48 STUDIES IN THE FIELD AND FOREST. 



natural to the situation, made attractive by their varied 

 forms, colors, and motions, this rock gives additional ex- 

 tent to the prospect of the surrounding country, and 

 affords one many different views from the various open- 

 ings through its wood and shrubbery. 



Such are the beauties and advantages multiplied 

 about a mere rock. But in my description I have 

 omitted to notice the grotto formed by the shelving of 

 rocks, and so delightful to the traveller who seeks shel- 

 ter from the sultry heat of noon, or to one who aims 

 only to gratify a poetic imagination. Rocky scenery 

 always suggests to the mind the various scenes and in- 

 cidents of romantic adventure ; and I believe the diffi- 

 culties and dangers it presents to the traveller magnify 

 the interest of the situation. I have often seen a whole 

 party affected with an eager desire to obtain possession 

 of a flower that was growing out of the summit of a 

 rocky cliff. Each one would feel a similar desire to 

 climb upon its sides and to obtain a resting-place upon 

 its dangerous summit. All these circumstances, which 

 in real nature stimulate the adventurous spirit, become 

 picturesque when represented on canvas, by affording 

 the same kind of stimulus to the imagination of the 

 beholder. Hence the imaginative as well as the adven- 

 turous are equally delighted with this kind of scenery, 

 that arouses the enterprise of the one and awakens the 

 poetic feelings of the other. What do we care for a 

 scene, however beautiful, which is so tame as to afford 

 no exercise for the imagination ? Rocks, by increasing 

 the inequalities of the surface, proportionally multiply 

 the ideas and images which are associated with land- 

 scape. 



It is not an uninteresting inquiry why a prospect be- 

 held from a rocky cliff or precipice yields us more 



