, nor turn the +sands of the torrent into gold." + +§ 8. This is no answer. Be assured of the great truth--that what is +impossible in reality is ridiculous in fancy. If it is not in the nature +of things that peasants should be gentle and happy, then the +imagination of such peasantry is ridiculous, and to delight in such +imagination wrong; as delight in any kind of falsehood is always. But if +in the nature of things it be possible that among the wildness of hills +the human heart should be refined, and if the comfort of dress, and the +gentleness of language, and the joy of progress in knowledge, and of +variety in thought, are possible to the mountaineer in his true +existence, let us strive to write this true poetry upon the rocks before +we indulge it in our visions, and try whether, among all the fine arts, +one of the finest be not that of painting cheeks with health rather than +rouge. + +§ 9. "But is such refinement possible? Do not the conditions of the +mountain peasant's life, in the plurality of instances, necessarily +forbid it?" + +As bearing sternly on this question, it is necessary to examine one +peculiarity of feeling which manifests itself among the European +nations, so far as I have noticed, irregularly,--appearing sometimes to +be the characteristic of a particular time, sometimes of a particular +race, sometimes of a particular locality, and to involve at once much +that is to be blamed and much that is praiseworthy. I mean the +capability of enduring, or even delighting in, the contemplation of +objects of terror--a sentiment which especially influences the temper of +some groups of mountaineers, and of which it is necessary to examine the +causes, before we can form any conjecture whatever as to the real effect +of mountains on human character. + +§ 10. For instance, the unhappy alterations which have lately taken +place in the town of Lucerne have still spared two of its ancient +bridges; both of which, being long covered walks, appear, in past times, +to have been to the population of the town what the Mall was to London, +or the Gardens of the Tuileries are to Paris. For the continual +contemplation of those who sauntered from pier to pier, pictures were +painted on the woodwork of the roof. These pictures, in the one bridge, +represent all the important Swiss battles and victories; in the other +they are the well-known series of which Longfellow has made so beautiful +a use in the Golden Legend, the _Dance of Death_. + +Imagine the countenances with which a committee, appointed for the +establishment of a new "promenade" in some flourishing modern town, +would receive a proposal to adorn such promenade with pictures of the +Dance of Death. + +§ 11. Now just so far as the old bridge at Lucerne, with the pure, deep, +and blue water of the Reuss eddying down between its piers, and with the +sweet darkness of green hills, and far-away gleaming of lake and Alps +alternating upon the eye on either side; and the gloomy lesson frowning +in the shadow, as if the deep tone of a passing-bell, overhead, were +mingling for ever with the plashing of the river as it glides by +beneath; just so far, I say, as this differs from the straight and +smooth strip of level dust, between two rows of round-topped acacia +trees, wherein the inhabitants of an English watering-place or French +fortified town take their delight,--so far I believe the life of the old +Lucernois, with all its happy waves of light, and mountain strength of +will, and solemn expectation of eternity, to have differed from the +generality of the lives of those who saunter for their habitual hour up +and down the modern promenade. But the gloom is not always of this noble +kind. As we penetrate farther among the hills we shall find it becoming +very painful. We are walking, perhaps, in a summer afternoon, up the +valley of Zermatt (a German valley), the sun shining brightly on grassy +knolls and through fringes of pines, the goats leaping happily, and the +cattle bells ringing sweetly, and the snowy mountains shining like +heavenly castles far above. We see, a little way off, a small white +chapel, sheltered behind one of the flowery hillocks of mountain turf; +and we approach its little window, thinking to look through it into some +quiet home of prayer; but the window is grated with iron, and open to +the winds, and when we look through it, behold--a heap of white human +bones mouldering into whiter dust! + +So also in that same sweet valley, of which I have just been speaking, +between Chamouni and the Valais, at every turn of the pleasant pathway, +where the scent of the thyme lies richest upon its rocks, we shall see a +little cross and shrine set under one of them; and go up to it, hoping +to receive some happy thought of the Redeemer, by whom all these lovely +things were made, and still consist. But when we come near--behold, +beneath the cross, a rude picture of souls tormented in red tongues of +hell fire, and pierced by demons. + +§ 12. As we pass towards Italy the appearance of this gloom deepens; and +when we descend the southern slope of the Alps we shall find this +bringing forward of the image of Death associated with an endurance of +the most painful aspects of disease, so that conditions of human +suffering, which in any other country would be confined in hospitals, +are permitted to be openly exhibited by the wayside; and with this +exposure of the degraded human form is farther connected an +insensibility to ugliness and imperfection in other things; so that the +ruined wall, neglected garden, and uncleansed chamber, seem to unite in +expressing a gloom of spirit possessing the inhabitants of the whole +land. It does not appear to arise from poverty, nor careless contentment +with little: there is here nothing of Irish recklessness or humor; but +there seems a settled obscurity in the soul,--a chill and plague, as if +risen out of a sepulchre, which partly deadens, partly darkens, the eyes +and hearts of men, and breathes a leprosy of decay through every breeze +and every stone. "Instead of well-set hair, baldness, and burning +instead of beauty." + +Nor are definite proofs wanting that the feeling is independent of mere +poverty or indolence. In the most gorgeous and costly palace garden the +statues will be found green with moss, the terraces defaced or broken; +the palace itself partly coated with marble, is left in other places +rough with cementless and jagged brick, its iron balconies bent and +rusted, its pavements overgrown with grass. The more energetic the +effort has been to recover from this state, and to shake off all +appearance of poverty, the more assuredly the curse seems to fasten on +the scene, and the unslaked mortar, and unfinished wall, and ghastly +desolation of incompleteness entangled in decay, strike a deeper +despondency into the beholder. + +§ 13. The feeling would be also more easily accounted for if it appeared +consistent in its regardlessness of beauty,--if what was _done_ were +altogether as inefficient as what was deserted. But the balcony, though +rusty and broken, is delicate in design, and supported on a nobly carved +slab of marble; the window, though a mere black rent in ragged plaster, +is encircled by a garland of vine and fronted by a thicket of the sharp +leaves and aurora-colored flowers of the oleander; the courtyard, +overgrown by mournful grass, is terminated by a bright fresco of +gardens and fountains; the corpse, borne with the bare face to heaven, +is strewn with flowers; beauty is continually mingled with the shadow of +death. + +§ 14. So also is a kind of merriment,--not true cheerfulness, neither +careless nor idle jesting, but a determined effort at gaiety, a resolute +laughter, mixed with much satire, grossness, and practical buffoonery, +and, it always seemed to me, void of all comfort or hope,--with this +eminent character in it also, that it is capable of touching with its +bitterness even the most fearful subjects, so that as the love of beauty +retains its tenderness in the presence of death, this love of jest also +retains its boldness, and the skeleton becomes one of the standard +masques of the Italian comedy. When I was in Venice, in 1850, the most +popular piece of the _comic_ opera was "Death and the Cobbler," in which +the point of the plot was the success of a village cobbler as a +physician, in consequence of the appearance of Death to him beside the +bed of every patient who was not to recover; and the most applauded +scene in it was one in which the physician, insolent in success, and +swollen with luxury, was himself taken down into the abode of Death, and +thrown into an agony of terror by being shown lives of men, under the +form of wasting lamps, and his own ready to expire. + +§ 15. I have also not the smallest doubt that this endurance or +affronting of fearful images is partly associated with indecency, partly +with general fatuity and weakness of mind. The men who applauded loudest +when the actress put on, in an instant, her mask representing a skull, +and when her sharp and clear "Sono la Morte" rang through the theatre, +were just those whose disgusting habits rendered it impossible for women +to pass through some of the principal streets in Venice,--just those who +formed the gaping audience, when a mountebank offered a new quack +medicine on the Riva dei Schiavoni. And, as fearful imagery is +associated with the weakness of fever, so it seems to me that imbecility +and love of terror are connected by a mysterious link throughout the +whole life of man. There is a most touching instance of this in the last +days of Sir Walter Scott, the publication of whose latter works, deeply +to be regretted on many accounts, was yet, perhaps, on the whole, +right, as affording a means of studying the conditions of the decay of +overwrought human intellect in one of the most noble of minds. Among the +many signs of this decay at its uttermost, in Castle Dangerous, not one +of the least notable was the introduction of the knight who bears on his +black armor the likeness of a skeleton. + +§ 16. The love of horror which is in this manner connected with +feebleness of intellect, is not, however, to be confounded with that +shown by the vulgar in general. The feeling which is calculated upon in +the preparation of pieces full of terror and crime, at our lower +theatres, and which is fed with greater art and elegance in the darker +scenery of the popular French novelists, however morally unhealthy, is +not _unnatural_; it is not the result of an apathy to such horror, but +of a strong desire for excitement in minds coarse and dull, but not +necessarily feeble. The scene of the murder of the jeweller in the +"Count of Monte Cristo," or those with the Squelette in the "Mystères de +Paris," appeal to instincts which are as common to all mankind as those +of thirst and hunger, and which are only debasing in the exaggerated +condition consequent upon the dulness of other instincts higher than +they. And the persons who, at one period of their life, might take chief +pleasure in such narrations, at another may be brought into a temper of +high tone and acute sensibility. But the love of horror respecting which +we are now inquiring appears to be an unnatural and feeble feeling; it +is not that the person needs excitement, or has any such strong +perceptions as would cause excitement, but he is dead to the horror, and +a strange evil influence guides his feebleness of mind rather to fearful +images than to beautiful ones,--as our disturbed dreams are sometimes +filled with ghastliness which seem not to arise out of any conceivable +association of our waking ideas, but to be a vapor out of the very +chambers of the tomb, to which the mind, in its palsy, has approached. + +§ 17. But even this imbecile revelling in terror is more comprehensible, +more apparently natural, than the instinct which is found frequently +connected with it, of absolute joy in _ugliness_. In some conditions of +old German art we find the most singular insisting upon what is in all +respects ugly and abortive, or frightful; not with any sense of +sublimity in it, neither in mere foolishness, but with a resolute +choice, such as I can completely account for on no acknowledged +principle of human nature. For in the worst conditions of sensuality +there is yet some perception of the beautiful, so that men utterly +depraved in principle and habits of thought will yet admire beautiful +things and fair faces. But in the temper of which I am now speaking +there is no preference even of the lower forms of loveliness; no effort +at painting fair limbs or passionate faces, no evidence of any human or +natural sensation,--a mere feeding on decay and rolling in slime, not +apparently or conceivably with any pleasure in it, but under some +fearful possession of an evil spirit. + +§ 18. The most wonderful instance of this feeling at its uttermost which +I remember, is the missal in the British Museum, Harl. MSS. 1892. The +drawings of the principal subjects in it appear to have been made first +in black, by Martin Schöngauer (at all events by some copyist of his +designs), and then another workman has been employed to paint these +drawings over. No words can describe the intensity of the "plague of the +heart" in this man; the reader should examine the manuscript carefully +if he desires to see how low human nature can sink. I had written a +description of one or two of the drawings in order to give some +conception of them to persons not able to refer to the book; but the +mere description so saddened and polluted my pages that I could not +retain it. I will only, therefore, name the principal characteristics +which belong to the workman's mind. + +§ 19. First, perpetual tampering with death, whether there be occasion +to allude to it or not,--especially insisting upon its associations with +corruption. I do not pain the reader by dwelling on the details +illustrative of this feeling. + +Secondly, Delight in dismemberment, dislocation, and distortion of +attitude. Distortion, to some extent, is a universal characteristic of +the German fifteenth and sixteenth century art; that is to say, there is +a general aptitude for painting legs across, or feet twisted round, or +bodies awkwardly bent, rather than anything in a natural position; and +Martin Schöngauer himself exhibits this defect in no small degree. But +here the finishing workman has dislocated nearly every joint which he +has exposed, besides knitting and twisting the muscles into mere knots +of cordage. + +[Illustration: FIG. 113.] + +What, however, only amounts to dislocation in the limbs of the human +figures, becomes actual dismemberment in the animals. Fig. 113 is a +faithful copy of a tree with two _birds_, one on its bough, and one +above it, seen in the background, behind a soldier's mace, in the +drawing of the Betrayal. In the engraving of this subject, by Schöngauer +himself, the mace does not occur; it has been put in by the finishing +workman, in order to give greater expression of savageness to the boughs +of the tree, which, joined with the spikes of the mace, form one mass of +disorganized angles and thorns, while the birds look partly as if being +torn to pieces, and partly like black spiders. + +In the painting itself the sky also is covered with little detached and +bent white strokes, by way of clouds, and the hair of the figures torn +into ragged locks, like wood rent by a cannon shot. + +[Illustration: FIG. 114.] + +This tendency to dismember and separate everything is one of the eminent +conditions of a mind leaning to vice and ugliness; just as to connect +and harmonize everything is that of a mind leaning to virtue and beauty. +It is shown down to the smallest details; as, for instance, in the +spotted backgrounds, which, instead of being chequered with connected +patterns, as in the noble manuscripts (see Vol. III. Plate 7), are +covered with disorderly dashes and circles executed with a blunt pen or +brush, Fig. 114. And one of the borders is composed of various detached +heads cut off at the neck or shoulders without the slightest endeavor to +conceal or decorate the truncation. All this, of course, is associated +with choice of the most abominable features in the countenance. + +§ 20. Thirdly, Pure ignorance. Necessarily such a mind as this must be +incapable of perceiving the truth of any form; and therefore together +with the distortion of all studied form is associated the utter negation +or imperfection of that which is less studied. + +Fourthly, Delight in blood. I cannot use the words which would be +necessary to describe the second[102] painting of the Scourging, in this +missal. But I may generally notice that the degree in which the peculiar +feeling we are endeavoring to analyze is present in any district of +Roman Catholic countries, may be almost accurately measured by the +quantity of blood represented on the crucifixes. + +The person employed to repaint, in the Campo Santo of Pisa, the portion +of Orcagna's pictures representing the Inferno, has furnished a very +notable example of the same feeling; and it must be familiar to all +travellers in countries thoroughly subjected to _modern_ Romanism, a +thing as different from thirteenth-century Romanism as a prison from a +prince's chamber. + +Lastly, Utter absence of inventive power. The only ghastliness which +this workman is capable of is that of distortion. In ghastly +_combination_ he is impotent; he cannot even understand it or copy it +when set before him, continually destroying any that exists in the +drawing of Schöngauer. + +§ 21. Such appear to be the principal component elements in the mind of +the painter of this missal, and it possesses these in complete +abstraction from nearly all others, showing, in deadly purity, the +nature of the venom which in ordinary cases is tempered by counteracting +elements. There are even certain feelings, evil enough themselves, but +more _natural_ than these, of which the slightest mingling would here be +a sort of redemption. Vanity, for instance, would lead to a more +finished execution, and more careful copying from nature, and of course +subdue the ugliness by fidelity; love of pleasure would introduce +occasionally a graceful or sensual form; malice would give some point +and meaning to the bordering grotesques, nay, even insanity might have +given them some inventive horror. But the pure mortiferousness of this +mind, capable neither of patience, fidelity, grace, or wit, in any +place, or from any motive,--this horrible apathy of brain, which cannot +ascend so high as insanity, but is capable only of putrefaction, save us +the task of all analysis, and leave us only that of examining how this +black aqua Tophana mingles with other conditions of mind. + +§ 22. For I have led the reader over this dark ground, because it was +essential to our determination of the influence of mountains that we +should get what data we could as to the extent in other districts, and +derivation from other causes, of the horror which at first we might have +been led to connect too arbitrarily with hill scenery. And I wish that +my knowledge permitted me to trace it over wider ground, for the +observations hitherto stated leave the question still one of great +difficulty. It might appear to a traveller crossing and recrossing the +Alps between Switzerland and Italy, that the main strength of the evil +lay on the south of the chain, and was attributable to the peculiar +circumstances and character of the Italian nation at this period. But as +he examined the matter farther he would note that in the districts of +Italy generally supposed to be _healthy_, the evidence of it was less, +and that it seemed to gain ground in places exposed to malaria, +centralizing itself in the Val d'Aosta. He would then, perhaps, think it +inconsistent with justice to lay the blame on the mountains, and +transfer his accusation to the marshes, yet would be compelled to admit +that the evil manifested itself most where these marshes were surrounded +by hills. He would next, probably, suppose it produced by the united +effect of hardships, solitude, and unhealthy air; and be disposed to +find fault with the mountains, at least so far as they required painful +climbing and laborious agriculture;--but would again be thrown into +doubt by remembering that one main branch of the feeling,--the love of +ugliness, seemed to belong in a peculiar manner to Northern Germany. If +at all familiar with the art of the North and South, he would perceive +that the _endurance_ of ugliness, which in Italy resulted from languor +or depression (while the mind yet retained some apprehension of the +difference between fairness and deformity, as above noted in § 12), was +not to be confounded with that absence of perception of the Beautiful, +which introduced a general hard-featuredness of figure into all German +and Flemish early art, even when Germany and Flanders were in their +brightest national health and power. And as he followed out in detail +the comparison of all the purest ideals north and south of the Alps, and +perceived the perpetual contrast existing between the angular and bony +sanctities of the one latitude, and the drooping graces and pensive +pieties of the other, he would no longer attribute to the ruggedness, or +miasma, of the mountains the origin of a feeling which showed itself so +strongly in the comfortable streets of Antwerp and Nuremberg, and in the +unweakened and active intellects of Van Eyck and Albert Durer. + + + Conditions which produce the Mountain gloom. + +§ 23. As I think over these various difficulties, the following +conclusions seem to me deducible from the data I at present possess. I +am in no wise confident of their accuracy, but they may assist the +reader in pursuing the inquiry farther. + + + General power of intellect. + +I. It seems to me, first, that a fair degree of intellect and +imagination is necessary before this kind of disease is possible. It +does not seize on merely stupid peasantries, but on those which belong +to intellectual races, and in whom the faculties of imagination and the +sensibilities of heart were originally strong and tender. In flat land, +with fresh air, the peasantry may be almost mindless, but not infected +with this gloom. + + + Romanism. + +II. In the second place, I think it is closely connected with the +Romanist religion, and that for several causes. + +A. The habitual use of bad art (ill-made dolls and bad pictures), in the +services of religion, naturally blunts the delicacy of the senses, by +requiring reverence to be paid to ugliness, and familiarizing the eye to +it in moments of strong and pure feeling; I do not think we can overrate +the probable evil results of this enforced discordance between the sight +and imagination. + +B. The habitually dwelling on the penances, tortures, and martyrdoms of +the Saints, as subjects of admiration and sympathy, together with much +meditation on Purgatorial suffering; rendered almost impossible to +Protestants by the greater fearfulness of such reflections, when the +punishment is supposed eternal. + +C. Idleness, and neglect of the proper duties of daily life, during the +large number of holidays in the year, together with want of proper +cleanliness, induced by the idea that comfort and happy purity are less +pleasing to God than discomfort and self-degradation. This insolence +induces much despondency, a larger measure of real misery than is +necessary under the given circumstances of life, and many forms of crime +and disease besides. + +D. Superstitious indignation. I do not know if it is as a result of the +combination of these several causes, or if under a separate head, that I +should class a certain strange awe which seems to attach itself to +Romanism like its shadow, differing from the coarser gloom which we have +been examining, in that it can attach itself to minds of the highest +purity and keenness, and, indeed, does so to these more than to inferior +ones. It is an undefinable pensiveness, leading to great severity of +precept, mercilessness in punishment, and dark or discouraging thoughts +of God and man.[103] + +It is connected partly with a greater belief in the daily presence and +power of evil spirits than is common in Protestants (except the more +enthusiastic, and _also gloomy_, sects of Puritans), connected also with +a sternness of belief in the condemnatory power and duty of the Church, +leading to persecution, and to less tempered indignation at oppositions +of opinion than characterizes the Protestant mind ordinarily, which, +though waspish and bitter enough, is not liable to the peculiar +heart-burning caused in a Papist by any insult to his Church, or by the +aspect of what he believes to be heresy. + +§ 24. For all these reasons, I think Romanism is very definitely +connected with the gloom we are examining, so as without fail to produce +some measure of it in all persons who sincerely hold that faith; and if +such effect is ever not to be traced, it is because the Romanism is +checked by infidelity. The atheism or dissipation of a large portion of +the population in crowded capitals prevents this gloom from being felt +in full force; but it resumes its power, in mountain solitudes, over the +minds of the comparatively ignorant and more suffering peasantry; so +that it is not an evil inherent in the hills themselves, but one result +of the continuance in them of that old religious voice of warning, +which, encouraging sacred feeling in general, encourages also whatever +evil may essentially belong to the form of doctrine preached among them. + +[Illustration: FIG. 115.] + + + Disease of body. + +§ 25. III. It is assuredly connected also with a diseased state of +health. Cheerfulness is just as natural to the heart of a man in strong +health as color to his cheek; and wherever there is habitual gloom, +there must be either bad air, unwholesome food, improperly severe labor, +or erring habits of life. Among mountains, all these various causes are +frequently found in combination. The air is either too bleak, or it is +impure; generally the peasants are exposed to alternations of both. +Great hardship is sustained in various ways, severe labor undergone +during summer, and a sedentary and confined life led during winter. +Where the gloom exists in less elevated districts, as in Germany, I do +not doubt, though I have not historical knowledge enough to prove this, +that it is partly connected with habits of sedentary life, protracted +study, and general derangement of the bodily system in consequence; when +it exists in the gross form exhibited in the manuscript above examined, +I have no doubt it has been fostered by habits of general vice, cruelty, +and dissipation. + +[Illustration: FIG. 116.] + + + Rudeness of life. + +§ 26. IV. Considered as a natural insensibility to beauty, it is, I +imagine, indicative of a certain want of cultivation in the race among +whom it is found, perhaps without corporal or mental weakness, but +produced by rudeness of life, absence of examples of beautiful art, +defects in the mould of the national features, and such other +adversities, generally belonging to northern nations as opposed to +southern. Here, however, again my historical knowledge is at fault, and +I must leave the reader to follow out the question for himself, if it +interests him. A single example maybe useful to those who have not time +for investigation, in order to show the kind of difference I mean. + +Fig. 115 is a St. Peter, from a German fifteenth-century MS., of good +average execution; and Fig. 116 a Madonna, either of the best English, +or second-rate French, work, from a service-book executed in 1290. The +reader will, I doubt not, perceive at once the general grace and +tenderness of sentiment in the lines of the drapery of the last, and +the comparatively delicate type of features. The hardnesses of line, +gesture, and feature in the German example, though two centuries at +least later, are, I think, equally notable. They are accompanied in the +rest of the MS. by an excessive coarseness in choice of ornamental +subject: beneath a female figure typical of the Church, for instance, +there is painted a carcass, just butchered, and hung up with skewers +through the legs. + +§ 27. V. In many high mountain districts, not only are the inhabitants +likely to be hurt by hardship of life, and retarded by roughness of +manners, but their eyes are familiarized with certain conditions of +ugliness and disorder, produced by the violence of the elements around +them. Once accustomed to look upon these conditions as inevitable in +nature, they may easily transfer the idea of inevitableness and fitness +to the same appearances in their own houses. I said that mountains seem +to have been created to show us the perfection of beauty; but we saw in +the tenth chapter that they also show sometimes the extreme of ugliness: +and to the inhabitants of districts of this kind it is almost necessary +to their daily comfort that they should view without dislike aspects of +desolation which would to others be frightful. And can we blame them, +if, when the rivers are continually loading their fields with heaps of +black slime, and rolling, in time of flood, over the thickets on their +islets, leaving, when the flood is past, every leaf and bough dim with +granite-dust,--never more to be green through all the parching of +summer; when the landslip leaves a ghastly scar among the grassy mounds +of the hill side;--the rocks above are torn by their glaciers into rifts +and wounds that are never healed; and the ice itself blackened league +after league with loose ruin cast upon it as if out of some long and +foul excavation;--can we blame, I say, the peasant, if, beholding these +things daily as necessary appointments in the strong nature around him, +he is careless that the same disorders should appear in his household or +his farm; nor feels discomforted, though his walls should be full of +fissures like the rocks, his furniture covered with dust like the trees, +and his garden like the glacier in unsightliness of trench and +desolation of mound? + +§ 28. Under these five heads are embraced, as far as I am able to trace +them, the causes of the temper which we are examining; and it will be +seen that only the last is quite peculiar to mountain and marsh +districts, although there is a somewhat greater probability that the +others also may be developed among hills more than in plains. When, by +untoward accident, all are associated, and the conditions described +under the fifth head are very distinct, the result is even sublime in +its painfulness. Of places subjected to such evil influence, none are +quite so characteristic as the town of Sion in the Valais. In the first +place (see § 23), the material on which it works is good; the race of +peasantry being there both handsome and intelligent, as far as they +escape the adverse influences around them; so that on a fête-day or a +Sunday, when the families come down from the hill châlets, where the air +is healthier, many very pretty faces may be seen among the younger +women, set off by somewhat more pains in adjustment of the singular +Valaisan costume than is now usual in other cantons of Switzerland. + +§ 29. Secondly, it is a bishopric, and quite the centre of Romanism in +Switzerland, all the most definite Romanist doctrines being evidently +believed sincerely, and by a majority of the population; Protestantism +having no hold upon them at all; and republican infidelity, though +active in the councils of the commune, having as yet, so far as I could +see, little influence in the hearts of households. The prominence of the +Valais among Roman Catholic states has always been considerable. The +Cardinal of Sion was, of old, one of the personages most troublesome to +the Venetian ambassadors at the English Court.[104] + +§ 30. Thirdly, it is in the midst of a marshy valley, pregnant with +various disease; the water either stagnant, or disgorged in wild +torrents charged with earth; the air, in the morning, stagnant also, +hot, close, and infected; in the afternoon, rushing up from the outlet +at Martigny in fitful and fierce whirlwind; one side of the valley in +almost continual shade, the other (it running east and west) scorched by +the southern sun, and sending streams of heat into the air all night +long from its torrid limestones; while less traceable plagues than any +of these bring on the inhabitants, at a certain time of life, violent +affections of goître, and often, in infancy, cretinism. Agriculture is +attended with the greatest difficulties and despondencies; the land +which the labor of a life has just rendered fruitful is often buried in +an hour; and the carriage of materials, as well as the traversing of +land on the steep hill sides, attended with extraordinary fatigue. + +§ 31. Owing to these various influences, Sion, the capital of the +district, presents one of the most remarkable scenes for the study of +the particular condition of human feeling at present under consideration +that I know among mountains. It consists of little more than one main +street, winding round the roots of two ridges of crag, and branching, on +the sides towards the rocks, into a few narrow lanes, on the other, into +spaces of waste ground, of which part serve for military exercises, part +are enclosed in an uncertain and vague way; a ditch half-filled up, or +wall half-broken down, seeming to indicate their belonging, or having +been intended to belong, to some of the unfinished houses which are +springing up amidst their weeds. But it is difficult to say, in any part +of the town, what is garden-ground or what is waste; still more, what is +new building and what old. The houses have been for the most part built +roughly of the coarse limestone of the neighboring hills, then coated +with plaster, and painted, in imitation of Palladian palaces, with grey +architraves and pilasters, having draperies from capital to capital. +With this false decoration is curiously contrasted a great deal of +graceful, honest, and original ironwork, in bulging balconies, and +floreted gratings of huge windows, and branching sprays, for any and +every purpose of support or guard. The plaster, with its fresco, has in +most instances dropped away, leaving the houses peeled and scarred; +daubed into uncertain restoration with new mortar, and in the best cases +thus left; but commonly fallen also, more or less, into ruin, and either +roofed over at the first story when the second has fallen, or hopelessly +abandoned;--not pulled down, but left in white and ghastly shells to +crumble into heaps of limestone and dust, a pauper or two still +inhabiting where inhabitation is possible. The lanes wind among these +ruins; the blue sky and mountain grass are seen through the windows of +their rooms and over their partitions, on which old gaudy papers flaunt +in rags: the weeds gather, and the dogs scratch about their +foundations; yet there are no luxuriant weeds, for their ragged leaves +are blanched with lime, crushed under perpetually falling fragments, and +worn away by listless standing of idle feet. There is always mason's +work doing, always some fresh patching and whitening; a dull smell of +mortar, mixed with that of stale foulness of every kind, rises with the +dust, and defiles every current of air; the corners are filled with +accumulations of stones, partly broken, with crusts of cement sticking +to them, and blotches of nitre oozing out of their pores. The lichenous +rocks and sunburnt slopes of grass stretch themselves hither and thither +among the wreck, curiously traversed by stairs and walls and half-cut +paths, that disappear below starkly black arches, and cannot be +followed, or rise in windings round the angles, and in unfenced slopes +along the fronts, of the two masses of rock which bear, one the dark +castle, the other the old church and convent of Sion; beneath, in a +rudely inclosed square at the outskirts of the town, a still more +ancient Lombardic church raises its grey tower, a kind of esplanade +extending between it and the Episcopal palace, and laid out as a plot of +grass, intersected by gravel walks; but the grass, in strange sympathy +with the inhabitants, will not grow _as_ grass, but chokes itself with a +network of grey weeds, quite wonderful in its various expression of +thorny discontent and savageness; the blue flower of the borage, which +mingles with it in quantities, hardly interrupting its character, for +the violent black spots in the centre of its blue takes away the +tenderness of the flower, and it seems to have grown there in some +supernatural mockery of its old renown of being good against melancholy. +The rest of the herbage is chiefly composed of the dwarf mallow, the +wild succory, the wall-rocket, goose-foot, and milfoil;[105] plants, +nearly all of them, jagged in the leaf, broken and dimly clustered in +flower, haunters of waste ground and places of outcast refuse. + +Beyond this plot of ground the Episcopal palace, a half-deserted, +barrack-like building, overlooks a _neglected vineyard_, of which the +clusters, black on the under side, snow-white on the other with +lime-dust, gather around them a melancholy hum of flies. Through the +arches of its trelliswork the avenue of the great valley is seen in +descending distance, enlarged with line beyond line of tufted foliage, +languid and rich, degenerating at last into leagues of grey Maremma, +wild with the thorn and the willow; on each side of it, sustaining +themselves in mighty slopes and unbroken reaches of colossal promontory, +the great mountains secede into supremacy through rosy depths of burning +air, and the crescents of snow gleam over their dim summits as--if there +could be Mourning, as once there was War, in Heaven--a line of waning +moons might be set for lamps along the sides of some sepulchral chamber +in the Infinite. + +§ 32. I know not how far this universal grasp of the sorrowful spirit +might be relaxed if sincere energy were directed to amend the ways of +life of the Valaisan. But it has always appeared to me that there was, +even in more healthy mountain districts, a certain degree of inevitable +melancholy; nor could I ever escape from the feeling that here, where +chiefly the beauty of God's working was manifested to men, warning was +also given, and that to the full, of the enduring of His indignation +against sin. + +It seems one of the most cunning and frequent of self-deceptions to turn +the heart away from this warning and refuse to acknowledge anything in +the fair scenes of the natural creation but beneficence. Men in general +lean towards the light, so far as they contemplate such things at all, +most of them passing "by on the other side," either in mere plodding +pursuit of their own work, irrespective of what good or evil is around +them, or else in selfish gloom, or selfish delight, resulting from their +own circumstances at the moment. Of those who give themselves to any +true contemplation, the plurality, being humble, gentle, and kindly +hearted, look only in nature for what is lovely and kind; partly, also, +God gives the disposition to every healthy human mind in some degree to +pass over or even harden itself against evil things, else the suffering +would be too great to be borne; and humble people, with a quiet trust +that everything is for the best, do not fairly represent the facts to +themselves, thinking them none of their business. So, what between +hard-hearted people, thoughtless people, busy people, humble people, and +cheerfully minded people,--giddiness of youth, and preoccupations of +age,--philosophies of faith, and cruelties of folly,--priest and Levite, +masquer and merchantman, all agreeing to keep their own side of the +way,--the evil that God sends to warn us gets to be forgotten, and the +evil that He sends to be mended by us gets left unmended. And then, +because people shut their eyes to the dark indisputableness of the facts +in front of them, their Faith, such as it is, is shaken or uprooted by +every darkness in what is revealed to them. In the present day it is not +easy to find a well-meaning man among our more earnest thinkers, who +will not take upon himself to dispute the whole system of redemption, +because he cannot unravel the mystery of the punishment of sin. But can +he unravel the mystery of the punishment of NO sin? Can he entirely +account for all that happens to a cab-horse? Has he ever looked fairly +at the fate of one of those beasts as it is dying,--measured the work it +has done, and the reward it has got,--put his hand upon the bloody +wounds through which its bones are piercing, and so looked up to Heaven +with an entire understanding of Heaven's ways about the horse? Yet the +horse is a fact--no dream--no revelation among the myrtle trees by +night; and the dust it dies upon, and the dogs that eat it, are +facts;--and yonder happy person, whose the horse was till its knees were +broken over the hurdles, who had an immortal soul to begin with, and +wealth and peace to help forward his immortality; who has also devoted +the powers of his soul, and body, and wealth, and peace, to the spoiling +of houses, the corruption of the innocent, and the oppression of the +poor; and has, at this actual moment of his prosperous life, as many +curses waiting round about him in calm shadow, with their death's eyes +fixed upon him, biding their time, as ever the poor cab-horse had +launched at him in meaningless blasphemies, when his failing feet +stumbled at the stones,--this happy person shall have no stripes,--shall +have only the horse's fate of annihilation; or, if other things are +indeed reserved for him, Heaven's kindness or omnipotence is to be +doubted therefore. + +§ 33. We cannot reason of these things. But this I know--and this may by +all men be known--that no good or lovely thing exists in this world +without its correspondent darkness; and that the universe presents +itself continually to mankind under the stern aspect of warning, or of +choice, the good and the evil set on the right hand and the left. + +And in this mountain gloom, which weighs so strongly upon the human +heart that in all time hitherto, as we have seen, the hill defiles have +been either avoided in terror or inhabited in penance, there is but the +fulfilment of the universal law, that where the beauty and wisdom of the +Divine working are most manifested, there also are manifested most +clearly the terror of God's wrath, and inevitableness of His power. + +Nor is this gloom less wonderful so far as it bears witness to the error +of human choice, even when the nature of good and evil is most +definitely set before it. The trees of Paradise were fair; but our first +parents hid themselves from God "in medio ligni Paradisi," in the midst +of the trees of the garden. The hills were ordained for the help of man; +but, instead of raising his eyes to the hills, from whence cometh his +help, he does his idol sacrifice "upon every high hill and under every +green tree." The mountain of the Lord's house is established above the +hills; but Nadab and Abihu shall see under His feet the body of heaven +in his clearness, yet go down to kindle the censer against their own +souls. And so to the end of time it will be; to the end, that cry will +still be heard along the Alpine winds, "Hear, oh ye mountains, the +Lord's controversy!" Still, their gulfs of thawless ice, and unretarded +roar of tormented waves, and deathful falls of fruitless waste, and +unredeemed decay, must be the image of the souls of those who have +chosen the darkness, and whose cry shall be to the mountains to fall on +them, and to the hills to cover them; and still, to the end of time, the +clear waters of the unfailing springs, and the white pasture-lilies in +their clothed multitude, and the abiding of the burning peaks in their +nearness to the opened heaven, shall be the types, and the blessings, of +those who have chosen light, and of whom it is written, "The mountains +shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, righteousness." + + +FOOTNOTES + + [101] As I was correcting this sheet for press, the morning paper + containing the account of the burning of Covent Garden theatre + furnished the following financial statements, bearing somewhat on + the matter in hand; namely, + + £ + That the interior fittings of the theatre, in 1846, cost 40,000 + + That it was opened on the 6th of April, 1847; and } + that in 1848 the loss upon it was } 34,756 + in 1849 " " 25,455 + ------ + 100,211 + ------ + £ + And that in one year the vocal department cost 33,349 + the ballet " " 8,105 + the orchestra " " 10,048 + ------ + 51,502 + ------ + + Mr. Albano afterwards corrected this statement, substituting 27,000 + for 40,000: and perhaps the other sums may also have been + exaggerated, but I leave the reader to consider what an annual + expenditure of from 30,000_l._ to 50,000_l._ might effect in + practical idealism in general, whether in Swiss valleys or + elsewhere. I am not one of those who regard all theatrical + entertainment as wrong or harmful. I only regret to see our theatres + so conducted as to involve an expense which is worse than useless, + in leading our audiences to look for mere stage effect, instead of + good acting, good singing, or good sense. If we really loved music, + or the drama, we should be content to hear well-managed voices, and + see finished acting, without paying five or six thousand pounds to + dress the songsters or decorate the stage. Simple but well-chosen + dresses, and quiet landscape exquisitely painted, would have far + more effect on the feelings of any sensible audience than the tinsel + and extravagance of our common scenery; and our actors and actresses + must have little respect for their own powers, if they think that + dignity of gesture is dependent on the flash of jewellery, or the + pathos of accents connected with the costliness of silk. Perfect + execution of music by a limited orchestra is far more delightful, + and far less fatiguing, than the irregular roar and hum of + multitudinous mediocrity; and finished instrumentation by an + adequate number of performers, exquisite acting, and sweetest + singing, might be secured for the public at a fourth part of the + cost now spent on operatic absurdities. There is no occasion + whatever for decoration of the house: it is, on the contrary, the + extreme of vulgarity. No person of good taste ever goes to a theatre + to look at the fronts of the boxes. Comfortable and roomy seats, + perfect cleanliness, decent and fitting curtains and other + furniture, of good stuff, but neither costly nor tawdry, and + convenient, but not dazzling, light, are the proper requirements in + the furnishing of an opera-house. As for the persons who go there to + look at each other--to show their dresses--to yawn away waste + hours--to obtain a maximum of momentary excitement--or to say they + were there, at next day's three-o'clock breakfast (and it is only + for such persons that glare, cost, and noise are necessary), I + commend to their consideration, or at least to such consideration as + is possible to their capacities, the suggestions in the text. But to + the true lovers of the drama I would submit, as another subject of + inquiry, whether they ought not to separate themselves from the mob, + and provide, for their own modest, quiet, and guiltless + entertainment, the truth of heartfelt impersonation, and the melody + of the unforced and delicate voice, without extravagance of adjunct, + unhealthy lateness of hours, or appeal to degraded passions. Such + entertainment might be obtained at infinitely smaller cost, and yet + at a price which would secure honorable and permanent remuneration + to every performer; and I am mistaken in my notion of the best + actors, if they would not rather play at a house where people went + to hear and to feel, than weary themselves, even for four times the + pay, before an audience insulting in its listlessness and ignorant + in its applause. + + [102] There are, unusually, two paintings of this subject, the first + representing the preparations for the scourging, the second its + close. + + [103] This character has, I think, been traced in the various + writings of Mrs. Sherwood better than in any others; she has a + peculiar art of making it felt and of striking the deep tone of it + as from a passing-bell, contrasting it with the most cheerful, + lovely, and sincere conditions of Protestantism. + + [104] See "Four Years at the Court of Henry VIII." (Dispatches of + the Venetian ambassador Giustinian, translated by Mr. Rawdon Brown,) + 1854. + + [105] Malva rotundifolia, Cichorium Intybus, Sisymbrium tenuifolium, + Chenopodium urbicum, Achillea Millefolium. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +THE MOUNTAIN GLORY. + + +§ 1. I have dwelt, in the foregoing chapter, on the sadness of the hills +with the greater insistance that I feared my own excessive love for them +might lead me into too favorable interpretation of their influences over +the human heart; or, at least, that the reader might accuse me of fond +prejudice, in the conclusions to which, finally, I desire to lead him +concerning them. For, to myself, mountains are the beginning and the end +of all natural scenery; in them, and in the forms of inferior landscape +that lead to them, my affections are wholly bound up; and though I can +look with happy admiration at the lowland flowers, and woods, and open +skies, the happiness is tranquil and cold, like that of examining +detached flowers in a conservatory, or reading a pleasant book; and if +the scenery be resolutely level, insisting upon the declaration of its +own flatness in all the detail of it, as in Holland, or Lincolnshire, or +Central Lombardy, it appears to me like a prison, and I cannot long +endure it. But the slightest rise and fall in the road,--a mossy bank at +the side of a crag of chalk, with brambles at its brow, overhanging +it,--a ripple over three or four stones in the stream by the +bridge,--above all, a wild bit of ferny ground under a fir or two, +looking as if, possibly, one might see a hill if one got to the other +side of the trees, will instantly give me intense delight, because the +shadow, or the hope, of the hills is in them. + +§ 2. And thus, 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, coloring, +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 south-west, 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 seen 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.[106] + +§ 3. I know that this is in great part idiosyncrasy; and that I must not +trust to my own feelings, in this respect, as representative of the +modern landscape instinct; yet I know it is not idiosyncrasy, in so far +as there may be proved to be indeed an increase of the absolute beauty +of all scenery in exact proportion to its mountainous character, +providing that character be _healthily_ mountainous. I do not mean to +take the Col de Bon Homme as representative of hills, any more than I +would take Romney Marsh as representative of plains; but putting +Leicestershire or Staffordshire fairly beside Westmoreland, and Lombardy +or Champagne fairly beside the Pays de Vaud or the Canton Berne, I find +the increase in the calculable sum of elements of beauty to be steadily +in proportion to the increase of mountainous character; and that the +best image which the world can give of Paradise is in the slope of the +meadows, orchards, and corn-fields on the sides of a great Alp, with its +purple rocks and eternal snows above; this excellence not being in any +wise a matter referable to feeling, or individual preferences, but +demonstrable by calm enumeration of the number of lovely colors on the +rocks, the varied grouping of the trees, and quantity of noble incidents +in stream, crag, or cloud, presented to the eye at any given moment. + +§ 4. For consider, first, the difference produced in the whole tone of +landscape color by the introductions of purple, violet, and deep +ultramarine blue, which we owe to mountains. In an ordinary lowland +landscape we have the blue of the sky; the green of grass, which I will +suppose (and this is an unnecessary concession to the lowlands) entirely +fresh and bright; the green of trees; and certain elements of purple, +far more rich and beautiful than we generally should think, in their +bark and shadows (bare hedges and thickets, or tops of trees, in subdued +afternoon sunshine, are nearly perfect purple, and of an exquisite +tone), as well as in ploughed fields, and dark ground in general. But +among mountains, in _addition_ to all this, large unbroken spaces of +pure violet and purple are introduced in their distances; and even near, +by films of cloud passing over the darkness of ravines or forests, blues +are produced of the most subtle tenderness; these azures and +purples[107] passing into rose-color of otherwise wholly unattainable +delicacy among the upper summits, the blue of the sky being at the same +time purer and deeper than in the plains. Nay, in some sense, a person +who has never seen the rose-color of the rays of dawn crossing a blue +mountain twelve or fifteen miles away, can hardly be said to know what +_tenderness_ in color means at all; _bright_ tenderness he may, indeed, +see in the sky or in a flower, but this grave tenderness of the far-away +hill-purples he cannot conceive. + +§ 5. Together with this great source of preeminence in _mass_ of color, +we have to estimate the influence of the finished inlaying and +enamel-work of the color-jewellery on every stone; and that of the +continual variety in species of flower; most of the mountain flowers +being, besides, separately lovelier than the lowland ones. The wood +hyacinth and wild rose are, indeed, the only _supreme_ flowers that the +lowlands can generally show; and the wild rose is also a mountaineer, +and more fragrant in the hills, while the wood hyacinth, or grape +hyacinth, at its best cannot match even the dark bell-gentian, leaving +the light-blue star-gentian in its uncontested queenliness, and the +Alpine rose and Highland heather wholly without similitude. The violet, +lily of the valley, crocus, and wood anemone are, I suppose, claimable +partly by the plains as well as the hills; but the large orange lily and +narcissus I have never seen but on hill pastures, and the exquisite +oxalis is preeminently a mountaineer.[108] + +§ 6. To this supremacy in mosses and flowers we have next to add an +inestimable gain in the continual presence and power of water. Neither +in its clearness, its color, its fantasy of motion, its calmness of +space, depth, and reflection, or its wrath, can water be conceived by a +lowlander, out of sight of sea. A sea wave is far grander than any +torrent--but of the sea and its influences we are not now speaking; and +the sea itself, though it _can_ be clear, is never calm, among our +shores, in the sense that a mountain lake can be calm. The sea seems +only to pause; the mountain lake to sleep, and to dream. Out of sight of +the ocean, a lowlander cannot be considered ever to have seen water at +all. The mantling of the pools in the rock shadows, with the golden +flakes of light sinking down through them like falling leaves, the +ringing of the thin currents among the shallows, the flash and the cloud +of the cascade, the earthquake and foam-fire of the cataract, the long +lines of alternate mirror and mist that lull the imagery of the hills +reversed in the blue of morning,--all these things belong to those hills +as their undivided inheritance. + +§ 7. To this supremacy in wave and stream is joined a no less manifest +preeminence in the character of trees. It is possible among plains, in +the species of trees which properly belong to them, the poplars of +Amiens, for instance, to obtain a serene simplicity of grace, which, as +I said, is a better help to the study of gracefulness, as such, than any +of the wilder groupings of the hills; so also, there are certain +conditions of symmetrical luxuriance developed in the park and avenue, +rarely rivalled in their way among mountains; and yet the mountain +superiority in foliage is, on the whole, nearly as complete as it is in +water; for exactly as there are some expressions in the broad reaches of +a navigable lowland river, such as the Loire or Thames, not, in their +way, to be matched among the rock rivers, and yet for all that a +lowlander cannot be said to have truly seen the element of water at all; +so even in his richest parks and avenues he cannot be said to have truly +seen trees. For the resources of trees are not developed until they have +difficulty to contend with; neither their tenderness of brotherly love +and harmony, till they are forced to choose their ways of various life +where there is contracted room for them, talking to each other with +their restrained branches. The various action of trees rooting +themselves in inhospitable rocks, stooping to look into ravines, hiding +from the search of glacier winds, reaching forth to the rays of rare +sunshine, crowding down together to drink at sweetest streams, climbing +hand in hand among the difficult slopes, opening in sudden dances round +the mossy knolls, gathering into companies at rest among the fragrant +fields, gliding in grave procession over the heavenward +ridges,--nothing of this can be conceived among the unvexed and unvaried +felicities of the lowland forest: while to all these direct sources of +greater beauty are added, first the power of redundance,--the mere +quantity of foliage visible in the folds and on the promontories of a +single Alp being greater than that of an entire lowland landscape +(unless a view from some cathedral tower); and to this charm of +redundance, that of clearer _visibility_,--tree after tree being +constantly shown in successive height, one behind another, instead of +the mere tops and flanks of masses, as in the plains; and the forms of +multitudes of them continually defined against the clear sky, near and +above, or against white clouds entangled among their branches, instead +of being confused in dimness of distance. + +§ 8. Finally, to this supremacy in foliage we have to add the still less +questionable supremacy in clouds. There is no effect of sky possible in +the lowlands which may not in equal perfection be seen among the hills; +but there are effects by tens of thousands, for ever invisible and +inconceivable to the inhabitant of the plains, manifested among the +hills in the course of one day. The mere power of familiarity with the +clouds, of walking with them and above them, alters and renders clear +our whole conception of the baseless architecture of the sky; and for +the beauty of it, there is more in a single wreath of early cloud, +pacing its way up an avenue of pines, or pausing among the points of +their fringes, than in all the white heaps that fill the arched sky of +the plains from one horizon to the other. And of the nobler cloud +manifestations,--the breaking of their troublous seas against the crags, +their black spray sparkling with lightning; or the going forth of the +morning along their pavements of moving marble, level-laid between dome +and dome of snow;--of these things there can be as little imagination or +understanding in an inhabitant of the plains as of the scenery of +another planet than his own. + +§ 9. And, observe, all these superiorities are matters plainly +measurable and calculable, not in any wise to be referred to estimate of +_sensation_. Of the grandeur or expression of the hills I have not +spoken; how far they are great, or strong, or terrible, I do not for the +moment consider, because vastness, and strength, and terror, are not to +all minds subjects of desired contemplation. It may make no difference +to some men whether a natural object be large or small, whether it be +strong or feeble. But loveliness of color, perfectness of form, +endlessness of change, wonderfulness of structure, are precious to all +undiseased human minds; and the superiority of the mountains in all +these things to the lowland is, I repeat, as measurable as the richness +of a painted window matched with a white one, or the wealth of a museum +compared with that of a simply furnished chamber. They seem to have been +built for the human race, as at once their schools and cathedrals; full +of treasures of illuminated manuscript for the scholar, kindly in simple +lessons to the worker, quiet in pale cloisters for the thinker, glorious +in holiness for the worshipper. And of these great cathedrals of the +earth, with their gates of rock, pavements of cloud, choirs of stream +and stone, altars of snow, and vaults of purple traversed by the +continual stars,--of these, as we have seen, it was written, nor long +ago, by one of the best of the poor human race for whom they were built, +wondering in himself for whom their Creator _could_ have made them, and +thinking to have entirely discerned the Divine intent in them--"They are +inhabited by the Beasts." + +§ 10. Was it then indeed thus with us, and so lately? Had mankind +offered no worship in their mountain churches? Was all that granite +sculpture and floral painting done by the angels in vain? + +Not so. It will need no prolonged thought to convince us that in the +hills the purposes of their Maker have indeed been accomplished in such +measure as, through the sin or folly of men, He ever permits them to be +accomplished. It may not seem, from the general language held concerning +them, or from any directly traceable results, that mountains have had +serious influence on human intellect; but it will not, I think, be +difficult to show that their occult influence has been both constant and +essential to the progress of the race. + +§ 11. Consider, first, whether we can justly refuse to attribute to +their mountain scenery some share in giving the Greeks and Italians +their intellectual lead among the nations of Europe. + +There is not a single spot of land in either of these countries from +which mountains are not discernible; almost always they form the +principal feature of the scenery. The mountain outlines seen from +Sparta, Corinth, Athens, Rome, Florence, Pisa, Verona, are of consummate +beauty; and whatever dislike or contempt may be traceable in the mind of +the Greeks for mountain ruggedness, their placing the shrine of Apollo +under the cliffs of Delphi, and his throne upon Parnassus, was a +testimony to all succeeding time that they themselves attributed the +best part of their intellectual inspiration to the power of the hills. +Nor would it be difficult to show that every great writer of either of +those nations, however little definite regard he might manifest for the +landscape of his country, had been mentally formed and disciplined by +it, so that even such enjoyment as Homer's of the ploughed ground and +poplar groves owes its intensity and delicacy to the excitement of the +imagination produced, without his own consciousness, by other and +grander features of the scenery to which he had been accustomed from a +child; and differs in every respect from the tranquil, vegetative, and +prosaic affection with which the same ploughed land and poplars would be +regarded by a native of the Netherlands. + +The vague expression which I have just used--"intellectual lead," may be +expanded into four great heads; lead in Religion, Art and Literature, +War, and Social Economy. + +§ 12. It will be right to examine our subject eventually under these +four heads; but I shall limit myself, for the present, to some +consideration of the first two, for a reason presently to be stated. + + + 1st. Influence of mountains on religious temperament. + +I. We have before had occasion to note the peculiar awe with which +mountains were regarded in the middle ages, as bearing continual witness +against the frivolity or luxury of the world. Though the sense of this +influence of theirs is perhaps more clearly expressed by the mediæval +Christians than by any other sect of religionists, the influence itself +has been constant in all time. Mountains have always possessed the +power, first, of exciting religious enthusiasm; secondly, of purifying +religious faith. These two operations are partly contrary to one +another: for the faith of enthusiasm is apt to be _im_pure, and the +mountains, by exciting morbid conditions of the imagination, have +caused in great part the legendary and romantic forms of belief; on the +other hand, by fostering simplicity of life and dignity of morals, they +have purified by action what they falsified by imagination. But, even in +their first and most dangerous influence, it is not the mountains that +are to blame, but the human heart. While we mourn over the fictitious +shape given to the religious visions of the anchorite, we may envy the +sincerity and the depth of the emotion from which they spring: in the +deep feeling, we have to acknowledge the solemn influences of the hills; +but for the erring modes or forms of thought, it is human wilfulness, +sin, and false teaching, that are answerable. We are not to deny the +nobleness of the imagination because its direction is illegitimate, nor +the pathos of the legend because its circumstances are groundless; the +ardor and abstraction of the spiritual life are to be honored in +themselves, though the one may be misguided and the other deceived; and +the deserts of Osma, Assisi, and Monte Viso are still to be thanked for +the zeal they gave, or guarded, whether we find it in St. Francis and +St. Dominic, or in those whom God's hand hid from them in the clefts of +the rocks. + +§ 13. And, in fact, much of the apparently harmful influence of hills on +the religion of the world is nothing else than their general gift of +exciting the poetical and inventive faculties, in peculiarly solemn +tones of mind. Their terror leads into devotional casts of thought; +their beauty and wildness prompt the invention at the same time; and +where the mind is not gifted with stern reasoning powers, or protected +by purity of teaching, it is sure to mingle the invention with its +creed, and the vision with its prayer. Strictly speaking, we ought to +consider the superstitions of the hills, universally, as a form of +poetry; regretting only that men have not yet learned how to distinguish +poetry from well-founded faith. + +And if we do this, and enable ourselves thus to review, without carping +or sneering, the shapes of solemn imagination which have arisen among +the inhabitants of Europe, we shall find, on the one hand, the mountains +of Greece and Italy forming all the loveliest dreams, first of the +Pagan, then of the Christian mythology; on the other, those of +Scandinavia to be the first sources of whatever mental (as well as +military) power was brought by the Normans into Southern Europe. +Normandy itself is to all intents and purposes a hill country; composed, +over large extents, of granite and basalt, often rugged and covered with +heather on the summits, and traversed by beautiful and singular dells, +at once soft and secluded, fruitful and wild. We have thus one branch of +the Northern religious imagination rising among the Scandinavian fiords, +tempered in France by various encounters with elements of Arabian, +Italian, Provençal, or other Southern poetry, and then reacting upon +Southern England; while other forms of the same rude religious +imagination, resting like clouds upon the mountains of Scotland and +Wales, met and mingled with the Norman Christianity, retaining even to +the latest times some dark color of superstition, but giving all its +poetical and military pathos to Scottish poetry, and a peculiar +sternness and wildness of tone to the Reformed faith, in its +manifestations among the Scottish hills. + +§ 14. It is on less disputable ground that I may claim the reader's +gratitude to the mountains, as having been the centres not only of +imaginative energy, but of purity both in doctrine and practice. The +enthusiasm of the persecuted Covenanter, and his variously modified +claims to miraculous protection or prophetic inspiration, hold exactly +the same relation to the smooth proprieties of lowland Protestantism, +that the demon-combats, fastings, visions, and miracles of the mountain +monk or anchorite hold to the wealth and worldliness of the Vatican. It +might indeed happen, whether at Canterbury, Rheims, or Rome, that a good +bishop should occasionally grasp the crozier; and a vast amount of +prudent, educated, and admirable piety is to be found among the ranks of +the lowland clergy. But still the large aspect of the matter is always, +among Protestants, that formalism, respectability, orthodoxy, caution, +and propriety, live by the slow stream that encircles the lowland abbey +or cathedral; and that enthusiasm, poverty, vital faith, and audacity of +conduct, characterize the pastor dwelling by the torrent side. In like +manner, taking the large aspects of Romanism, we see that its worst +corruptions, its cunning, its worldliness, and its permission of crime, +are traceable for the most part to lowland prelacy; but its +self-denials, its obediences, humilities, sincere claims to miraculous +power, and faithful discharges of pastoral duty, are traceable chiefly +to its anchorites and mountain clergy. + +§ 15. It is true that the "Lady Poverty" of St. Francis may share the +influence of the hills in the formation of character; and that, since +the clergy who have little interest at court or conclave are those who +in general will be driven to undertake the hill services, we must often +attribute to enforced simplicity of life, or natural bitterness of +feeling, some of the tones of thought which we might otherwise have +ascribed to the influence of mountain scenery. Such causes, however, +affect the lowland as much as the highland religious character in all +districts far from cities; but they do not produce the same effects. The +curate or hermit of the field and fen, however simple his life, or +painful his lodging, does not often attain the spirit of the hill pastor +or recluse: we may find in him a decent virtue or a contented ignorance, +rarely the prophetic vision or the martyr's passion. Among the fair +arable lands of England and Belgium extends an orthodox Protestantism or +Catholicism; prosperous, creditable, and drowsy; but it is among the +purple moors of the highland border, the ravines of Mont Genèvre, and +the crags of the Tyrol, that we shall find the simplest Evangelical +faith, and the purest Romanist practice. + +§ 16. Of course the inquiry into this branch of the hill influence is +partly complicated with that into its operation on domestic habits and +personal character, of which hereafter: but there is one curious witness +borne to the general truth of the foregone conclusions, by an apparently +slight, yet very significant circumstance in art. We have seen, in the +preceding volume, how difficult it was sometimes to distinguish between +honest painters, who truly chose to paint sacred subjects because they +loved them, and the affected painters, who took sacred subjects for +their own pride's sake, or for merely artistical delight. Amongst other +means of arriving at a conclusion in this matter, there is one helpful +test which may be applied to their various works, almost as easily and +certainly as a foot-rule could be used to measure their size; and which +remains an available test down to the date of the rise of the Claudesque +landscape schools. Nearly all the genuine religious painters use _steep +mountain distances_. All the merely artistical ones, or those of +intermediate temper, in proportion as they lose the religious element, +use flat or simply architectural distances. Of course the law is liable +to many exceptions, chiefly dependent on the place of birth and early +associations of painters; but its force is, I think, strongly shown in +this;--that, though the Flemish painters never showed any disposition to +paint, _for its own sake_, other scenery than of their own land (compare +Vol. III. Chap. XIII. § 20), the sincerely religious ones continually +used Alpine distances, bright with snow. In like manner Giotto, +Perugino, Angelico, the young Raphael, and John Bellini, always, if, +with any fitness to their subject, they can introduce them, use craggy +or blue mountain distances, and this with definite expression of love +towards them; Leonardo, conventionally, as feeling they were necessary +for his sacred subjects, while yet his science and idealism had +destroyed his mountain sincerity; Michael Angelo, wholly an artist, and +Raphael in later years, show no love of mountains whatever, while the +relative depths of feeling in Tintoret, Titian, and Veronese, are +precisely measurable by their affection to mountains. Tintoret, though +born in Venice, yet, because capable of the greatest reaches of feeling, +is the first of the old painters who ever drew mountain detail +rightly:[109] Titian, though born in Cadore, and recurring to it +constantly, yet being more worldly-minded, uses his hills somewhat more +conventionally, though, still in his most deeply felt pictures, such as +the St. Jerome, in the Brera, giving to the rocks and forests a +consummate nobleness; and Veronese, in his gay grasp of the outside +aspects of the world, contentedly includes his philosophy within +porticos and pillars, or at the best overshadows it with a few sprays of +laurel. + +§ 17. The test fails, however, utterly, when applied to the later or +transitional landscape schools, mountains being there introduced in mere +wanton savageness by Salvator, or vague conventionalism by Claude, +Berghem, and hundreds more. This need not, however, in the least +invalidate our general conclusions: we surely know already that it is +possible to misuse the best gifts, and pervert the purest feelings; nor +need we doubt the real purpose, or, on honest hearts, the real effect, +of mountains, because various institutions have been founded among them +by the banditti of Calabria, as well as by St. Bruno. + +§ 18. I cannot leave this part of my subject without recording a slight +incident which happened to myself, singularly illustrative of the +religious character of the Alpine peasant when under favorable +circumstances of teaching. 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 a 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 the 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." + +I doubt if this would have been thought of, or said, by even the most +intelligent lowland peasant. The thought might have occurred to him, but +the frankness of address, and expectation of being at once understood +without a word of preparative explanation, as if the language of the +Bible were familiar to all men, mark, I think, the mountaineer. + + + 2nd. Influence of mountain on artistical power. + +§ 19. We were next to examine the influence of hills on the artistical +power of the human race. Which power, so far as it depends on the +imagination, must evidently be fostered by the same influences which +give vitality to religious vision. But, so far as artistical +productiveness and skill are concerned, it is evident that the +mountaineer is at a radical and insurmountable disadvantage. The +strength of his character depends upon the absence of luxury; but it is +eminently by luxury that art is supported. We are not, therefore, to +deny the mountain influence, because we do not find finished frescoes on +the timbers of châlets or delicate bas-reliefs on the bastion which +protects the mountain church from the avalanche; but to consider how far +the tone of mind shown by the artists laboring in the lowland is +dependent for its intensity on the distant influences of the hills, +whether during the childhood of those born among them, or under the +casual contemplation of men advanced in life. + +§ 20. Glancing broadly over the strength of the mediæval--that is to +say, of the peculiar and energetic--art of Europe, so as to discern, +through the clear flowing of its waves over France, Italy, and England, +the places in the pool where the fountain-heads are, and where the sand +dances, I should first point to Normandy and Tuscany. From the cathedral +of Pisa, and the sculpture of the Pisans, the course is straight to +Giotto, Angelico, and Raphael,--to Orcagna and Michael Angelo;--the +Venetian school, in many respects mightier, being, nevertheless, +subsequent and derivative. From the cathedrals of Caen and Coutances the +course is straight to the Gothic of Chartres and Notre Dame of Paris, +and thence forward to all French and English noble art, whether +ecclesiastical or domestic. Now the mountain scenery about Pisa is +precisely the most beautiful that surrounds any great Italian city, +owing to the wonderful outlines of the peaks of Carrara. Milan and +Verona have indeed fine ranges in sight, but rising farther in the +distance, and therefore not so directly affecting the popular mind. The +Norman imagination, as already noticed, is Scandinavian in origin, and +fostered by the lovely granite scenery of Normandy itself. But there is, +nevertheless, this great difference between French art and Italian, that +the French paused strangely at a certain point, as the Norman hills are +truncated at the summits, while the Italian rose steadily to a vertex, +as the Carrara hills to their crests. Let us observe this a little more +in detail. + +§ 21. The sculpture of the Pisans was taken up and carried into various +perfection by the Lucchese, Pistojans, Sienese, and Florentines. All +these are inhabitants of truly mountain cities, Florence being as +completely among the hills as Inspruck is, only the hills have softer +outlines. Those around Pistoja and Lucca are in a high degree majestic. +Giotto was born and bred among these hills. Angelico lived upon their +slope. The mountain towns of Perugia and Urbino furnish the only +important branches of correlative art; for Leonardo, however +individually great, originated no new school; he only carried the +_executive_ delicacy of landscape detail so far beyond other painters +as to necessitate my naming the fifteenth-century manner of landscape +after him, though he did not invent it; and although the school of Milan +is distinguished by several peculiarities, and definitely enough +separable from the other schools of Italy, all its peculiarities are +mannerisms, not inventions. + +Correggio, indeed, created a new school, though he himself is almost its +only master. I have given in the preceding volume the mountain outline +seen from Parma. But the only entirely great group of painters after the +Tuscans are the Venetians, and they are headed by Titian and Tintoret, +on whom we have noticed the influence of hills already; and although we +cannot trace it in Paul Veronese, I will not quit the mountain claim +upon him; for I believe all that gay and gladdening strength of his was +fed by the breezes of the hills of Garda, and brightened by the swift +glancing of the waves of the Adige.[110] + +§ 22. Observe, however, before going farther, of all the painters we +have named, the one who obtains most executive perfection is Leonardo, +who on the whole lived at the greatest distance from the hills. The two +who have most feeling are Giotto and Angelico, both hill-bred. And +generally, I believe, we shall find that the hill country gives its +inventive depths of feeling to art, as in the work of Orcagna, Perugino, +and Angelico, and the plain country executive neatness. The executive +precision is joined with feeling in Leonardo, who saw the Alps in the +distance; it is totally unaccompanied by feeling in the pure Dutch +schools, or schools of the dead flats. + +§ 23. I do not know if any writer on art, or on the development of +national mind, has given his attention to what seems to me one of the +most singular phenomena in the history of Europe,--the pause of the +English and French in pictorial art after the fourteenth century. From +the days of Henry III. to those of Elizabeth, and of Louis IX. to those +of Louis XIV., the general intellect of the two nations was steadily on +the increase. But their art intellect was as steadily retrograde. The +only art work that France and England have done nobly is that which is +centralized by the Cathedral of Lincoln, and the Sainte Chapelle. We +had at that time (_we_--French and English--but the French first) the +incontestable lead among European nations; no thirteenth-century work in +Italy is comparable for majesty of conception, or wealth of imaginative +detail, to the cathedrals of Chartres, Rheims, Rouen, Amiens, Lincoln, +Peterborough, Wells, or Lichfield. But every hour of the fourteenth +century saw French and English art in precipitate decline, Italian in +steady ascent; and by the time that painting and sculpture had developed +themselves in an approximated perfection, in the work of Ghirlandajo and +Mino of Fésole, we had in France and England no workman, in any art, +deserving a workman's name; nothing but skilful masons, with more or +less love of the picturesque, and redundance of undisciplined +imagination, flaming itself away in wild and rich traceries, and crowded +bosses of grotesque figure sculpture, and expiring at last in barbarous +imitation of the perfected skill and erring choice of Renaissance Italy. +Painting could not decline, for it had not reached any eminence; the +exquisite arts of illumination and glass design had led to no effective +results in other materials; they themselves, incapable of any higher +perfection than they had reached in the thirteenth century, perished in +the vain endeavor to emulate pictorial excellence, bad _drawing_ being +substituted, in books, for lovely _writing_, and opaque precision, in +glass, for transparent power; nor in any single department of exertion +did artists arise of such calibre or class as any of the great Italians; +and yet all the while, in literature, _we_ were gradually and steadily +advancing in power up to the time of Shakespere; the Italians, on the +contrary, not advancing after the time of Dante. + +§ 24. Of course I have no space here to pursue a question such as this; +but I may state my belief that _one_ of the conditions involved in it +was the mountain influence of Italian scenery, inducing a disposition to +such indolent or enthusiastic reverie, as could only express itself in +the visions of art; while the comparatively flat scenery and severer +climate of England and France, fostering less enthusiasm, and urging to +more exertion, brought about a practical and rational temperament, +progressive in policy, science, and literature, but wholly retrograde in +art; that is to say (for great art may be properly so defined), in the +Art of _Dreaming_. + + + 3rd. Influence of mountains on literary power. + +§ 25. III. In admitting this, we seem to involve the supposition that +mountain influence is either unfavorable or inessential to literary +power; but for this also the mountain influence is still necessary, only +in a subordinate degree. It is true, indeed, that the Avon is no +mountain torrent, and that the hills round the vale of Stratford are not +sublime; true, moreover, that the cantons Berne or Uri have never yet, +so far as I know, produced a great poet; but neither, on the other hand, +has Antwerp or Amsterdam. And, I believe, the natural scenery which will +be found, on the whole, productive of most literary intellect is that +mingled of hill and plain, as all available light is of flame and +darkness; the flame being the active element, and the darkness the +tempering one. + +§ 26. In noting such evidence as bears upon this subject, the reader +must always remember that the mountains are at an unfair disadvantage, +in being much _out of the way_ of the masses of men employed in +intellectual pursuits. The position of a city is dictated by military +necessity or commercial convenience; it rises, flourishes, and absorbs +into its activity whatever leading intellect is in the surrounding +population. The persons who are able and desirous to give their children +education naturally resort to it; the best schools, the best society, +and the strongest motives assist and excite those born within its walls; +and youth after youth rises to distinction out of its streets, while +among the blue mountains, twenty miles away, the goatherds live and die +in unregarded lowliness. And yet this is no proof that the mountains +have little effect upon the mind, or that the streets have a helpful +one. The men who are formed by the schools, and polished by the society +of the capital, may yet in many ways have their powers shortened by the +absence of natural scenery; and the mountaineer, neglected, ignorant, +and unambitious, may have been taught things by the clouds and streams +which he could not have learned in a college, or a coterie. + +§ 27. And in reasoning about the effect of mountains we are therefore +under a difficulty like that which would occur to us if we had to +determine the good or bad effect of light on the human constitution, in +some place where all corporal exercise was necessarily in partial +darkness, and only idle people lived in the light. The exercise might +give an advantage to the occupants of the gloom, but we should neither +be justified in therefore denying the preciousness of light in general, +nor the necessity to the workers of the few rays they possessed; and +thus I suppose the hills around Stratford, and such glimpses as +Shakespere had of sandstone and pines in Warwickshire, or of chalk +cliffs in Kent, to have been essential to the development of his genius. +This supposition can only be proved false by the rising of a Shakespere +at Rotterdam or Bergen-op-Zoom, which I think not probable; whereas, on +the other hand, it is confirmed by myriads of collateral evidences. The +matter could only be _tested_ by placing for half a century the British +universities at Keswick, and Beddgelert, and making Grenoble the capital +of France; but if, throughout the history of Britain and France, we +contrast the general invention and pathetic power, in ballads or +legends, of the inhabitants of the Scottish Border with those manifested +in Suffolk or Essex; and similarly the inventive power of Normandy, +Provence, and the Bearnois with that of Champagne or Picardy, we shall +obtain some convincing evidence respecting the operation of hills on the +masses of mankind, and be disposed to admit, with less hesitation, that +the apparent inconsistencies in the effect of scenery on greater minds +proceed in each case from specialities of education, accident, and +original temper, which it would be impossible to follow out in detail. +Sometimes only, when the original resemblance in character of intellect +is very marked in two individuals, and they are submitted to definitely +contrary circumstances of education, an approximation to evidence may be +obtained. Thus Bacon and Pascal appear to be men naturally very similar +in their temper and powers of mind. One, born in York House, Strand, of +courtly parents, educated in court atmosphere, and replying, almost as +soon as he could speak, to the queen asking how old he was--"Two years +younger than Your Majesty's happy reign!"--has the world's meanness and +cunning engrafted into his intellect, and remains smooth, serene, +unenthusiastic, and in some degree base, even with all his sincere +devotion and universal wisdom; bearing, to the end of life, the likeness +of a marble palace in the street of a great city, fairly furnished +within, and bright in wall and battlement, yet noisome in places about +the foundations. The other, born at Clermont, in Auvergne, under the +shadow of the Puy de Dôme, though taken to Paris at eight years old, +retains for ever the impress of his birthplace; pursuing natural +philosophy with the same zeal as Bacon, he returns to his own mountains +to put himself under their tutelage, and by their help first discovers +the great relations of the earth and the air: struck at last with mortal +disease; gloomy, enthusiastic, and superstitious, with a conscience +burning like lava, and inflexible like iron, the clouds gather about the +majesty of him, fold after fold; and, with his spirit buried in ashes, +and rent by earthquake, yet fruitful of true thought and faithful +affection, he stands like that mound of desolate scoria that crowns the +hill ranges of his native land, with its sable summit far in heaven, and +its foundations green with the ordered garden and the trellised vine. + +§ 28. When, however, our inquiry thus branches into the successive +analysis of individual characters, it is time for us to leave it; noting +only one or two points respecting Shakespere, whom, I doubt not, the +reader was surprised to find left out of all our comparisons in the +preceding volume. He seems to have been sent essentially to take +universal and equal grasp of the _human_ nature; and to have been +removed, therefore, from all influences which could in the least warp or +bias his thoughts. It was necessary that he should lean _no_ way; that +he should contemplate, with absolute equality of judgment, the life of +the court, cloister, and tavern, and be able to sympathize so completely +with all creatures as to deprive himself, together with his personal +identity, even of his conscience, as he casts himself into their hearts. +He must be able to enter into the soul of Falstaff or Shylock with no +more sense of contempt or horror than Falstaff or Shylock themselves +feel for or in themselves; otherwise his own conscience and indignation +would make him unjust to them; he would turn aside from something, miss +some good, or overlook some essential palliation. He must be utterly +without anger, utterly without purpose; for if a man has any serious +purpose in life, that which runs counter to it, or is foreign to it, +will be looked at frowningly or carelessly by him. Shakespere was +forbidden of Heaven to have any _plans_. To _do_ any good or _get_ any +good, in the common sense of good, was not to be within his permitted +range of work. Not, for him, the founding of institutions, the +preaching of doctrines, or the repression of abuses. Neither he, nor the +sun, did on any morning that they rose together, receive charge from +their Maker concerning such things. They were both of them to shine on +the evil and good; both to behold unoffendedly all that was upon the +earth, to burn unappalled upon the spears of kings, and undisdaining, +upon the reeds of the river. + +§ 29. Therefore, so far as nature had influence over the early training +of this man, it was essential to his perfectness that the nature should +be quiet. No mountain passions were to be allowed in him. Inflict upon +him but one pang of the monastic conscience; cast upon him but one cloud +of the mountain gloom; and his serenity had been gone for ever--his +equity--his infinity. You would have made another Dante of him; and all +that he would have ever uttered about poor, soiled, and frail humanity +would have been the quarrel between Sinon and Adam of Brescia,--speedily +retired from, as not worthy a man's hearing, nay, not to be heard +without heavy fault. All your Falstaffs, Slenders, Quicklys, Sir Tobys, +Lances, Touchstones, and Quinces would have been lost in that. +Shakespere could be allowed no mountains; nay, not even any supreme +natural beauty. He had to be left with his kingcups and +clover;--pansies--the passing clouds--the Avon's flow--and the +undulating hills and woods of Warwick; nay, he was not to love even +these in any exceeding measure, lest it might make him in the least +overrate their power upon the strong, full-fledged minds of men. He +makes the quarrelling fairies concerned about them; poor lost Ophelia +find some comfort in them; fearful, fair, wise-hearted Perdita trust the +speaking of her good will and good hostess-ship to them; and one of the +brothers of Imogen confide his sorrow to them,--rebuked instantly by his +brother for "wench-like words;[111]" but any thought of them in his +mighty men I do not find: it is not usually in the nature of such men; +and if he had loved the flowers the _least_ better himself, he would +assuredly have been offended at this, and given a botanical turn of mind +to Cæsar, or Othello. + +§ 30. And it is even among the most curious proofs of the necessity to +all high imagination that it should paint straight from the life, that +he has _not_ given such a turn of mind to some of his great men;--Henry +the Fifth, for instance. Doubtless some of my readers, having been +accustomed to hear it repeated thoughtlessly from mouth to mouth that +Shakespere conceived the spirit of all ages, were as much offended as +surprised at my saying that he only painted human nature as he saw it in +his own time. They will find, if they look into his work closely, as +much antiquarianism as they do geography, and no more. The commonly +received notions about the things that had been, Shakespere took as he +found them, animating them with pure human nature, of any time and all +time; but inquiries into the minor detail of temporary feeling, he +despised as utterly as he did maps; and wheresoever the temporary +feeling was in anywise contrary to that of his own day, he errs frankly, +and paints from his own time. For instance in this matter of love of +flowers; we have traced already, far enough for our general purposes, +the mediæval interest in them, whether to be enjoyed in the fields, or +to be used for types of ornamentation in dress. If Shakespere had cared +to enter into the spirit even of the early fifteenth century, he would +assuredly have marked this affection in some of his knights, and +indicated, even then, in heroic tempers, the peculiar respect for +loveliness of _dress_ which we find constantly in Dante. But he could +not do this; he had not seen it in real life. In his time dress had +become an affectation and absurdity. Only fools, or wise men in their +weak moments, showed much concern about it; and the facts of human +nature which appeared to him general in the matter were the soldier's +disdain, and the coxcomb's care of it. Hence Shakespere's good soldier +is almost always in plain or battered armor; even the speech of Vernon +in Henry the Fourth, which, as far as I remember, is the only one that +bears fully upon the beauty of armor, leans more upon the spirit and +hearts of men--"bated, like eagles having lately bathed;" and has an +under-current of slight contempt running through the following line, +"Glittering in golden coats, _like images_;" while the beauty of the +young Harry is essentially the beauty of fiery and perfect youth, +answering as much to the Greek, or Roman, or Elizabethan knight as to +the mediæval one; whereas the definite interest in armor and dress is +opposed by Shakespere in the French (meaning to depreciate them), to the +English rude soldierliness: + + "_Con._ Tut, I have the best armor in the world. Would it were day! + _Orl._ You have an excellent armor, but let my horse have his due." + +And again: + + "My lord constable, the armor that I saw in your tent to-night, are + those stars, or suns, upon it?" + +while Henry, half proud of his poorness of array, speaks of armorial +splendor scornfully; the main idea being still of its being a gilded +show and vanity-- + + "Our gayness and our _gilt_ are all besmirched." + +This is essentially Elizabethan. The quarterings on a knight's shield, +or the inlaying of his armor, would never have been thought of by him as +mere "gayness or gilt" in earlier days.[112] In like manner, throughout +every scale of rank or feeling, from that of the French knights down to +Falstaff's "I looked he should have sent me two-and-twenty yards of +satin, as I am true knight, and he sends me security!" care for dress is +always considered by Shakespere as contemptible; and Mrs. Quickly +distinguishes herself from a true fairy by her solicitude to scour the +_chairs of order_--and "each fair instalment, coat, and several crest;" +and the association in her mind of the flowers in the fairy rings with +the + + "Sapphire, pearl, and rich embroidery, + Buckled below fair knighthood's bending knee;" + +while the true fairies, in field simplicity, are only anxious to "sweep +the dust behind the door;" and + + "With this field dew consecrate, + Every several chamber bless + Through this palace with sweet peace." + +Note the expression "Field dew consecrate." Shakespere loved courts and +camps; but he felt that sacredness and peace were in the dew of the +Fields only. + +§ 31. There is another respect in which he was wholly incapable of +entering into the spirit of the middle ages. He had no great art of any +kind around him in his own country, and was, consequently, just as +powerless to conceive the general influence of former art, as a man of +the most inferior calibre. Therefore it was, that I did not care to +quote his authority respecting the power of imitation, in the second +chapter of the preceding volume. If it had been needful to add his +testimony to that of Dante (given in § 5), I might have quoted +multitudes of passages wholly concurring with that, of which the "fair +Portia's counterfeit," with the following lines, and the implied ideal +of sculpture in the Winter's Tale, are wholly unanswerable instances. +But Shakespere's evidence in matters of art is as narrow as the range of +Elizabethan art in England, and resolves itself wholly into admiration +of two things,--mockery of life (as in this instance of Hermione as a +statue), or absolute splendor, as in the close of Romeo and Juliet, +where the notion of _gold_ as the chief source of dignity of aspect, +coming down to Shakespere from the times of the Field of the Cloth of +Gold, and, as I said before, strictly Elizabethan, would interfere +seriously with the pathos of the whole passage, but for the sense of +sacrifice implied in it: + + "As _rich_ shall Romeo by his lady lie + Poor sacrifices of our enmity." + +§ 32. And observe, I am not giving these examples as proof of any +smallness in Shakespere, but of his greatness; that is to say, of his +contentment, like every other great man who ever breathed, to paint +nothing but _what he saw_; and therefore giving perpetual evidence that +his sight was of the sixteenth, and not of the thirteenth century, +beneath all the broad and eternal humanity of his imagination. How far +in these modern days, emptied of splendor, it may be necessary for great +men having certain sympathies for those earlier ages, to act in this +differently from all their predecessors; and how far they may succeed in +the resuscitation of the past by habitually dwelling in all their +thoughts among vanished generations, are questions, of all practical and +present ones concerning art, the most difficult to decide; for already +in poetry several of our truest men have set themselves to this task, +and have indeed put more vitality into the shadows of the dead than most +others can give the presences of the living. Thus Longfellow, in the +Golden Legend, has entered more closely into the temper of the Monk, for +good and for evil, than ever yet theological writer or historian, though +they may have given their life's labor to the analysis: and, again, +Robert Browning is unerring in every sentence he writes of the Middle +Ages; always vital, right, and profound; so that in the matter of art, +with which we have been specially concerned, there is hardly a principle +connected with the mediæval temper, that he has not struck upon in those +seemingly careless and too rugged rhymes of his. There is a curious +instance, by the way, in a short poem referring to this very subject of +tomb and image sculpture; and illustrating just one of those phases of +local human character which, though belonging to Shakespere's own age, +he never noticed, because it was specially Italian and un-English; +connected also closely with the influence of mountains on the heart, and +therefore with our immediate inquiries. I mean the kind of admiration +with which a southern artist regarded the _stone_ he worked in; and the +pride which populace or priest took in the possession of precious +mountain substance, worked into the pavements of their cathedrals, and +the shafts of their tombs. + +§ 33. Observe, Shakespere, in the midst of architecture and tombs of +wood, or freestone, or brass, naturally thinks of _gold_ as the best +enriching and ennobling substance for them;--in the midst also of the +fever of the Renaissance he writes, as every one else did, in praise of +precisely the most vicious master of that school--Giulio Romano; but the +modern poet, living much in Italy, and quit of the Renaissance +influence, is able fully to enter into the Italian feeling, and to see +the evil of the Renaissance tendency, not because he is greater than +Shakespere, but because he is in another element, and has _seen_ other +things. I miss fragments here and there not needed for my purpose in the +passage quoted, without putting asterisks, for I weaken the poem enough +by the omissions, without spoiling it also by breaks. + + "_The Bishop orders his tomb in St. Praxed's Church._ + + "As here I lie + In this state chamber, dying by degrees, + Hours, and long hours, in the dead night, I ask, + Do I live--am I dead? Peace, peace, seems all; + St. Praxed's ever was the church for peace. + And so, about this tomb of mine. I fought + With tooth and nail to save my niche, ye know; + Old Gandolf[113] cozened me, despite my care. + Shrewd was that snatch from out the corner south + He graced his carrion with. + Yet still my niche is not so cramped but thence + One sees the pulpit o' the epistle side, + And somewhat of the choir, those silent seats; + And up into the aery dome where live + The angels, and a sunbeam's sure to lurk. + And I shall fill my slab of basalt there, + And 'neath my tabernacle take my rest, + With those nine columns round me, two and two, + The odd one at my feet, where Anselm[114] stands; + Peach-blossom marble all. + Swift as a weaver's shuttle fleet our years: + Man goeth to the grave, and where is he? + Did I say basalt for my slab, sons? Black-- + 'Twas ever antique-black[115] I meant! How else + Shall ye contrast my frieze to come beneath? + The bas-relief in bronze ye promised me, + Those Pans and Nymphs ye wot of, and perchance + Some tripod, thyrsus, with a vase or so, + The Saviour at his sermon on the mount, + St. Praxed in a glory, and one Pan, + And Moses with the tables ... but I know + Ye mark me not! What do they whisper thee, + Child of my bowels, Anselm? Ah, ye hope + To revel down my villas while I gasp, + Bricked o'er with beggar's mouldy travertine, + Which Gandolf from his tomb-top chuckles at! + Nay, boys, ye love me--all of jasper, then! + There's plenty jasper somewhere in the world-- + And have I not St. Praxed's ear to pray + Horses for ye, and brown Greek manuscripts. + That's if ye carve my epitaph aright, + Choice Latin, picked phrase, Tully's every word, + No gaudy ware like Gandolf's second line-- + Tully, my masters? Ulpian serves _his_ need." + +§ 34. I know no other piece of modern English, prose or poetry, in which +there is so much told, as in these lines, of the Renaissance +spirit,--its worldliness, inconsistency, pride, hypocrisy, ignorance of +itself, love of art, of luxury, and of good Latin. It is nearly all that +I said of the central Renaissance in thirty pages of the "Stones of +Venice" put into as many lines, Browning's being also the antecedent +work. The worst of it is that this kind of concentrated writing needs so +much _solution_ before the reader can fairly get the good of it, that +people's patience fails them, and they give the thing up as insoluble; +though, truly, it ought to be to the current of common thought like +Saladin's talisman, dipped in clear water, not soluble altogether, but +making the element medicinal. + +§ 35. It is interesting, by the way, with respect to this love of +stones in the Italian mind, to consider the difference necessitated in +the English temper merely by the general domestic use of wood instead of +marble. In that old Shakesperian England, men must have rendered a +grateful homage to their oak forests, in the sense of all that they owed +to their goodly timbers in the wainscot and furniture of the rooms they +loved best, when the blue of the frosty midnight was contrasted, in the +dark diamonds of the lattice, with the glowing brown of the warm, +fire-lighted, crimson-tapestried walls. Not less would an Italian look +with a grateful regard on the hill summits, to which he owed, in the +scorching of his summer noonday, escape into the marble corridor or +crypt palpitating only with cold and smooth variegation of the unfevered +mountain veins. In some sort, as, both in our stubbornness and our +comfort, we not unfitly describe ourselves typically as Hearts of Oak, +the Italians might in their strange and variegated mingling of passion, +like purple color, with a cruel sternness, like white rock, truly +describe themselves as Hearts of Stone. + +§ 36. Into this feeling about marble in domestic use, Shakespere, having +seen it even in northern luxury, could partly enter, and marks it in +several passages of his Italian plays. But if the reader still doubts +his limitation to his own experience in all subjects of imagination, let +him consider how the removal from mountain influence in his youth, so +necessary for the perfection of his lower human sympathy, prevented him +from ever rendering with any force the feelings of the mountain +anchorite, or indicating in any of his monks the deep spirit of +monasticism. Worldly cardinals or nuncios he can fathom to the +uttermost; but where, in all his thoughts, do we find St. Francis, or +Abbot Samson? The "Friar" of Shakespere's plays is almost the only stage +conventionalism which he admitted; generally nothing more than a weak +old man who lives in a cell, and has a rope about his waist. + +§ 37. While, finally, in such slight allusions as he makes to mountain +scenery itself, it is very curious to observe the accurate limitation of +his sympathies to such things as he had known in his youth; and his +entire preference of human interest, and of courtly and kingly dignities +to the nobleness of the hills. This is most marked in Cymbeline, where +the term "mountaineer" is, as with Dante, always one of reproach; and +the noble birth of Arviragus and Guiderius is shown by their holding +their mountain cave as + + "A cell of ignorance; travelling abed. + A prison for a debtor;" + +and themselves, educated among hills, as in all things contemptible: + + "We are beastly; subtle as the fox, for prey; + Like warlike as the wolf, for what we eat: + Our valor is to chase what flies; our cage + We make our choir, as doth the prisoned bird." + +A few phrases occur here and there which might justify the supposition +that he had seen high mountains, but never implying awe or admiration. +Thus Demetrius: + + "These things seem _small_ and _indistinguishable_, + _Like far-off mountains, turned into clouds_." + +"Taurus snow," and the "frosty Caucasus," are used merely as types of +purity or cold; and though the avalanche is once spoken of as an image +of power, it is with instantly following depreciation: + + "Rush on his host, as doth the melted snow + Upon the valleys, whose low vassal seat + The Alps doth spit and void his rheum upon." + +§ 38. There was only one thing belonging to hills that Shakespere seemed +to feel as noble--the pine tree, and that was because he had seen it in +Warwickshire, clumps of pine occasionally rising on little sandstone +mounds, as at the place of execution of Piers Gaveston, above the +lowland woods. He touches on this tree fondly again and again. + + "As rough, + Their royal blood enchafed, as the rud'st wind, + That by his top doth take the mountain pine, + And make him stoop to the vale." + + "The strong-based promontory + Have I made shake, and by the spurs plucked up + The pine and cedar." + +Where note his observance of the peculiar horizontal roots of the pine, +spurred as it is by them like the claw of a bird, and partly propped, as +the aiguilles by those rock promontories at their bases which I have +always called their spurs, this observance of the pine's strength and +animal-like grasp being the chief reason for his choosing it, above all +other trees, for Ariel's prison. Again: + + "You may as well forbid the mountain pines + To wag their high tops, and to make no noise + When they are fretted with the gusts of heaven." + +And yet again: + + "But when, from under this terrestrial ball, + He fires the proud tops of the eastern pines." + +We may judge, by the impression which this single feature of hill +scenery seems to have made on Shakespere's mind, because he had seen it +in his youth, how his whole temper would have been changed if he had +lived in a more sublime country, and how essential it was to his power +of contemplation of mankind that he should be removed from the sterner +influences of nature. For the rest, so far as Shakespere's work has +imperfections of any kind,--the trivialness of many of his adopted +plots, for instance, and the comparative rarity with which he admits the +ideal of an enthusiastic virtue arising out of principle; virtue being +with him for the most part founded simply on the affections joined with +inherent purity in his women or on mere manly pride and honor in his +men;[116]--in a word, whatever difference, involving inferiority, there +exists between him and Dante, in his conceptions of the relation between +this world and the next, we may partly trace as we did the difference +between Bacon and Pascal, to the less noble character of the scenes +around him in his youth; and admit that, though it was necessary for his +special work that he should be put, as it were, on a level with his +race, on those plains of Stratford, we should see in this a proof, +instead of a negation, of the mountain power over human intellect. For +breadth and perfectness of condescending sight, the Shakesperian mind +stands alone; but in _ascending_ sight it is limited. The breadth of +grasp is innate; the stoop and slightness of it was given by the +circumstances of scene; and the difference between those careless +masques of heathen gods, or unbelieved though mightily conceived visions +of fairy, witch, or risen spirit, and the earnest faith of Dante's +vision of Paradise, is the true measure of the difference in influence +between the willowy banks of Avon, and the purple hills of Arno. + +§ 39. Our third inquiry, into the influence of mountains on domestic and +military character, was, we said, to be deferred; for this reason, that +it is too much involved with the consideration of the influence of +simple rural life in unmountainous districts, to be entered upon with +advantage until we have examined the general beauty of vegetation, +whether lowland or mountainous. I hope to pursue this inquiry, +therefore, at the close of the next volume; only desiring, in the +meantime, to bring one or two points connected with it under the +consideration of our English travellers. + +§ 40. For, it will be remembered, we first entered on this subject in +order to obtain some data as to the possibility of a Practical Ideal in +Swiss life, correspondent, in some measure, to the poetical ideal of the +same, which so largely entertains the European public. Of which +possibility, I do not think, after what we have even already seen of the +true effect of mountains on the human mind, there is any reason to +doubt, even if that ideal had not been presented to us already in some +measure, in the older life of the Swiss republics. But of its +possibility, _under present circumstances_, there is, I grieve to say, +the deepest reason to doubt; and that the more, because the question is +not whether the mountaineer can be raised into a happier life by the +help of the active nations of the plains; but whether he can yet be +protected from the infection of the folly and vanity of those nations. I +urged, in the preceding chapter, some consideration of what might be +accomplished, if we chose to devote to the help what we now devote to +the mockery of the Swiss. But I would that the enlightened population of +Paris and London were content with doing nothing;--that they were +satisfied with expenditure upon their idle pleasures, in their idle way; +and would leave the Swiss to their own mountain gloom of unadvancing +independence. I believe that every franc now spent by travellers among +the Alps tends more or less to the undermining of whatever special +greatness there is in the Swiss character; and the persons I met in +Switzerland, whose position and modes of life rendered them best able to +give me true information respecting the present state of their country, +among many causes of national deterioration, spoke with chief fear of +the influx of English wealth, gradually connecting all industry with the +wants and ways of strangers, and inviting all idleness to depend upon +their casual help; thus gradually resolving the ancient consistency and +pastoral simplicity of the mountain life into the two irregular trades +of innkeeper[117] and mendicant. + +§ 41. I could say much on this subject if I had any hope of doing good +by saying anything. But I have none. The influx of foreigners into +Switzerland must necessarily be greater every year, and the greater it +is, the larger, in the crowd, will be the majority of persons whose +objects in travelling will be, first, to get as fast as possible from +place to place, and, secondly, at every place where they arrive, to +obtain the kind of accommodation and amusement to which they are +accustomed in Paris, London, Brighton, or Baden. Railroads are already +projected round the head of the Lake of Geneva, and through the town of +Fribourg; the head of the Lake of Geneva being precisely and accurately +the one spot of Europe whose character, and influence on human mind, are +special; and unreplaceable if destroyed, no other spot resembling, or +being in any wise comparable to it, in its peculiar way: while the town +of Fribourg is in like manner the only mediæval mountain town of +importance left to us; Inspruck and such others being wholly modern, +while Fribourg yet retains much of the aspect it had in the fourteenth +and fifteenth centuries. The valley of Chamouni, another spot also +unique in its way, is rapidly being turned into a kind of Cremorne +Gardens; and I can see, within the perspective of but few years, the +town of Lucerne consisting of a row of symmetrical hotels round the foot +of the lake, its old bridges destroyed, an iron one built over the +Reuss, and an acacia promenade carried along the lake-shore, with a +German band playing under a Chinese temple at the end of it, and the +enlightened travellers, representatives of European civilization, +performing before the Alps, in each afternoon summer sunlight, in their +modern manner, the Dance of Death. + +§ 42. All this is inevitable; and it has its good as well as its evil +side. I can imagine the zealous modernist replying to me that when all +this is happily accomplished, my melancholy peasants of the valley of +Trient will be turned into thriving shopkeepers, the desolate streets of +Sion into glittering thoroughfares, and the marshes of the Valais into +prosperous market-gardens. I hope so; and indeed am striving every day +to conceive more accurately, and regulate all my efforts by the +expectation of, the state of society, not now, I suppose, much more +than twenty years in advance of us, when Europe, having satisfactorily +effaced all memorials of the past, and reduced itself to the likeness of +America, or of any other new country (only with less room for exertion), +shall begin to consider what is next to be done, and to what newness of +arts and interests may best be devoted the wealth of its marts, and the +strength of its multitudes. Which anticipations and estimates, however, +I have never been able, as yet, to carry out with any clearness, being +always arrested by the confused notion of a necessity for solitude, +disdain of buying and selling, and other elements of that old mediæval +and mountain gloom, as in some way connected with the efforts of nearly +all men who have either seen far into the destiny, or been much helpful +to the souls, of their race. And the grounds of this feeling, whether +right or wrong, I hope to analyze more fully in the next volume; only +noting, finally, in this, one or two points for the consideration of +those among us with whom it may sometimes become a question, whether +they will help forward, or not, the turning of a sweet mountain valley +into an abyss of factory-stench and toil, or the carrying of a line of +traffic through some green place of shepherd solitude. + +§ 43. For, if there be any truth in the impression which I have always +felt, and just now endeavored to enforce, that the mountains of the +earth are its natural cathedrals, or natural altars, overlaid with gold, +and bright with broidered work of flowers, and with their clouds resting +on them as the smoke of a continual sacrifice, it may surely be a +question with some of us, whether the tables of the moneychanger, +however fit and commendable they may be as furniture in other places, +are precisely the thing which it is the whole duty of man to get well +set up in the mountain temple. + +§ 44. And perhaps it may help to the better determination of this +question, if we endeavor, for a few patient moments, to bear with that +weakness of our forefathers in feeling an awe for the hills; and, +divesting ourselves, as far as may be, of our modern experimental or +exploring activity, and habit of regarding mountains chiefly as places +for gymnastic exercise, try to understand the temper, not indeed +altogether exemplary, but yet having certain truths and dignities in +it, to which we owe the founding of the Benedictine and Carthusian +cloisters in the thin Alpine air. And this monkish temper we may, I +suppose, best understand by considering the aspect under which mountains +are represented in the Monk's book. I found that in my late lectures, at +Edinburgh, I gave great offence by supposing, or implying, that +scriptural expressions could have any force as bearing upon modern +practical questions; so that I do not now, nor shall I any more, allude +to such expressions as in any wise necessarily bearing on the worldly +business of the practical Protestant, but only as necessary to be +glanced at in order to understand the temper of those old monks, who had +the awkward habit of understanding the Bible literally; and to get any +little good which momentary sympathy with the hearts of a large and +earnest class of men may surely bring to us. + +§ 45. The monkish view of mountains, then, already alluded to,[118] was +derived wholly from that Latin Vulgate of theirs; and, speaking as a +monk, it may perhaps be permitted me 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 that 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. + +§ 46. 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. + +Observe the connection of these three events. Although the _time_ 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 +_manner_ of their deaths was intended to be grievous or dishonorable 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 full purpose of ennobling the close of +their service upon the earth. It might have seemed to us more honorable +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. + +§ 47. 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 far 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 favor from him, +and he had prayed that he might be slain, and not see his +wretchedness.[119] 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, with +none, as now, 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 labored 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 armor. 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? + +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 _entireness_ 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 harbor 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. + +§ 48. 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. + +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 "_apart_;" 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 dwelling-place 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. + +§ 49. "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 the power to restore him; but it +_had_ 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 unto 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 so 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." + +If, in their remembrance of these things, and in their endeavor to +follow in the footsteps of their Master, religious men of by-gone 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, snow-like, on the Mount of Transfiguration. + + +FOOTNOTES + + [106] In tracing the _whole_ of the deep enjoyment to mountain + association, I of course except whatever feelings are connected with + the observance of rural life, or with that of architecture. None of + these feelings arise out of the landscape, properly so-called: the + pleasure with which we see a peasant's garden fairly kept, or a + ploughman doing his work well, or a group of children playing at a + cottage door, being wholly separate from that which we find in the + fields or commons around them; and the beauty of architecture, or + the associations connected with it, in like manner often ennobling + the most tame scenery;--yet not so but that we may always + distinguish between the abstract character of the unassisted + landscape, and the charm which it derives from the architecture. + Much of the majesty of French landscape consists in its grand and + grey village churches and turreted farmhouses, not to speak of its + cathedrals, castles, and beautifully placed cities. + + [107] One of the principal reasons for the false supposition that + Switzerland is not picturesque, is the error of most sketchers and + painters in representing pine forest in middle distance as dark + _green_, or grey green, whereas its true color is always purple, at + distances of even two or three miles. Let any traveller coming down + the Montanvert look for an aperture, three or four inches wide, + between the near pine branches, through which, standing eight or ten + feet from it, he can see the opposite forests on the Breven or + Flegère. Those forests are not above two or two and a half miles + from him; but he will find the aperture is filled by a tint of + nearly pure azure or purple, not by green. + + [108] The Savoyard's name for its flower, "Pain du Bon Dieu," is + very beautiful; from, I believe, the supposed resemblance of its + white and scattered blossom to the fallen manna. + + [109] See reference to his painting of stones in the last note to § + 28 of the chapter on Imagination Penetrative, Vol. II. + + [110] In saying this I do not, of course, forget the influence of + the sea on the Pisans and Venetians; but that is a separate subject, + and must be examined in the next volume. + + [111] "With fairest flowers + While summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele, + I'll sweeten thy sad grave. Thou shalt not lack + The flower that's like thy face--pale primrose, nor + The azured harebell--like thy veins; no, nor + The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander, + Outsweetened not thy breath. The ruddock would + With charitable bill bring thee all this; + Yea, and furred moss besides, when flowers are none, + To winter-ground thy corse. + _Gui._ Prithee, have done, + And do not play in wench-like words with that + Which is so serious." + + Imogen herself, afterwards in deeper passion, will give weeds--not + flowers--and something more: + + "And when + With wildwood leaves, and weeds, I have strewed his grave, + And on it said a century of prayers, + Such as I can, twice o'er, I'll weep, and sigh, + And, leaving so his service, follow you." + + [112] If the reader thinks that in Henry the Fifth's time the + Elizabethan temper might already have been manifesting itself, let + him compare the English herald's speech, act 2, scene 2, of King + John; and by way of specimen of Shakespere's historical care, or + regard of mediæval character, the large use of _artillery_ in the + previous scene. + + [113] The last bishop. + + [114] His favorite son; nominally his nephew. + + [115] "Nero Antico" is more familiar to our ears; but Browning does + right in translating it; as afterwards "cipollino" into + "onion-stone." Our stupid habit of using foreign words without + translation is continually losing us half the force of the foreign + language. How many travellers hearing the term "cipollino" recognize + the intended sense of a stone splitting into concentric coats, like + an onion? + + [116] I mean that Shakespere almost always implies a total + difference in _nature_ between one human being and another; one + being from the birth, pure and affectionate, another base and cruel; + and he displays each, in its sphere, as having the nature of dove, + wolf, or lion, never much implying the government or change of + nature by any external principle. There can be no question that in + the main he is right in this view of human nature; still, the other + form of virtue does exist occasionally, and was never, as far as I + recollect, taken much note of by him. And with this stern view of + humanity, Shakespere joined a sorrowful view of Fate, closely + resembling that of the ancients. He is distinguished from Dante + eminently by his always dwelling on last causes instead of first + causes. Dante invariably points to the moment of the soul's choice + which fixed its fate, to the instant of the day when it read no + farther, or determined to give bad advice about Penestrino. But + Shakespere always leans on the force of Fate, as it urges the final + evil; and dwells with infinite bitterness on the power of the + wicked, and the infinitude of result dependent seemingly on little + things. A fool brings the last piece of news from Verona, and the + dearest lives of its noble houses are lost; they might have been + saved if the sacristan had not stumbled as he walked. Othello + mislays his handkerchief, and there remains nothing for him but + death. Hamlet gets hold of the wrong foil, and the rest is silence. + Edmund's runner is a moment too late at the prison, and the feather + will not move at Cordelia's lips. Salisbury a moment too late at the + tower, and Arthur lies on the stones dead. Goneril and Iago have on + the whole, in this world, Shakespere sees, much of their own way, + though they come to a bad end. It is a pin that Death pierces the + king's fortress wall with; and Carelessness and Folly sit sceptred + and dreadful, side by side with the pin-armed skeleton. + + [117] Not the old hospitable innkeeper, who honored his guests and + was honored by them, than whom I do not know a more useful or worthy + character; but the modern innkeeper, proprietor of a building in the + shape of a factory, making up three hundred beds; who necessarily + regards his guests in the light of Numbers 1, 2, 3-300, and is too + often felt or apprehended by them only as a presiding influence of + extortion. + + [118] Vol III. Chap. XIV. § 10. + + [119] Numbers, xi. 12, 15. + + + + +APPENDIX. + + +I. MODERN GROTESQUE. + +The reader may perhaps be somewhat confused by the different tone with +which, in various passages of these volumes, I have spoken of the +dignity of Expression. He must remember that there are three distinct +schools of expression, and that it is impossible, on every occasion when +the term is used, to repeat the definition of the three, and distinguish +the school spoken of. + +There is, first, the Great Expressional School, consisting of the +sincerely thoughtful and affectionate painters of early times, masters +of their art, as far as it was known in their days. Orcagna, John +Bellini, Perugino, and Angelico, are its leading masters. All the men +who compose it are, without exception, _colorists_. The modern +Pre-Raphaelites belong to it. + +Secondly, the Pseudo-Expressional School, wholly of modern development, +consisting of men who have never mastered their art, and are probably +incapable of mastering it, but who hope to substitute sentiment for good +painting. It is eminently characterized by its contempt of color, and +may be most definitely distinguished as the School of Clay. + +Thirdly, the Grotesque Expressional School, consisting of men who, +having peculiar powers of observation for the stronger signs of +character in anything, and sincerely delighting in them, lose sight of +the associated refinements or beauties. This school is apt, more or +less, to catch at faults or strangenesses; and, associating its powers +of observation with wit or malice, produces the wild, gay, or satirical +grotesque in early sculpture, and in modern times, our rich and various +popular caricature. + +I took no note of this branch of art in the chapter on the Grotesque +Ideal; partly because I did not wish to disturb the reader's mind in our +examination of the great imaginative grotesque, and also because I did +not feel able to give a distinct account of this branch, having never +thoroughly considered the powers of eye and hand involved in its finer +examples. But assuredly men of strong intellect and fine sense are found +among the caricaturists, and it is to them that I allude in saying that +the most subtle expression is often attained by "slight studies;" while +it is of the pseudo-expressionalist, or "high art" school that I am +speaking, when I say that expression may "sometimes be elaborated by the +toil of the dull;" in neither case meaning to depreciate the work, +wholly different in every way, of the great expressional schools. + +I regret that I have not been able, as yet, to examine with care the +powers of mind involved in modern caricature. They are, however, always +partial and imperfect; for the very habit of looking for the leading +lines by the smallest possible number of which the expression may be +attained, warps the power of _general_ attention, and blunts the +perception of the delicacies of the entire form and color. Not that +caricature, or exaggeration of points of character, may not be +occasionally indulged in by the greatest men--as constantly by Leonardo; +but then it will be found that the caricature consists, not in imperfect +or violent _drawing_, but in delicate and perfect drawing of strange and +exaggerated forms quaintly combined: and even thus, I believe, the habit +of looking for such conditions will be found injurious; I strongly +suspect its operation on Leonardo to have been the increase of his +non-natural tendencies in his higher works. A certain acknowledgment of +the ludicrous element is admitted in corners of the pictures of +Veronese--in dwarfs or monkeys; but it is _never_ caricatured or +exaggerated. Tintoret and Titian hardly admit the element at all. They +admit the noble grotesque to the full, in all its quaintness, +brilliancy, and awe; but never any form of it depending on exaggeration, +partiality, or fallacy.[120] + +I believe, therefore, whatever wit, delicate appreciation of ordinary +character, or other intellectual power may belong to the modern masters +of caricature, their method of study for ever incapacitates them from +passing beyond a certain point, and either reaching any of the perfect +forms of art themselves, or understanding them in others. Generally +speaking, their power is limited to the use of the pen or pencil--they +cannot touch color without discomfiture; and even those whose work is of +higher aim, and wrought habitually in color, are prevented by their +pursuit of _piquant_ expression from understanding noble expression. +Leslie furnishes several curious examples of this defect of perception +in his late work on Art;--talking, for instance, of the "insipid faces +of Francia." + +On the other hand, all the real masters of caricature deserve honor in +this respect, that their gift is peculiarly their own--innate and +incommunicable. No teaching, no hard study, will ever enable other +people to equal, in their several ways, the works of Leech or +Cruikshank; whereas, the power of pure drawing is communicable, within +certain limits, to every one who has good sight and industry. I do not, +indeed, know how far, by devoting the attention to points of character, +caricaturist skill may be laboriously attained; but certainly the power +is, in the masters of the school, innate from their childhood. + +Farther. It is evident that many subjects of thought may be dealt with +by this kind of art which are inapproachable by any other, and that its +influence over the popular mind must always be great; hence it may often +happen that men of strong purpose may rather express themselves in this +way (and continue to make such expression a matter of earnest study), +than turn to any less influential, though more dignified, or even more +intrinsically meritorious, branch of art. And when the powers of quaint +fancy are associated (as is frequently the case) with stern +understanding of the nature of evil, and tender human sympathy, there +results a bitter, or pathetic spirit of grotesque, to which mankind at +the present day owe more thorough moral teaching than to any branch of +art whatsoever. + +In poetry, the temper is seen, in perfect manifestation, in the works of +Thomas Hood; in art, it is found both in various works of the +Germans,--their finest, and their least thought of; and more or less in +the works of George Cruikshank,[121] and in many of the illustrations +of our popular journals. On the whole, the most impressive examples of +it, in poetry and in art, which I remember, are the Song of the Shirt, +and the woodcuts of Alfred Rethel, before spoken of. A correspondent, +though coarser work appeared some little time back in Punch, namely, the +"General Février turned Traitor." + +The reception of the woodcut last named was in several respects a +curious test of modern feeling. For the sake of the general reader, it +may be well to state the occasion and character of it. It will be +remembered by all that early in the winter of 1854-5, so fatal by its +inclemency, and by our own improvidence, to our army in the Crimea, the +late Emperor of Russia said, or was reported to have said, that "his +best commanders, General January and General February, were not yet +come." The word, if ever spoken, was at once base, cruel, and +blasphemous; base, in precisely reversing the temper of all true +soldiers, so nobly instanced by the son of Saladin, when he sent, at the +very instant of the discomfiture of his own army, two horses to Coeur +de Lion, whose horse had been killed under him in the mêlée; cruel, +inasmuch as he ought not to have exulted in the thought of the death, by +slow suffering, of brave men; blasphemous, inasmuch as it contained an +appeal to Heaven of which he knew the hypocrisy. He himself died in +February; and the woodcut of which I speak represented a skeleton in +soldier's armor, entering his chamber, the driven sleet white on its +cloak and crest; laying its hand on his heart as he lay dead. + +There were some points to be regretted in the execution of the design, +but the thought was a grand one; the memory of the word spoken, and of +its answer, could hardly in any more impressive way have been recorded +for the people; and I believe that to all persons accustomed to the +earnest forms of art, it contained a profound and touching lesson. The +notable thing was, however, that it offended all persons _not_ in +earnest, and was loudly cried out against by the polite formalism of +society. This fate is, I believe, the almost inevitable one of +thoroughly genuine work, in these days, whether poetry or painting; but +what added to the singularity in this ease was that _coarse_ +heartlessness was even more offended than polite heartlessness. Thus, +Blackwood's Magazine,--which from the time that, with grace, judgment, +and tenderness peculiarly its own, it bid the dying Keats "back to his +gallipots,"[122] to that in which it partly arrested the last efforts, +and shortened the life of Turner, had with an infallible instinct for +the wrong, given what pain it could, and withered what strength it +could, in every great mind that was in anywise within its reach; and had +made itself, to the utmost of its power, frost and disease of the heart +to the most noble spirits of England,--took upon itself to be generously +offended at this triumphing over the death of England's enemy, because, +"by proving that he is obliged to undergo the common lot of all, his +brotherhood is at once reasserted."[123] He was not, then, a brother +while he was alive? or is our brother's blood in general not to be +acknowledged by us till it rushes up against us from the ground? I know +that this is a common creed, whether a peculiarly wise or Christian one +may be doubted. It may not, indeed, be well to triumph over the dead, +but perhaps it is less well that the world so often tries to triumph +over the living. And as for exultation over a fallen foe (though there +was _none_ in the mind of the man who drew that monarch dead), it may be +remembered that there have been worthy persons, before now, guilty of +this great wickedness,--nay, who have even fitted the words of their +exultation to timbrels, and gone forth to sing them in dances. There +have even been those--women, too,--who could make a mock at the agony of +a mother weeping over her lost son, when that son had been the enemy of +their country; and their mock has been preserved, as worthy to be read +by human eyes. "The mother of Sisera looked out at a window. 'Hath he +not sped?'" I do not say this was right, still less that it was wrong; +but only that it would be well for us if we could quit our habit of +thinking that what we say of the dead is of more weight than what we say +of the living. The dead either know nothing, or know enough to despise +both us and our insults, or adulation. + +"Well, but," it is answered, "there will always be this weakness in our +human nature; we shall for ever, in spite of reason, take pleasure in +doing funereal honor to the corpse, and writing sacredness to memory +upon marble." Then, if you are to do this,--if you are to put off your +kindness until death,--why not, in God's name, put off also your enmity? +and if you choose to write your lingering affections upon stones, wreak +also your delayed anger upon clay. This would be just, and, in the last +case, little as you think it, generous. The true baseness is in the +bitter reverse--the strange iniquity of our folly. Is a man to be +praised, honored, pleaded for? It might do harm to praise or plead for +him while he lived. Wait till he is dead. Is he to be maligned, +dishonored, and discomforted? See that you do it while he is alive. It +would be too ungenerous to slander him when he could feel malice no +more; too contemptible to try to hurt him when he was past anguish. Make +yourselves busy, ye unjust, ye lying, ye hungry for pain! Death is near. +This is your hour, and the power of darkness. Wait, ye just, ye +merciful, ye faithful in love! Wait but for a little while, for this is +not your rest. + +"Well, but," it is still answered, "is it not, indeed, ungenerous to +speak ill of the dead, since they cannot defend themselves?" + +Why should they? If you speak ill of them falsely, it concerns you, not +them. Those lies of thine will "hurt a man as thou art," assuredly they +will hurt thyself; but that clay, or the delivered soul of it, in no +wise. Ajacean shield, seven-folded, never stayed lance-thrust as that +turf will, with daisies pied. What you say of those quiet ones is wholly +and utterly the world's affair and yours. The lie will, indeed, cost its +proper price and work its appointed work; you may ruin living myriads by +it,--you may stop the progress of centuries by it,--you may have to pay +your own soul for it,--but as for ruffling one corner of the folded +shroud by it, think it not. The dead have none to defend them! Nay, they +have two defenders, strong enough for the need--God, and the worm. + + +II. ROCK CLEAVAGE. + +I am well aware how insufficient, and, in some measure, how disputable, +the account given in the preceding chapters of the cleavages of the +slaty crystallines must appear to geologists. But I had several reasons, +good or bad as they may be, for treating the subject in such a manner. +The first was, that considering the science of the artist as eminently +the science of _aspects_ (see Vol. III. Chap. XVII. § 43), I kept myself +in all my investigations of natural objects as much as possible in the +state of an uninformed spectator of the outside of things, receiving +simply what impressions the external phenomena first induce. For the +natural tendency of accurate science is to make the possessor of it look +for, and eminently see, the things connected with his special pieces of +knowledge; and as all accurate science must be sternly limited, his +sight of nature gets limited accordingly. I observed that all our young +figure-painters were rendered, to all intents and purposes, _blind_ by +their knowledge of anatomy. They saw only certain muscles and bones, of +which they had learned the positions by rote, but could not, on account +of the very prominence in their minds of these bits of fragmentary +knowledge, see the real movement, color, rounding, or any other subtle +quality of the human form. And I was quite sure that if I examined the +mountain anatomy scientifically, I should go wrong, in like manner, +touching the external aspects. Therefore in beginning the inquiries of +which the results are given in the preceding pages, I closed all +geological books, and set myself, as far as I could, to see the Alps in +a simple, thoughtless, and untheorizing manner; but to _see_ them, if it +might be, thoroughly. If I am wrong in any of the statements made after +this kind of examination, the very fact of this error is an interesting +one, as showing the kind of deception which the external aspects of +hills are calculated to induce in an unprejudiced observer; but, whether +wrong or right, I believe the results I have given are those which +naturally would strike an artist, and _ought_ to strike him, just as the +apparently domical form of the sky, and radiation of the sun's light, +ought to be marked by him as pictorial phenomena, though the sky is not +domical, and though the radiation of sunbeams is a perspective +deception. There are, however, one or two points on which my opinions +might seem more adverse to the usual positions of geologists than they +really are, owing to my having left out many _qualifying_ statements for +fear of confusing the reader. These I must here briefly touch upon. And, +first, I know that I shall be questioned for not having sufficiently +dwelt upon slaty cleavages running transversely across series of beds, +and for generally speaking as if the slaty crystalline rocks were merely +dried beds of micaceous sand, in which the flakes of mica naturally lay +parallel with the beds, or only at such an angle to them as is +constantly assumed by particles of drift. Now the reason of this is +simply that my own mountain experience has led me _always_ among rocks +which induced such an impression; that, in general, artists seeking for +the noblest hill scenery, will also get among such rocks, and that +therefore I judged it best to explain their structure completely, merely +alluding (in Chap. X. § 7) to the curious results of cross cleavage +among the softer slates, and leaving the reader to pursue the inquiry, +if he cared to do so; although, in reality, it matters very little to +the artist whether the slaty cleavage be across the beds or not, for to +him the cleavage itself is always the important matter, and the +stratification, if contrary to it, is usually so obscure as to be +naturally, and therefore properly, lost sight of. And touching the +disputed question whether the micaceous arrangements of metamorphic +rocks are the results of subsequent crystallization, or of aqueous +deposition, I had no special call to speak: the whole subject appeared +to me only more mysterious the more I examined it; but my own +impressions were always strongly for the aqueous deposition; nor in such +cases as that of the beds of the Matterhorn (drawn in Plate +39+), +respecting which, somewhat exceptionally, I have allowed myself to +theorize a little, does the matter appear to me disputable. + +And I was confirmed in this feeling by De Saussure; the only writer +whose help I did not refuse in the course of these inquiries. _His_ I +received for this reason,--all other geological writers whose works I +had examined were engaged in the maintenance of some theory or other, +and always gathering materials to support it. But I found Saussure had +gone to the Alps as I desired to go myself, only to _look_ at them, and +describe them as they were, loving them heartily--loving them, the +positive Alps, more than himself, or than science, or than any theories +of science; and I found his descriptions, therefore, clear, and +trustworthy; and that when I had not visited any place myself, +Saussure's report upon it might always be received without question. + +Not but that Saussure himself has a pet theory, like other human beings; +only it is quite subordinate to his love of the Alps: He is a steady +advocate of the aqueous crystallization of rocks, and never loses a fair +opportunity of a blow at the Huttonians; but his opportunities are +always _fair_, his description of what he sees is wholly impartial; it +is only when he gets home and arranges his papers that he puts in the +little aqueously inclined paragraphs, and never a paragraph without just +cause. He may, perhaps, overlook the evidence on the opposite side; but +in the Alps the igneous alteration of the rocks, and the modes of their +upheaval, seem to me subjects of intense difficulty and mystery, and as +such Saussure always treats them; the evidence for the original +_deposition_ by water of the slaty crystallines appears to him, as it +does to me, often perfectly distinct. + +Now, Saussure's universal principle was exactly the one on which I have +founded my account of the slaty crystallines:--"Fidèle à mon principle, +de ne regarder comme des couches, dans les montagnes schisteuses, que +les divisions parallèles aux feuillets des schistes dont elles sont +composées."--_Voyages_, § 1747. I know that this is an arbitrary, and in +some cases an assuredly false, principle; but the assumption of it by De +Saussure proves all that I want to prove,--namely, that the beds of the +slaty crystallines are in the Alps in so large a plurality of instances +correspondent in direction to their folia, as to induce even a cautious +reasoner to assume such correspondence to be universal. + +The next point, however, on which I shall be opposed, is one on which I +speak with far less confidence, for in this Saussure himself is against +me,--namely, the parallelism of the beds sloping under the Mont Blanc. +Saussure states twice, §§ 656, 677, that they are arranged in the form +of a fan. I can only repeat that every measurement and every drawing I +made in Chamouni led me to the conclusions stated in the text, and so I +leave the subject to better investigators; this one fact being +indisputable, and the only one on which for my purpose it is necessary +to insist, that, whether in Chamouni the beds be radiant or not, to an +artist's eye they are usually parallel; and throughout the Alps no +phenomenon is more constant than the rounding of surfaces across the +extremities of beds sloping outwards, as seen in my plates +37+, +40+, +and +48+, and this especially in the most majestic mountain masses. +Compare De Saussure of the Grimsel, § 1712: "Toujours il est bien +remarquable que ces feuillets, verticaux au sommet, s'inclinent ensuite, +comme à Chamouni, contre le dehors de la montagne:" and again of the +granite at Guttannen, § 1679: "Ces couches ne sont pas tout-a-fait +verticales; elles s'appuyent un peu contre le Nord-Est, ou, comme à +Chamouni, contre le dehors de la montagne." Again, of the "quartz +micacé" of Zumloch, § 1723: "Ces rochers sont en couches à peu près +verticales, dont les plans courent du Nord-Est au Sud-Ouest, en +s'appuyant, _suivant l'usage_, contre l'extérieur de la montagne, ou +contre la vallée." Again, on the Pass of the Griés, § 1738: "Le rocher +présente des couches d'un schiste micacé rayé comme une étoffe; comme de +l'autre côté ils surplombent vers le dehors de la montagne." Without +referring to other passages I think Saussure's simple words, "suivant +l'usage," are enough to justify my statement in Chap. XIV. § 3; only +the reader must of course always remember that every conceivable +position of beds takes place in the Alps, and all I mean to assert +generally is, that where the masses are most enormous and impressive, +and formed of slaty crystalline rocks, there the run of the beds up, as +it were, from within the mountain to its surface, will, in all +probability, become a notable feature in the scene as regarded by an +artist. One somewhat unusual form assumed by horizontal beds of slaty +crystallines, or of granite, is described by Saussure with unusual +admiration; and the passage is worth extracting, as bearing on the +terraced ideal of rocks in the middle ages. The scene is in the Val +Formazza. + +"Indépendamment de l'intérêt que ces couches présentent au géologiste +sous un nombre de rapports qu'il seroit trop long et peut-être inutile +de détailler, elles présentent même pour le peintre, un superbe tableau. +Je n'ai jamais vu de plus beaux rochers et distribués en plus grandes +masses; ici, blancs; là, noircis par les lichens; là, peints de ces +belles couleurs variées, que nous admirions au Grimsel, et entremêlés +d'arbres, dont les uns couronnent le faîte de la montagne, et d'autres +sont inégalement jetés sur les corniches qui en séparent les couches. +Vers le bas de la montagne l'oeil se repose sur de beaux vergers, dans +des prairies dont le terrein est inégal et varié, et sur de magnifiques +chàtaigniers, dont les branches étendues ombragent les rochers contre +lesquels ils croissent. En général, ces granits en couches horizontals +redent ce pays charmant; car, quoiqu'il y ait, comme je l'ai dit, des +couches qui forment des saillies, cependant elles sont pour l'ordinaire +arrangées en gradins, ou en grandes assises posées en reculement les +unes derrière les autres, et les bords de ces gradins sont couverts de +la plus belle verdure, et d'arbres distribués de la manière la plus +pittoresque. On voit è mme des montagnes très-élevées, qui out la forme +de pain de sucre, et qui sont entourées et couronnées jusqu'à leur +sommet, de guirlandes d'arbres assis sur les intervalles des couches, et +qui forment l'effet du monde le plus singulier."-_Voyages_, § 1758. + +Another statement, which I made generally, referring, for those +qualifications which it is so difficult to give without confusing the +reader, to this appendix, was that of the usually greater hardness of +the tops of mountains as compared with their flanks. My own experience +among the Alps has furnished me with few exceptions to this law; but +there is a very interesting one, according to Saussure, in the range of +the Furca del Bosco. (Voyages, § 1779.) + +Lastly, at page 186 of this volume, I have alluded to the various +cleavages of the aiguilles, out of which one only has been explained and +illustrated. I had not intended to treat the subject so partially; and +had actually prepared a long chapter, explaining the relations of five +different and important systems of cleavage in the Chamouni aiguilles. +When it was written, however, I found it looked so repulsive to readers +in general, and proved so little that was of interest even to readers in +particular, that I cancelled it, leaving only the account of what I +might, perhaps, not unjustifiably (from the first representation of it +in the Liber Studiorum) call Turner's cleavage. The following passage, +which was the introduction to the chapter, may serve to show that I have +not ignored the others, though I found, after long examination, that +Turner's was the principal one:-- + +"One of the principal distinctions between these crystalline masses and +stratified rocks, with respect to their outwardly apparent structure, is +the subtle complexity and number of _ranks_ in their crystalline +cleavages. The stratified masses have always a simple intelligible +organization; their beds lie in one direction, and certain fissures and +fractures of those beds lie in other clearly ascertainable directions; +seldom more than two or three _distinct_ directions of these fractures +being admitted. But if the traveller will set himself deliberately to +watch the shadows on the aiguilles of Chamouni as the sun moves round +them, he will find that nearly every quarter of an hour a new _set_ of +cleavages becomes visible, not confused and orderless, but a series of +lines inclining in some one definite direction, and that so positively, +that if he had only seen the aiguille at that moment, he would assuredly +have supposed its internal structure to be altogether regulated by the +lines of bed or cleavage then in sight. Let him, however, wait for +another quarter of an hour, and he will see those lines fade entirely +away as the sun rounds them; and another set, perhaps quite adverse to +them and assuredly lying in another direction, will as gradually become +visible, to die away in their turn, and be succeeded by a third scheme +of structure. + +"These 'dissolving views' of the geology of the aiguilles have often +thrown me into despair of ever being able to give any account of their +formation; but just in proportion as I became aware of the infinite +complexity of their framework, the one great fact rose into more +prominent and wonderful relief,--that through this inextricable +complexity there was always manifested _some_ authoritative principle. +It mattered not at what hour of the day the aiguilles were examined, at +that hour they had a system of structure belonging to the moment. No +confusion nor anarchy ever appeared amidst their strength, but an +ineffable order, only the more perfect because incomprehensible. They +differed from lower mountains, not merely in being more compact, but in +being more disciplined. + +"For, observe, the lines which cause these far-away effects of shadow, +are not, as often in less noble rocks, caused by real cracks through the +body of the mountain; for, were this so, it would follow, from what has +just been stated, that these aiguilles were cracked through and through +in every direction, and therefore actually weaker, instead of stronger, +than other rocks. But the appearance of fracture is entirely external, +and the sympathy or parallelism of the lines indicates, not an actual +splitting through the rock, but a mere disposition in the rock to split +harmoniously when it is compelled to do so. Thus, in the shell-like +fractures on the flank of the Aiguille Blaitière, the rock is not +actually divided, as it appears to be, into successive hollow plates. Go +up close to the inner angle between one bed of rock and the next, and +the whole mass will be found as firmly united as a piece of glass. There +is absolutely no crack between the beds,--no, not so much as would allow +the blade of a penknife to enter for a quarter of an inch;[124] but such +a subtle disposition to symmetry of fracture in the heart of the solid +rock, that the next thunderbolt which strikes on that edge of it will +rend away a shell-shaped fragment or series of fragments; and will +either break it so as to continue the line of one of the existing sides, +or in some other line parallel to that. And yet this resolvedness to +break into shell-shaped fragments running north and south is only +characteristic of the rock at this spot, and at certain other spots +where similar circumstances have brought out this peculiar humor. Forty +yards farther on it will be equally determined to break in another +direction, and nothing will persuade it to the contrary. Forty yards +farther it will change its mind again, and face its beds round to +another quarter of the compass; and yet all these alternating caprices +are each parts of one mighty continuous caprice, which is only masked +for a time, as threads of one color are in a patterned stuff by threads +of another; and thus from a distance, precisely the same cleavage is +seen repeated again and again in different places, forming a systematic +structure; while other groups of cleavages will become visible in their +turn, either as we change our place of observation, or as the sunlight +changes the direction of its fall." + +One part of these rocks, I think, no geologist interested in this +subject should pass without examination; viz., the little spur of +Blaitière drawn in Plate +29+, Fig. 3. It is seen, as there shown, from +the moraine of the Charmoz glacier, its summit bearing S. 40° W.; and +its cleavage bed leaning to the left or S.E., against the aiguille +Blaitière. If, however, we go down to the extremity of the rocks +themselves, on the right, we shall find that all those thick beams of +rock are actually _sawn into vertical timbers_ by other cleavage, +sometimes so fine as to look almost slaty, directed straight S.E., +against the aiguille, as if, continued, it would saw it through and +through; finally, cross the spur and go down to the glacier below, +between it and the Aiguille du Plan, and the bottom of the spur will be +found presenting the most splendid mossy surfaces, through which the +true gneissitic cleavage is faintly traceable, dipping _at right angles_ +to the beds in Fig. 3, or under the Aiguille Blaitière, thus concurring +with the beds of La Côte. + +I forgot to note that the view of this Aiguille Blaitière, given in +Plate +39+, was taken from the station marked _q_ in the reference +figure, p. 163; and the sketch of the Aiguille du Plan at p. 187, from +the station marked _r_ in the same figure, a highly interesting point of +observation in many respects; while the course of transition from the +protogine into gneiss presents more remarkable phenomena on the descents +from that point _r_ to the Tapia, T, than at any other easily accessible +spot. + +Various interesting descriptions of granite cleavage will be found in De +Saussure, chiefly in his accounts of the Grimsel and St. Gothard. The +following summary of his observations on their positions of beds (1774), +may serve to show the reader how long I should have detained him if I +had endeavored to give a description of all the attendant phenomena:-- +"Il est aussi bien curieux de voir ces gneiss, et ces granits veinés, en +couches verticales à Guttannen; mélangées d'horizontals et de verticales +au Lauteraar; toutes verticales au Grimsel et au Griés; toutes +horizontales dans le Val Formazza, et enfin pour la troisième fois +verticales à la sortie des Alpes à l'entrée du Lac Majeur." + + +III. LOGICAL EDUCATION. + +In the Preface to the third volume I alluded to the conviction, daily +gaining ground upon me, of the need of a more accurately logical +education of our youth. Truly among the most pitiable and practically +hurtful weaknesses of the modern English mind, its usual inability to +grasp the connection between any two ideas which have elements of +opposition in them, as well as of connection, is perhaps the chief. It +is shown with singular fatality in the vague efforts made by our divines +to meet the objections raised by free-thinkers, bearing on the nature +and origin of evil; but there is hardly a sentence written on any matter +requiring careful analysis, by writers who have not yet begun to +perceive the influence of their own vanity (and there are too many such +among divines), which will not involve some half-lamentable, +half-ludicrous, logical flaw,--such flaws being the invariable +consequence of a man's straining to say anything in a learned instead of +an intelligible manner. + +Take a sentence, for example, from J. A. James's "Anxious +Inquirer:"--"It is a great principle that _subjective religion_, _or in +other words_, religion _in us_, is produced and sustained by fixing the +mind on _objective religion_, _or_ the facts and doctrines of the Word +of God." + +Cut entirely out the words I have put in italics, and the sentence has a +meaning (though not by any means an important one). But by its +verbosities it is extended into pure nonsense; for "facts" are neither +"objective" nor "subjective"[125] religion; they are not religion at +all. The belief of them, attended with certain feelings, is religion; +and it must always be religion "in us," for in whom else should it be +(unless in angels; which would not make it less "subjective"). It is +just as rational to call doctrines "objective religion," as to call +entreaties "objective compassion;" and the only real fact of any +notability deducible from the sentence is, that the writer desired +earnestly to say something profound, and had nothing profound to say. + +To this same defect of intellect must, in charity, be attributed many of +the wretched cases of special pleading which we continually hear from +the pulpit. In the year 1853, I heard, in Edinburgh, a sermon from a +leading and excellent Presbyterian clergyman, on a subject generally +grateful to Protestant audiences, namely the impropriety and wickedness +of fasting. The preacher entirely denied that there was any authority +for fasting in the New Testament; declared that there were many feasts +appointed, but no fasts; insisted with great energy on the words +"forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats," &c., as +descriptive of Romanism, and _never once_, throughout a long sermon, +ventured so much as a single syllable that might recall to his +audience's recollection the existence of such texts as Matthew iv. 2 and +vi. 16, or Mark ix. 29. I have heard many sermons from Roman Catholic +priests, but I never yet heard, in the strongest holds of Romanism, any +so monstrous an instance of special pleading; in fact, it never could +have occurred in a sermon by any respectable Roman Catholic divine; for +the Romanists are trained to argument from their youth, and are always +to some extent plausible. + +It is of course impossible to determine, in such cases, how far the +preacher, having conscientiously made up his mind on the subject by +foregoing thought, and honestly desiring to impress his conclusion on +his congregation, may think his object will be best, and even +justifiably attained, by insisting on all that is in favor of his +position, and trusting to the weak heads of his hearers not to find out +the arguments for the contrary; fearing that if he stated, in any +proportionate measure, the considerations on the other side, he might +not be able, in the time allotted to him, to bring out his conclusion +fairly. This, though I hold it an entirely false view, is nevertheless a +comprehensible and pardonable one, especially in a man familiar with the +reasoning capacities of the public; though those capacities themselves +owe half their shortcomings to being so unworthily treated. But, on the +whole, and looking broadly at the way the speakers and teachers of the +nation set about their business, there is an almost fathomless failure +in the results, owing to the general admission of special pleading as an +_art to be taught_ to youth. The main thing which we ought to teach our +youth is to _see_ something,--all that the eyes which God has given them +are capable of seeing. The sum of what we _do_ teach them is to _say_ +something. As far as I have experience of instruction, no man ever +dreams of teaching a boy to get to the root of a matter; to think it +out; to get quit of passion and desire in the process of thinking; or to +fear no face of man in plainly asserting the ascertained result. But to +_say_ anything in a glib and graceful manner,--to give an epigrammatic +turn to nothing,--to quench the dim perceptions of a feeble adversary, +and parry cunningly the home thrusts of a strong one,--to invent +blanknesses in speech for breathing time, and slipperinesses in speech +for hiding time,--to polish malice to the deadliest edge, shape +profession to the seemliest shadow, and mask self-interest under the +fairest pretext,--all these skills we teach definitely, as the main arts +of business and life. There is a strange significance in the admission +of Aristotle's Rhetoric at our universities as a class-book. Cheating at +cards is a base profession enough, but truly it would be wiser to print +a code of gambler's legerdemain, and give _that_ for a class-book, than +to make the legerdemain of human speech, and the clever shuffling of the +black spots in the human heart, the first study of our politic youth. +Again, the Ethics of Aristotle, though containing some shrewd talk, +interesting for an _old_ reader, are yet so absurdly illogical and +sophistical, that if a young man has once read them with any faith, it +must take years before he recovers from the induced confusions of +thought and false habits of argument. If there were the slightest +dexterity or ingenuity in maintaining the false theory, there might be +some excuse for retaining the Ethics as a school-book, provided only the +tutor were careful to point out, on first opening it, that the Christian +virtues,--namely, to love with all the heart, soul, and strength; to +fight, not as one that beateth the air; and to do with _might_ +whatsoever the hand findeth to do,--could not in anywise be defined as +"habits of choice in moderation." But the Aristotelian quibbles are so +shallow, that I look upon the retention of the book as a confession by +our universities that they consider practice in shallow quibbling one of +the essential disciplines of youth. Take, for instance, the distinction +made between "Envy" and "Rejoicing at Evil" ([Greek: phthonos] and +[Greek: epichairekakia]), in the second book of the Ethics, viz., that +envy is grieved when any one meets with good-fortune; but "the rejoicer +at evil so far misses of grieving, as even to rejoice" (the distinction +between the _good_ and _evil_, as subjects of the emotion, being thus +omitted, and merely the verbal opposition of grief and joy caught at); +and conceive the result, in the minds of most youths, of being forced to +take tricks of words such as this (and there are too many of them in +even the best Greek writers) for subjects of daily study and +admiration; the theory of the Ethics being, besides, so hopelessly +untenable, that even quibbling will not always face it out,--nay, will +not help it in exactly the first and most important example of virtue +which Aristotle has to give, and the very one which we might have +thought his theory would have fitted most neatly; for defining +"temperance" as a mean, and intemperance as one relative extreme, not +being able to find an opposite extreme, he escapes with the apology that +the kind of person who sins in the other extreme "has no precise name; +because, on the whole, he does not exist!" + +I know well the common censure by which objections to such futilities of +so-called education are met, by the men who have been ruined by +them,--the common plea that anything does to "exercise the mind upon." +It is an utterly false one. The human soul, in youth, is _not_ a machine +of which you can polish the cogs with any kelp or brickdust near at +hand; and, having got it into working order, and good, empty, and oiled +serviceableness, start your immortal locomotive at twenty-five years old +or thirty, express from the Strait Gate, on the Narrow Road. The whole +period of youth is one essentially of formation, edification, +instruction, I use the words with their weight in them; intaking of +stores, establishment in vital habits, hopes and faiths. There is not an +hour of it but is trembling with destinies,--not a moment of which, once +past, the appointed work can ever be done again, or the neglected blow +struck on the cold iron. Take your vase of Venice glass out of the +furnace, and strew chaff over it in its transparent heat, and recover +_that_ to its clearness and rubied glory when the north wind has blown +upon it; but do not think to strew chaff over the child fresh from God's +presence, and to bring the heavenly colors back to him--at least in this +world. + + +FOOTNOTES + + [120] Compare Stones of Venice, vol. iii. chap. iii. § 74. + + [121] Taken all in all, the works of Cruikshank have the most + sterling value of any belonging to this class, produced in England. + + [122] "The notice in Blackwood is still more scurrilous; the + circumstance of Keats having been brought up a surgeon is the staple + of the jokes of the piece. He is told 'it is a better and wiser + thing to be a starved apothecary than a starved poet.'"--_Milnes' + Life of Keats_, vol. i. p. 200, and compare pp. 193, 194. It may + perhaps be said that I attach too much importance to the evil of + base criticism; but those who think so have never rightly understood + its scope, nor the reach of that stern saying of Johnson's (Idler, + No. 3, April 29, 1758): "Little does he (who assumes the character + of a critic) think how many harmless men he involves in his own + guilt, by teaching them to be noxious without malignity, and to + repeat objections which they do not understand." And truly, not in + this kind only, but in all things whatsoever, there is not, to my + mind, a more woful or wonderful matter of thought than the power of + a fool. In the world's affairs there is no design so great or good + but it will take twenty wise men to help it forward a few inches, + and a single fool can stop it; there is no evil so great or so + terrible but that, after a multitude of counsellors have taken means + to avert it, a single fool will bring it down. Pestilence, famine, + and the sword, are given into the fool's hand as the arrows into the + hand of the giant: and if he were fairly set forth in the right + motley, the web of it should be sackcloth and sable; the bells on + his cap, passing balls; his badge, a bear robbed of her whelps; and + his bauble, a sexton's spade. + + [123] By the way, this doubt of the possibility of an emperor's + death till he _proves_ it, is a curious fact in the history of + Scottish metaphysics in the nineteenth century. + + [124] The following extract from my diary refers to the only + instance in which I remember any appearance of a spring, or welling + of water through inner fissures, in the aiguilles. + + "20th August. Ascended the moraine till I reached the base of + Blaitière; the upper part of the moraine excessively loose and edgy; + covered with fresh snow: the rocks were wreathed in mist, and a + light sleet, composed of small grains of kneaded snow, kept beating + in my face; it was bitter cold too, though the thermometer was at + 43°, but the wind was like that of an English December thaw. I got + to the base of the aiguille, however, one of the most grand and + sweeping bits of granite I have ever seen; a small gurgling + streamlet, escaping from a fissure not wide enough to let in my + hand, made a strange hollow ringing in the compact rock, and came + welling out over its ledges with the sound, and successive wave, of + water out of a narrow-necked bottle, covering the rock with ice + (which must have been frozen there last night) two inches thick. I + levelled the Breven top, and found it a little beneath me; the + Charmoz glacier on the left, sank from the moraine in broken + fragments of nevè, and swept back under the dark walls of the + Charmoz, lost in cloud." + + [125] If these two unlucky words get much more hold in the language, + we shall soon have our philosophers refusing to call their dinner + "dinner," but speaking of it always as their "objective appetite." + + +END OF THE FOURTH VOLUME. + + * * * * * + +CORRECTIONS MADE TO THE ORIGINAL TEXT. + +Page 31: 'his insistence upon this' corrected from 'insistance.' + +Page 45: 'for in utter darkness the distinction is not visible' changed + from 'darknes.' + +Page 52: 'sharks, slugs, bones, fungi, frogs' originally 'fogs.' + +Page 60: 'sitting about three yards from a bookcase' changed from 'yard.' + +Page 89: 'We imagine the Deity in like manner' originally 'maner.' + +Page 143: 'whatever their material may be,--tilted slightly up' changed + from 'tited.' + +Page 155: 'action actually taking place' corrected from 'palce.' + +Page 185: 'which in its beautifully curved outline)' extra ')' removed. + +Page 261: 'it seems partly to rebuke, and partly to guard'corrected from + 'and party.' + +Page 279: 'partly of their own own gravity' removed duplicate 'own.' + +Page 284: (footnote [91]) 'Ce n'est pas c'a' changed to 'Ce n'est pas + ça.' + +Page 291: 'are distinguished from the work of other painters' from + 'distingushd.' +Page 300: 'Shakespere' changed to 'Shakespeare.' + +Page 317: CHAPTER XIX start added '1' after the §. + +Page 352: 'its direction is illegitimate' from 'illegitmate.' + +Page 356: 'Celui qui boira' corrected from 'doira.' + +Page 358: 'all its peculiarities are mannerisms' changed from + 'peculiarites.' + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Modern Painters, Volume IV (of V), by John Ruskin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MODERN PAINTERS, VOLUME IV (OF V) *** + +***** This file should be named 31623-8.txt or 31623-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/6/2/31623/ + +Produced by Marius Masi, Juliet Sutherland and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://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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