i INTRODUCTION 31 



Professor Colvin speaks with special admi- 

 ration of Greek scenery : 



" In 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 is 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 



