254 STUDIES IN THE FIELD AND FOREST. 



dense, unorganized mass that is spread out below. It 

 may be remarked, both of the forms and hues of clouds, 

 that nature permits no harsh contrasts or sudden transi 

 tions. The different hues are laid softly one above 

 another, melting into each other like those in the 

 plumage of a bird of paradise. You can never see 

 where one hue terminates and another commences. It 

 is the same, in a less degree, with their forms, that 

 never, for two minutes in succession, remain unaltered. 

 They exhibit a pleasing irregularity, and are almost 

 destitute of outlines, so that the imagination is left to 

 carve out of their obscure figures and arrangements, 

 aerial landscapes, bright sunny valleys, and waving 

 plains, with villages surrounded by turrets and the pin 

 nacles of mountains. 



The imagination is always stimulated by a certain 

 degree of obscurity in the objects of sight and sound, 

 as well as of thought. The sublime passages of the 

 poets are often obscure, suggestive of something that 

 produces a well-defined emotion, but no distinct image 

 to the understanding. It is this quality that gives their 

 power to certain remarkable passages in the Hebrew 

 prophets. In a terrestrial landscape, when viewed by 

 daylight, the outlines of objects, except at a distance, 

 are so distinct that we can see and easily describe their 

 forms and character. Distant objects have a dimness 

 of outline, and a misty obscurity, which are favorable 

 to an expression of sublimity. In the darkness of night 

 the forms of trees exhibit the indefinite shapes of 

 clouds, and the imagination is free to indulge its 

 caprices, while, as we pass by them in a journey or a 

 ramble, the eyes are watching their apparent motions 

 and changes of form. 



By no scenes in nature, therefore, is the imagination 



