ll, the shadow of the under part having
no record nor place in the reflection. But this summit, being very
distant, cannot be seen clearly by the eye while its focus is adapted to
the surface of the water, and accordingly its reflection is entirely
vague and confused; you cannot tell what it is meant for, it is mere
playing golden light. But the sign-post, being on the bank close to us,
will be reflected clearly, and accordingly its distinct image is seen in
the midst of this confusion. But it now is relieved, not against the
dark base, but against the illumined summit of the hill, and it appears,
therefore, instead of a white space thrown out from blue shade, a dark
gray space thrown out from golden light. I do not know that any more
magnificent example could be given of concentrated knowledge, or of the
daring statement of most difficult truth. For who but this consummate
artist would have had courage, even if he had perceived the laws which
required it, to undertake in a single small space of water, the painting
of an entirely new picture, with all its tones and arrangements
altered,--what was made above bright by opposition to blue, being
underneath made cool and dark by opposition to gold;--or would have
dared to contradict so boldly the ordinary expectation of the
uncultivated eye, to find in the reflection a mockery for the reality?
But the reward is immediate, for not only is the change most grateful to
the eye, and most exquisite as composition, but the surface of the water
in consequence of it is felt to be as spacious as it is clear, and the
eye rests not on the inverted image of the material objects, but on the
element which receives them. And we have a farther instance in this
passage of the close study which is required to enjoy the works of
Turner, for another artist might have altered the reflection or confused
it, but he would not have reasoned upon it so as to find out _what the
exact alteration must be_; and if we had tried to account for the
reflection, we should have found it false or inaccurate. But the master
mind of Turner, without effort, showers its knowledge into every touch,
and we have only to trace out even his slightest passages, part by part,
to find in them the universal working of the deepest thought, that
consistency of every minor truth which admits of and invites the same
ceaseless study as the work of nature herself.

Sec. 10. The _texture_ of surface in Turner's painting of calm w