300 



less striking : nothing can be more finely 

 conceived, or more terrific, than the op- 

 position of such extreme blackness in the 

 clouds that hang over the mountain, to 

 the lightning, and the glaring stream of 

 light, which seems to pour down upon 

 the buildings below it. Such effects in 

 nature strike the most insensible persons, 

 but I should suppose it must be extremely 

 difficult to represent them in painting ; the 

 ancients at least appear to have thought 

 it next to impossible, if I may judge from 

 what Pliny (somewhat affectedly) says of 

 Apelles ; " pinxit et quye pingi non pos- 

 sunt; tonitrua, fulgetra, fulguraque." 



Mr. Seymour then went on, looking at 

 many of the pictures, but not stopping 

 long at any of them, till he came to one 

 of Claude Lorraine. " This," said he, 

 after standing some time before it, and 

 examining it with great attention, is what 

 I hardly expected, though 1 believe you 

 gave me a hint of it when we were looking 

 at the prospect from the hill ; and really 

 the view in this picture is not unlike that 



