216 AUTUMNAL LEAVES. 



parts, though hardly in its deep recesses, splendid 

 lights, here and there, catching the foliage, and 

 running among the branches which though in 

 Nature generally too scattered to produce an 

 effect, yet if judiciously collected may be beau- 

 tiful on canvas. We sometimes also see, in a 

 woody scene, corruscations like a bright star, 

 occasioned by a sunbeam darting through an 

 eyelet-hole among the leaves. Many painters, 

 especially Rubens, have been fond of introducing 

 this radiant spot in their landscapes. But, in 

 painting, it is one of those trifles which produce 

 no effect. In poetry, indeed, it may produce a 

 pleasing image. Shakespeare has introduced it 

 beautifully where, speaking of the force of truth 

 entering a guilty conscience, he compares it to the 

 sun, which 



" Fires the proud tops of the eastern Pines, 

 And darts his light through every guilty hole." 



It is one of those circumstances which poetry may 

 offer to the imagination, but the pencil cannot well 

 produce to the eye ; and, if it could, it were better 

 omitted, as it attracts the attention from what is 

 more interesting.' 



