MIST, KAIN, AND HAIL. 121 



partial obscuration of sun and moon, tlie hiding 

 of detail in the larger and grander scenes of 

 Nature where mountains and seas play their 

 part, the soft mystery which hangs over the 

 rush of water when hidden partially by a thin veil 

 of obscuring moisture, — these are some of what 

 artists call the ' effects' produced by wintry mists. 

 As Gilpin truly says : ' Many a form and many a 

 hue, which in the full glare of sunshine would be 

 harsh and discordant, are melted together in har- 

 mony ' — that is, under the influence of mistiness 

 of the atmosphere. He continues : ' We often see 

 the effects of this mode of atmosphere in various 

 species of landscape, but it has nowhere a better 

 effect than in the woods of a forest. Nothing 

 appears, through mist, more beautiful than trees 

 a little rem.oved from the eye when they are 

 opposed to trees at hand ; for as the foliage of a 

 tree consists of a great number of pa;rts, the 

 contrast is very pleasing between the varied 

 surface of the tree at hand, and the dead, unvaried 

 appearance of the removed one. Yery often a 

 picture in part unfinished pleases the eye more 

 from contrast, than when every part is fully made 



