210 Tlli VTIONIST AT LARGE. 



side by tall cliffs, whose summits the air and 

 rainfall slowly wear away into jagged and 

 exquisite shapes. Yet in all this we see 

 nothing but the natural play of cause and 

 effect ; we attribute the beauty of the scene 

 merely to the accidental result of inevitable 

 laws ; we feel no necessity for calling in the 

 aid of any underlying aesthetic intention on 

 the part of the sea, or the rock, or the creep- 

 ing lichen, in order to account for the loveli- 

 ness which we find in the finished picture. 

 The winds and the waves carved the coast 

 into these varied shapes by force of blind 

 currents working on hidden veins of harder 

 or softer crystal : and we happen to find the 

 result beautiful, just as we happen to find the 

 inland level dull and ugly. The endless 

 variety of the one charms us, while the un- 

 broken monotony of the other wearies and 



us. 



Here on the cliff I pick up a pretty fern 

 and a blossoming head of the autumn squill 

 though so sweet a flower deserves a better 



