198 With Feet to the Earth 



but soaring over them is the head, dome, 

 and crown of the work, farthest from the 

 earth, holding in least bulk what is most 

 of value. 



Water lets in a wondrous light and 

 charm to the dullest landscape. It makes 

 a glint of heaven on earth, and it pleasantly 

 assures us that things are not in fixity. In 

 the fall, when the dropping of foliage ex- 

 poses it more clearly from a distance, its 

 range of color is the range of the painter's 

 palette. From the snow of foam to the 

 ink of storm, it is all there. The lake is 

 gold in the sun, silver in the moon, saffron 

 in the dawning, turquoise at mid-day, pink, 

 orange, and crimson at evening, sapphire 

 in the twilight, and lapis lazuli after dark. 

 The ocean is gray, brown, green, blue, pur- 

 ple, in as many hours as there are colors. 

 Niagara holds the eye not less by its mass 

 and power than by the exquisite beryl of 

 its flood, a color that belongs to all the 

 fresh-water seas of this continent. In 

 some of our smaller lakes there is a sur- 

 prising clearness, the bottom being plainly 

 visible at a depth of thirty or forty feet, 



