The Open Air 



body of the vapour is a little darker, either because 

 thicker, or because the light is reflected at a different 

 angle. But it is the lower edge which is singular: in 

 direct contrast with the curled or wavy edge above, 

 the under edge is perfectly straight and parallel to the 

 line of the horizon. It looks as if the level of the sea 

 made this under line. This bank moves very slowly 

 scarcely perceptibly but in course of hours rises, and 

 as it rises spreads, when the extremities break off in 

 detached pieces, and these gradually vanish. Some- 

 times when travelling I have pointed out the direction 

 of the sea, feeling sure it was there, and not far off, 

 though invisible, on account of the appearance of the 

 clouds, whose under edge was cut across so straight. 

 When this peculiar bank appears at Brighton it is an 

 almost certain sign of continued fine weather, and I 

 have noticed the same thing elsewhere ; once particu- 

 larly it remained fine after this appearance despite 

 every threat the sky could offer of a storm. All the 

 threats came to nothing for three weeks, not even 

 thunder and lightning could break it up, " deceitful 

 flashes," as the Arabs say; for, like the sons of the 

 desert, just then the farmers longed for rain on their 

 parched fields. To me, while on the beach among the 

 boats, the value of these clouds lies in their slow- 

 ness of movement, and consequent effect in soothing 

 the mind. Outside the hurry and drive of life a rest 

 comes through the calm of nature. As the swell of 

 the sea carries up the pebbles, and arranges the 

 largest farthest inland, where they accumulate and 

 stay unmoved, so the drifting of the clouds, and the 

 touch of the wind, the sound of the surge, arrange 

 the molecules of the mind in still layers. It is then 

 that a dream fills it, and a dream is sometimes better 

 than the best reality. Laugh at the idea of dreaming 



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