CLOUDS. 315 



the indefinite shapes of clouds, and the imagination is 

 free to indulge its caprices, while, as we pass by them in 

 a journey or a ramble, our eyes are watching their ap- 

 parent motions and changes of form. 



By no other scenes in nature is the imagination so 

 powerfully excited as by these celestial phenomena, 

 whether we imagine the gates of heaven to be opened 

 beneath the triumphal arches of sunset, or watch for the 

 passing of the gloomy precursors of evil days in the dark 

 irregular masses that deform. the skies before a storm. 

 The picturesque effects of clouds are in great measure 

 attributable to the dubious character of their configu- 

 rations, giving rise to peculiar fancies and awaking sen- 

 timents that spring only from the loftiest images of 

 poetry. The shadows of passing clouds, as they fall upon 

 the earth after moving rapidly with the wind, add greatly 

 to their expression. Above all, do their motions contrib- 

 ute to the beauty of landscape, when, through some open- 

 ing in their dense masses, while the greater part of the 

 prospect is enveloped in shade, the sun pours a stream of 

 glory upon a distant grove, village, or range of hills. 



As the most delightful views of ocean are attained when 

 a small part of it is seen through a green recess in a wood, 

 for the same cause the blue sky is never so beautiful as 

 when seen through the openings in the clouds. The emo- 

 tion produced by any scene is the more intense when the 

 greater part of the object that causes it is hidden, leaving 

 room for the entrance of pleasant images into the mind. 

 Clouds are peculiarly suggestive on account of the am- 

 biguity of their shapes and their constant changes. 

 Nothing, indeed, in nature so closely resembles the 

 mysterious operations of thought, ever ceaseless in their 

 motions and ever varying in their combinations, — now 

 passing from a shapeless heap into a finely marshalled 

 band; then dissolving into the pellucid atmosphere as a 



