86 



NATURE FOR ITS OWN SAKE 



We realize quickly enough how important to 

 our enjoyment of landscape are the sky and the 

 white clouds as soon as they are cut off from 

 our view by the drawn veil of a rainy day. The 

 variety of color in the sky and of movement and 

 form in the cloud, the feeling of space, dis- 

 tance, loftiness in them both, are gone ; and 

 with them perhaps the most effective features 

 of all landscape. Anything that obscures or 

 shuts out sky-space, with its interminable depths 

 of blue and its bright clouds, mars one of nat- 

 ure's greatest beauties. Even a horizon-line so 

 high as to narrow the sweep is objectionable ; 

 and hence the valleys of the Alps, though grand 

 enough in view of mountain bulk and snowy 

 peak, are the least livable places in Europe. 

 The great palisade of rock breaks the reach of 

 the sky and we lose directly in color, light, and 

 atmospheric perspective. On the contrary, a 

 flat, low-lying land, though perhaps the last to 

 be loved by humanity, is in the end the most 

 livable of all. The prairies of North America, 

 the plains of Lombardy, the flat lands of eastern 

 England, are supreme in the feeling of space 

 in sky and of distance in cloud. Something of 

 the great charm of Venice lies in her flat lagoons 

 and her great, uplifted sky ; and to those who 



