188 GLAUCUS ; OR, 
coloured plates, which are, as it were, sketches from 
the interior of tanks, are well fitted to excite the 
desire of all readers to possess such gorgeous living 
pictures, if as nothing else, still as drawing-room 
ornaments, flower-gardens which never wither, fairy 
lakes of perpetual calm which no storm blackens,— 
obt” év Odper, ovr’ ev Omapn. 
Those who have never seen one of them can never 
imagine (and neither Mr. Gosse’s pencil nor my 
clumsy words can ever describe to them) the gor- 
geous colouring and the grace and delicacy of form 
which these subaqueous landscapes exhibit. 
As for colouring,—the only bit of colour which 
I can remember even faintly resembling them (for 
though Correggio’s Magdalene may rival them in 
greens and blues, yet even he has no such crimsons 
and purples) is the Adoration of the Shepherds, by 
that “prince of colorists”’—Palma Vecchio, which 
hangs on the left-hand side of Lord Ellesmere’s 
great gallery. But as for the forms,—where shall 
we see their ike? Where, amid miniature forests 
