176 GLAUCUS ; OR, 



desire of all readers to possess such gorgeous living 

 pictures, if as nothing else, still as drawing-room 

 ornaments, flower-gardens which never wither, fairy 

 lakes of perpetual calm which no storm blackens, — 



out' iv 6€p€i, ovT^ €1' dircopT). 



Those who have never seen one of them can never 

 imagine (and neither Mr. Gosse's pencil nor our 

 clumsy words can ever describe to them) the gor- 

 geous colouring and the grace and delicacy of form 

 which these subaqueous landscapes exhibit. 



As for colouring, — the only bit of colour which 

 I can remember even faintly resembling them (for 

 though Correggio's Magdalene may rival them in 

 greens and blues, yet even he has no such crimsons 

 and purples) is the Adoration of the Shepherds, by 

 that "prince of chlorists" — Palma Vecchio, which 

 hangs on the left-hand side of Lord EUesmere's 

 great gallery. But as for the forms, — where shall 

 we see their like? Where, amid miniature forests 

 as fantastic as those of the tropics, animals whose 

 shapes outvie the wildest dreams of the old German 



