Niagara Falls 



credit to Ruskin, by comparison with the famous Dickens description 1889 

 will be found to be identical with it. For the sake of this comparison the row 



description is quoted below. 



. . . Watch how the vault of water first bends unbroken 

 in pure polished velocity over the arching rocks at the brow of 

 the cataract, covering them with a dome of crystal twenty feet 

 thick — so swift that its motion is unseen, except when a foam 

 globe from above darts over it like a falling star; and how ever 

 and anon, a jet of spray leaps hissing out of the fall like a rocket, 

 bursting in the wind, and driven away in dust, filling the air with 

 light ; whilst the shuddering iris stoops in tremendous stillness over 

 all, fading and flushing alternately through the choking spray 

 and shattering sunshine. 



Still do these waters roll and leap and roar and tumble all 

 day long : still are rainbows spanning them a hundred feet below. 

 Still, when the sun is on them, do they shine and glow like molten 

 gold. Still, when the day is gloomy, do they fall like snow, or 

 seem to crumble away like the front of a great chalk cliff, or roll 

 down the rock like dense white smoke. But (326) always does 

 the mighty stream appear to die as it comes down, and always 

 from the unfathomable grave arises that tremendous ghost of 

 spray and mist which is never laid, which has haunted this place 

 with the same dread solemnity since darkness brooded on the 

 deep, and that first flood before the deluge — Light — came 

 rushing on creation at the word of God. 



Stable in its perpetual instability, changeless in its everlasting 

 change ; a thing to be " pondered in the heart " like the revelation 

 to the meek Virgin of old: with no pride in the brilliant hues 

 that are woven in its eternal loom: with no haste in the majestic 

 roll of its waters : with no weariness in its endless psalm — it 

 remains through the eventful years an embodiment of unconscious 

 power, a living inspiration of thought, and poetry and worship — 

 a magnificent apolcalypse of God. 



349 



