r, but
pale with anger, in gigantic, unbroken, oceanic curves, bending into
each other without break or foam, though jets of fiery spray are cast
into the air along the rocky shore, and rise in the sunshine in dusty
vapor. The whole surface is one united race of mad motion; all the waves
dragged, as I have described, into lines and furrows by their swiftness,
and every one of these fine forms is drawn with the most studied
chiaroscuro of delicate color, grays and greens, as silvery and pure as
the finest passages of Paul Veronese, and with a refinement of execution
which the eye strains itself in looking into. The rapidity and gigantic
force of this torrent, the exquisite refinement of its color, and the
vividness of foam which is obtained through a general middle tint,
render it about the most perfect piece of painting of running water in
existence.

Sec. 27. And of the interrupted torrent in the Mercury and Argus.

Now this picture is, as was noticed in our former reference to it, full
of expression of every kind of motion: the clouds are in wild haste; the
sun is gleaming fast and fitfully through the leaves; the rain drifting
away along the hill-side; and the torrent, the principal object, to
complete the impression, is made the wildest thing of all and not only
wild before us, and with us, but bearing with it in its every motion,
from its long course, the record of its rage. Observe how differently
Turner uses his torrent when the spirit of the picture is repose. In the
Mercury and Argus, we have also a stream in the foreground; but, in
coming down to us, we see it stopping twice in two quiet and glassy
pools, upon which the drinking cattle cast an unstirred image. From the
nearest of these, the water leaps in three cascades into another basin
close to us; it trickles in silver threads through the leaves at its
edge, and falls tinkling and splashing (though in considerable body)
into the pool, stirring its quiet surface, at which a bird is stooping
to drink, with concentric and curdling ripples which divide round the
stone at its farthest border, and descend in sparkling foam over the lip
of the basin. Thus we find, in every case, the system of Turner's truth
entirely unbroken, each phase and phenomenon of nature being recorded
exactly where it is most valuable and impressive.

Sec. 28. Various cases.

We have not, however, space to follow out the variety of his
torrent-drawing. The above two examples are c