SCENERY AFFECTED BY THE WEATHER. 335 



' Vain are the liopes by colouring to display 

 Tlie briglit effulgence of tlie noon-tide ray ; 

 Or paint the full-orbed ruler of the skies 

 With pencils dipped in dull, terrestrial dyes. 

 But when mild evening sheds her golden light, 

 "When morn appears, arrayed in modest white ; 

 When soft suffusions of the vernal shower, 

 Dims the pale sun ; or, at the thund'ring hour. 

 When wrapt in crimson clouds, he hides his head ; 

 Then catch the glow, and on the canvas spread.' 



I know no appearance, indeed, in Nature, that 

 is more awfully grand than the conjunction of a 

 storm, and a sunset, on some noble mass of forest 

 scenery. We may easily conceive that ignorance 

 and superstition might magnify such a resplen- 

 dent gloom into something supernatural. In a 

 passage which. I lately quoted from VirgU, an 

 idea of this kind is very picturesque, as well as 

 poetically introduced. It is in the interview be- 

 tween ^neas and Bvander, when the old chief in- 

 forms his noble guest that frequently, in tempests, 

 the simple Arcadians believed they saw heavenly 

 forms behind the groves of the Tarpeian rock. 



' Hoc nemus ; hunc, inquit, frondoso vertice collem, 

 (Quis deus, incertuui est) habitat deus. Arcades ipsum 

 Credunt se vidisse Jovem, cum scejpe ni.grantem 

 JEgida conciiiaret dextra nhnbosque ciereV 



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