SUMMER MORN. 279 



streams, and the more elevated trees, and castles, and 

 houses, show like islands floating in the watery waste ; 

 when the uplands are clear and well defined, and the 

 beam gilds yet higher peaks, while the streak upon the 

 sea is of that soft purple, which is really no colour and 

 every colour at the same time. The whole landscape 

 is so soft, so undefined, and so shadowy, that one is 

 left to fill up the outline by conjecture ; and it seems 

 to get more indefinite still as the sun comes nearer the 

 horizon. The dews feel the coming radiance, and they 

 absolutely ascend by anticipation. At length there is 

 one streaming pencil of golden light, which glitters and 

 breaks as if it were the momentary lightning of a cloud; 

 the dew drops at your feet are rubies, sapphires, 

 emeralds, and opals, for an instant ; and then it is gone. 

 If the horizon be perfectly clear, this " blink" of the 

 rising sun (and we have observed it only on such occa- 

 sions as that alluded to) has a very curious effect. It 

 comes momentarily, and when it is gone, all seems 

 darker than before. But the darkness is of as brief 

 duration as the light, and the rising grounds are soon 

 brought out with a power of chiar* oscuro a grouping 

 of light and shade, that never can be observed when 

 the sun is at any height, as the shadow is from emi- 

 nence to eminence, filling all the hollows ; and though 

 deep, it is remarkably transparent, as evaporation has 

 not yet begun to give its fluttering indistinctness to the 

 outlines of objects. By the time that half of the solar 

 disc is above the horizon, the sea is peculiarly fine, 

 and it is better if the view be down an estuary. In 

 the distant offing it is one level sheet, more brilliant 

 than burnished gold, in which the boats, with their 



