SOENEEY AFFECTED BY THE WEATHEB. 333 



may offer to the imagination, but tlie pencil 

 cannot well produce to tlie eye ; and, if it could 

 it were better omitted, as it attracts the atten- 

 tion from what is more interesting-. 



Under the sameness of Italian skies the beau- 

 ties of a setting sun are hardly known. There 

 the radiant orb courses his way with equal 

 splendour from one end of the hemisphere to the 

 other. He sets gloriously, but with little variety. 

 Nothing refracts his beam. To the vapours of 

 grosser climates, we owe those beautiful tints 

 which accompany his whole journey through the 

 skies, but especially his parting ray. 



Thus far the sources of incidental beauty are 

 all derived from milder skies. But the turbulence 

 of the atmosphere is still a more fruitful source 

 of picturesque effect, in the forest, as in other 

 scenes. Unaided, indeed, by simshine the storm 

 has little power. But, when the force of the 

 tempest separates the clouds into large, dark, 

 convex forms, and the rays of the sun stream 

 behind them athwart a clear horizon, if the 

 objects correspond, a very sublime picture is 

 exhibited. 



