rocess of dissipation; it is as much a cloud as those of the sky
itself, that is, a quantity of moisture rendered visible in the air by
imperfect solution. Accordingly, observe how exquisitely irregular and
broken are its forms, how sharp and spray-like; but with all the facts
observed which were pointed out in Chap. II. of this Section, the convex
side to the wind, the sharp edge on that side, the other soft and lost.
Smoke, on the contrary, is an actual substance existing independently in
the air, a solid opaque body, subject to no absorption nor dissipation
but that of tenuity. Observe its volumes; there is no breaking up nor
disappearing here; the wind carries its elastic globes before it, but
does not dissolve nor break them.[37] Equally convex and void of angles
on all sides, they are the exact representatives of the clouds of the
old masters, and serve at once to show the ignorance and falsehood of
these latter, and the accuracy of study which has guided Turner to the
truth.

Sec. 14. Moment of retiring rain in the Llanthony.

From this picture we should pass to the Llanthony,[38] which is the
rendering of the moment immediately following that given in the
Jumieges. The shower is here half exhausted, half passed by, the last
drops are rattling faintly through the glimmering hazel boughs, the
white torrent, swelled by the sudden storm, flings up its hasty jets of
springing spray to meet the returning light; and these, as if the heaven
regretted what it had given, and were taking it back, pass, as they
leap, into vapor, and fall not again, but vanish in the shafts of the
sunlight[39]--hurrying, fitful, wind-woven sunlight--which glides
through the thick leaves, and paces along the pale rocks like rain;
half conquering, half quenched by the very mists which it summons itself
from the lighted pastures as it passes, and gathers out of the drooping
herbage and from the streaming crags; sending them with messages of
peace to the far summits of the yet unveiled mountains whose silence is
still broken by the sound of the rushing rain.

Sec. 15. And of commencing, chosen with peculiar meaning for Loch Coriskin.

With this noble work we should compare one of which we can better judge
by the engraving--the Loch Coriskin, in the illustrations to Scott,
because it introduces us to another and a most remarkable instance of
the artist's vast and varied knowledge. When rain falls on a mountain
composed chiefly of barren ro