Water 



35 



This I have here already mentioned, in referring to the 

 use of cattle as a scale of measurement : a horse, a cow, 

 or a sheep is very nearly of the same size, and with 

 this size the mind is perfectly acquainted ; but trees, 

 bushes, hills, or pools of water are so various in their 

 dimensions that we are never able to judge exactly of 

 their size or at what distance they appear to us. 



The second kind of perspective is aerial, as it depends 

 on the atmosphere; since we observe that objects not 

 only diminish in their size but in their distinctness, in 

 proportion to the body of air betwixt the eye and the 

 objects : those nearest are strongly represented, while 

 other parts, as they recede, become less distinct, till at 

 last the outline of a distant hill seems melting into the 

 air itself. Such are the laws of aerial perspective on all 

 objects, but not on all alike ; since it is the peculiar 

 property of light, and the reflection of light, unmixed 

 by colour, to suffer much less by comparison than any 

 other object. It is for this reason that we are so much 

 deceived in the distance of perfectly white objects : the 

 light reflected from a whitewashed house makes it 

 appear out of its place ; snow, at many miles' distance, 

 appears to be in the next field ; indeed, so totally are 

 we unable to judge of light that a meteor within our 

 atmosphere is sometimes mistaken for a lantern ; at 

 others, for a falling star. Water, like a mirror, reflect- 

 ing the Hght, becomes equally uncertain in its real 

 distance ; and, therefore, an apparent union of the two 

 meers in Tatton Park may be effected by attending to 

 this circumstance. The large piece of water crosses the 

 eye in the view from the house ; consequently it looks 

 much less considerable than it really is, and its effect is 

 of little advantage to the scene, being too distant, and 

 too widely separated by the vast tract of low ground 



