28 STUDIES IN THE FIELD A^D FOREST. 



phere, to watch the lightnings from the windoM"-, as they 

 play down the dark clouds in the eastern horizon, and 

 to listen to the rumblings of the thunder as it com- 

 mences loudly over our head, and dies away almost like 

 the roaring of waves in a distant part of the hea.vens. 

 Then do we contemplate the spectacle with a grateful 

 feeling of relief from the fears that lately agitated the 

 mind, and surrender our souls to all the influences 

 naturally awakened by a mingled scene of beauty and 

 grandeur. 



The emotion of sublimity is more powerfully excited 

 by any circumstance that adds mystery to the scene, or 

 the sounds we may be contemplating. For this reason 

 any sound which resembles that of an earthquake im- 

 presses the mind at once with a feeling of awe, however 

 insignificant its origin. The wailing of winds through 

 the crevices of the doors and windows owes its effect, in 

 a great measure, to this principle of mystery, and, 

 especially to the young or the superstitious, often be- 

 comes a source of sublimity. Hence the power of the 

 dusky shapes of twilight to produce terror, and hence 

 the booming of a cannon over a distance that renders 

 its identity uncertain, and prolongs the sound by hol- 

 low reverberations, causes in the hearers a breathless 

 attention, as to something ominous of danger. We 

 may thus explain why all sounds are so suggestive in 

 the stillness of the night : the rustling of a zephyr as it 

 glides half noiselessly through the foliage of the trees ; 

 a few scarce but heavy drops of rain from a passing 

 cloud, that give the signal of an approaching shower; 

 the footfall of a solitary passenger in the street; the 

 tinkling of a cow bell, heard occasionally as the crea- 

 ture changes her position under a tree in a neighboring 

 field ; — all these sounds are dependent on the stillness 



