vi MOUNTAINS 207 



green of the grass, which I will suppose (and 

 this is an unnecessary concession to the low- 

 lands) entirely fresh and bright ; the green of 

 trees ; and certain elements of purple, far 

 more rich and beautiful than we generally 

 should think, in their bark and shadows (bare 

 hedges and thickets, or tops of trees, in sub- 

 dued afternoon sunshine, are nearly perfect 

 purple and of an exquisite tone), as well as in 

 ploughed fields, and dark ground in general. 

 But among mountains, in addition to all this, 

 large unbroken spaces of pure violet and 

 purple are introduced in their distances ; and 

 even near, by films of cloud passing over the 

 darkness of ravines or forests, blues are pro- 

 duced of the most subtle tenderness ; these 

 azures and purples passing into rose colour of 

 otherwise wholly unattainable delicacy among 

 the upper summits, the blue of the sky being 

 at the same time purer and deeper than in the 

 plains. Nay, in some sense, a person who 

 has never seen the rose colour of the rays of 

 dawn crossing a blue mountain twelve or 

 fifteen miles away can hardly be said to know 

 what tenderness in colour means at all ; bright 



