68 HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



Here standing amid the fern, where it had at last 

 formed that waving surface and was a little above my 

 knees, it seemed to me that the particular satisfaction 

 I experienced was due to the fine symmetrical leafing 

 of the surface, the minute subdivision of parts which 

 produced an effect similar to that of a mosaic floor. 

 When I consider other surfaces, on land or water, I 

 find the same gratification in all cases where it is 

 broken or marked out or fretted in minute, more or 

 less orderly subdivisions. The glass-like or oily surface 

 of water, where there are no reflections to bring other 

 feelings in, does not hold or attract but rather wearies 

 the sight; but it is no sooner touched to a thousand 

 minute crinkles by the wind, than it is looked at with 

 refreshment and pleasure. The bed of a clear stream, 

 with its pavement of minute variegated pebbles and 

 spots of light and shade, pleases in the same way. 

 The sight rests with some satisfaction even on a 

 stagnant pond covered with green duckweed ; but the 

 satisfaction is less in this case on account of the 

 extreme minuteness of the parts and the too great 

 smoothness. The roads and open spaces in woods in 

 October and November are delightful to walk in when 

 they are like richly variegated floors composed of small 

 pieces, and like dark floors inlaid with red and gold 

 of beech and oak leaves. Numberless instances might 

 be given, and we see that the effect is produced even 

 in small objects, as, for instance, in scaly fishes and 

 in serpents. It is the minutely segmented texture of 



