296 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



as if the power that works in them had become 

 manifest to sense — the power which, as living 

 and working in the tree, and limiting itself there, 

 I have ventured to call ''the soul of a tree". 



Watts' generalisation of tree-form and colour 

 is quite different from that of a Cox or a De 

 Wint. They generalise so that the trees may 

 not interfere with the feeling of atmosphere, or 

 draw away attention from the general effect of 

 the landscape. They realise that when we are 

 enjoying a landscape as a whole, we do not see 

 distinctly each separate object in it. Only when 

 we cease to regard it as a whole, and let the 

 eye dwell on particular after particular, do we 

 see things as the Pre- Raphael ites show them 

 to us. Each kind of enjoyment has its place ; 

 and so has the more ideal truthfulness of Turner 

 or Cotman. Watts' aim is different from all 

 of these. As we think of his landscapes, say 

 of "A Rain Cloud," "Green Summer," "The 

 End of the Day," we see the sun in the sky 

 and earth and water beneath, and almost feel 

 the stirrings of the mighty power that works 

 through these phenomena, and brings life upon 

 the earth, and develops it there from lower to 

 higher forms ; and the trees become to us one 



