XXXllI. 



WATER SCENERY. 



There is no single thing in nature that adds more 

 beauty to landscape than water. It is emblematical of 

 purity and tranquillity ; it is suggestive of multitudefe 

 of pleasant rural images, and, besides these moral ex- 

 pressions, it possesses a great deal of intrinsic beauty. 

 The mirrored surface of a lake or a stream, reflecting 

 the hues and forms of the clouds in the heavens, and 

 of the trees and shrubbery on its banks, is pleasing to 

 the eye, independently of any suggestion that may 

 occur to a fanciful mind. The eye requires to be prac- 

 tised, or rather the mind must be educated in a certain 

 manner, before it can enjoy and appreciate moral 

 beauty. But the beauty of a smooth surface of water, 

 of waves trembling in the moonlight, of a spouting 

 fountain, or a sparkling rill, is obvious and attractive 

 even to a child. In water have color and form and 

 motion intimately combined their charms, assuming 

 the loveliest tints in the dews of heaven and the spray 

 of the ocean, and every imaginable form of beauty in 

 the lake and its sinuosities, and the river in its various 

 windings through vale and mountain. 



Water is not only beautiful in itself; but it is one of 



