40S STUDIES OF NATURE. 



founded on the reafon itfelf of Nature, which 

 communicates delight to us by means of colours 

 and forms generative and generated, and infpires 

 melancholy by thofe which announce decompo- 

 fition and deftruclion. But, without entering upon 

 that vaft and inexhauftible fubject, I fhall, at pre- 

 fent, confine myfelf to certain optical effects, which 

 involuntarily excite in us thefentiment of fome of 

 the attributes of Deity. 



One of the moft obvious caufes of the p^eafure 

 which we derive from the fight of a great tree, 

 arifes from the fentiment of infinity kindled in us, 

 by it's pyramidical form. The decreafe of it's 

 different tiers of branches, and tints of verdure, 

 which are always lighter at the extremities of the 

 tree, than in the reft of it's foliage, give it an ap- 

 parent elevation, which never terminates. We ex- 

 perience the fame fenfations in the horizontal plan 

 of landfcapes, in which we frequently perceive fe- 

 veral fucceffive hilly elevations flying away one be- 

 hind another, till the laft melt away into the Hea- 

 vens. Nature produces the fame effect in vaft 

 plains, by means of the vapours which rife from 

 the banks of the lakes, or from the channels of the 

 brooks and rivers that wander through them; their 

 contours are multiplied in proportion to the ex* 

 tent of the plain, as I have many a time remarked. 

 Thofe vapours prefent themfelves on different 



plans; 



