48 STUDIES OF NATURE 



hills of Argyle, and, in the far distance, we can 

 even make out Ben Lomond quite fifty miles 

 away as the crow flies. The only sound we hear 

 is that of the falling water near us, and the 

 distant boom of the sea. Before such a scene 

 the mind naturally takes a tone of reverence 

 and of elevated tranquillity. Things are trans- 

 figured. The earth is not earthly : it appears 

 to hang or float in the sky like an airy band of 

 cloud, while the sea, being flat and solid blue, 

 seems more substantial than the land itself. 

 Readers of Wordsworth will know to what 

 passage I should, under such circumstances, be 

 most likely to revert : 



The broad sun 



Is sinking down in its tranquillity ; 

 The gentleness of heaven is on the sea : 

 Listen ! the mighty Being is awake, 

 And doth with His eternal motion make 

 A sound like thunder everlastingly. 



Nor, when I looked round upon one of my 

 young companions, did what follows in the 

 same sonnet seem to me inappropriate : 



