132 
ON SKETCHING FKOM NATURE. 
[Nature and Art, May 1, 1867. 
Patriarch by the Almighty himself, is to be revealed 
in the after-life of the tomb. The words are, “ Or 
who shut up the sea with doors?” 
Now, on looking over the plates in the book of 
the Sarcophagus, we find that similar gates separate 
the chambers of Amenti or Hades : these gates are 
also alluded to in the same chapter of the Book of 
J ob (xxxviii. 17), and likewise in the form of question, 
“ Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? 
or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death ? ” 
The pivots of these gates are fixed in the same 
band of dots, again intimating firmness and solidity 
of substance, in which light those seventy learned 
men who translated the Hebrew Scriptures in 
Alexandria, most certainly regarded the word P’pl, 
which we, from the Latin, render by the word 
firmament, as bearing the same meaning. So, 
likewise, in the second century of our era, was the 
firmament regarded by the astronomer Ptolemy, 
whose system, as I learn from a recent translation 
of Dante by Mr. Pollock, was adopted by that 
celebrated poet. By both astronomer and poet the 
sun and planets were supposed to move round the 
earth in solid crystal spheres, an idea which finds 
some support in a passage in Ezekiel (i. 22), and 
which now we see was likewise entertained by the 
ancient Egyptian contriver of this illustration. 
With the band of dots which forms the right- 
hand boundary of the diagram terminates the 
material world, and the first chapter in this most 
interesting monument. 
In conclusion, it is curious to remark with what 
a religious tenacity these old notions of the structure 
of the universe were maintained. The Ptolemaic 
system, which, as we see, was mainly derived from 
these more ancient Egyptian ideas, became so 
universally established and religiously maintained, 
that even one hundred years after the publication of 
the Copernican system, which asserts the movement 
of the earth, the amiable and excellent man Galileo 
was persecuted for demonstrating its truth till the 
day of his death, which took place in January, 1642, 
exactly one year before the birth of our celebrated 
countryman, Isaac Newton. So rapid has been the 
progress of science since the invention of the tele- 
scope and other appliances, that now, it may be 
said, every observatory in the world can furnish 
mathematical and ocular demonstration of the 
earth’s motion. 
ON SKETCHING FKOM NATURE. 
By Aaron Penley, Professor of Landscape Painting at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. 
No. X. A SPUR OF BEN LOMOND. 
THE few forms of which this subject is composed 
A are much varied in respect of lines, every 
portion of them partaking of undulations, with 
the exception of the central spur of Ben Lomond 
and the several detached and fallen rocks by the 
water’s brink. The serpentine outlines of the 
many divisions of grassy mounds seem to play into 
each other in easy and graceful contours, while at 
the same time they admit of considerable alternation 
of light, shade, and colour. Opposed to them are 
the perpendicular trees, which rise in some signifi- 
cant height before the background, and convey to 
it the idea of softened and hazy atmosphere. 
Their stems are all of different length, breadth, 
and inclination, thereby affording little chance of 
formality. The position of each stem at its 
junction with the ground will be found to bear the 
line of beauty, and help to show the several pro- 
gressive stages of distance in their immediate 
locality. This point is seldom attended to with a 
proper degree of thought or care that it ought, 
although by a due observance of the varied lines of 
a foreground, the eye is led on step by step until it 
finds itself carried into the middle distance, and, 
receding still further, becomes lost in a far-off 
haze. 
This mingling is often the result of well-disposed 
lines, growing, as it were, out of each other, and so 
skilfully intertwined that none but the artist could 
suppose the effect could proceed from such a primi- 
tive cause. It is nevertheless perfectly true that 
distance is frequently more the result of lines 
than of colour, although of course the latter must 
ever be the true interpreter of the former. The 
groups of trees at the end of the loch are also of 
different sizes and forms, but so managed as to 
carry out the flowing undulations in the com- 
position of lines : this is obtained by having 
reference to the several heights, to which particular 
attention is called. The stones at the water’s edge 
in the foreground are arranged somewhat in the 
form of an ellipse, and yet so varied in size and 
form as to preclude the possibility of such an 
impression. The angular shape of the central 
mountain is, by contrast to the curved lines below, 
made to rise up with increased grandeur, and is 
suggestive of bleak and rugged wildness. Its 
height is made more apparent from the trees by the 
water, over the stones, being placed immediately 
underneath the summit ; thus giving its full 
dimension from the base. The dark or rather 
blue range of hills below, in front, assist by their 
continuity in giving a certain impressiveness to the 
one solid mass ; while the outline of the distant 
mountain, so different in character, still adds to the 
precipitous and rocky steeps of the principal 
