Mater 149 



or babbles among pebbles, spreads cheerfulness all 

 around; a greater rapidity and more agitation to a 

 certain degree are animating; but in excess, instead of 

 wakening, they alarm the senses : the roar and the rage 

 of a torrent, its force, its violence, its impetuosity, tend 

 to inspire terror; that terror which, whether as cause 

 or effect, is so nearly allied to sublimity. . . . But 

 it is not necessary that the whole scene be bounded: 

 if form be impressed on a considerable part, the eye 

 can, without disgust, permit a large reach to stretch 

 beyond its ken; it can even be pleased to observe a 

 tremulous motion in the horizon, which shows that 

 the water has not there attained its termination. 

 Still short of this, the extent may be kept in uncer- 

 tainty ; a hill or a wood may conceal one of the extrem- 

 ities, and the country beyond it, in such a manner 

 as to leave room for the supposed continuation of so 

 large a body of water. Opportunities to choose 

 this shape are frequent, and it is the most perfect of 

 any: the scene is closed, but the extent of the lake 

 is undetermined : a complete form is exhibited to the 

 eye, while a boundless range is left open to the im- 

 agination. But mere form will only give content, 

 not delight; that depends upon the outline, which is 

 capable of exquisite beauty; and the bays and the 

 creeks and the promontories, which are ordinary 

 parts of that outline, together with the accidents of 

 islands, of inlets and of outlets to rivers, are in their 

 shapes and their combinations an inexhaustible fund 

 of variety. A straight line of considerable length 



