I , INTRODUCTION 31 
Professor Colvin speaks with special admi- 
ration of Greek scenery : — 
“Tn other climates, it is only in particular 
states of the weather that the remote ever 
seems so close, and then with an effect which 
is sharp and hard as well as clear; here the 
clearness is soft; nothing cuts or glitters, seen 
through that magic distance; the air has not 
only a new transparency so that you can see 
farther into it than elsewhere, but a new 
quality, like some crystal of an unknown 
water, so that to see into it 1s greater glory.” 
_ Speaking of the ranges and promontories of 
sterile limestone, the same. writer observes 
that their colours are as austere and delicate 
as the forms. “If here the scar of some old 
quarry throws a stain, or there the clinging of 
some thin leafage spreads a bloom, the stain 
is of precious gold, and the bloom of silver. 
Between the blue of the sky and the tenfold 
blue of the sea these bare ranges seem, be- 
neath that daylight, to present a whole sys- 
tem of noble colour flung abroad over perfect 
forms. And wherever, in the general sterility, 
you find a little moderate verdure —a little 
