70 WATER SCENERY. 



One of the sentiments often awakened by a water pros- 

 pect is that of sublimity. But this can only arise from 

 an extensive view of the ocean or of a cataract. Ordina- 

 rily, therefore, except by the sea-shore, we seldom behold 

 a sufficient expanse of water to affect us with this sen- 

 timent. Its influence is greater when a wide sea-view 

 comes suddenly upon the eye, after one has passed 

 through a succession of beautiful, quiet, and rather con- 

 fined scenes. Small lakes and rivers greatly enhance 

 the beauty of a pastoral landscape,^ because they afford 

 evidence of good pasturage and a plentiful supply of water 

 to the flocks and grazing herds. Painters, taking advan- 

 tage of this expression, often represent, in one of their 

 side views, the cattle standing up to their knees in a little 

 pond of water, while the green rushes and undefaced 

 shrubbery growing about them make manifest its clear- 

 ness and purity. Ocean scenery is not favorable to pas- 

 toral expression; but it enhances the beauty of sunrise, 

 and adds grandeur to the sublimity of a tempest. 



Many writers have eulogized an ocean prospect as 

 beheld from a point where we can see no land. The 

 views presented by the ocean from different points on 

 the shore, which is broken and intersected by frequent 

 inlets of water, we can never cease to admire ; but I have 

 little sympathy with these lovers of boundless space. 

 The eye soon tires of gazing upon a scene that awakens 

 no emotion but that of infinity, and presents no point 

 as a resting-place for the imagination. To the sublimity 

 of an ocean voyage, with its mountainous waves and its 

 interminable azure, I prefer a boat excursion on a narrow 

 stream, where the trees on the opposite banks frequently 

 interlace their branches over the middle of the current, 

 and the plashing of the oar often startles the little twit- 

 tering sandpiper that is feeding upon the edge of the 

 stream. The sight of a small lake surrounded by woods, 



