and entirely parallel to any other,
though all have a certain tendency, more or less defined in each, which
impresses the mind with the most distinct _idea_ of parallelism. Neither
are any of the lines actually straight and unbroken; on the contrary,
they are all made up of the most exquisite and varied curves, and it is
the imagined line which joins the apices of these--a tangent to them
all, which is in reality straight.[40] They are suggested, not
represented, right lines; but the whole volume of cloud is visibly and
totally bounded by them; and, in consequence, its whole body is felt to
be dragged out and elongated by the force of the tempest which it
carries with it, and every one of its wreaths to be (as was before
explained) not so much something borne _before_ or _by_ the wind, as the
visible form and presence of the wind itself. We could not possibly
point out a more magnificent piece of drawing as a contrast to such
works of Salvator as that before alluded to (159 Dulwich Gallery). Both
are rolling masses of connected cloud; but in Turner's, there is not one
curve that repeats another, nor one curve in itself monotonous, nor
without character, and yet every part and portion of the cloud is
rigidly subjected to the same forward, fierce, inevitable influence of
storm. In Salvator's, every curve repeats its neighbor, every curve is
monotonous in itself, and yet the whole cloud is curling about hither
and thither, evidently without the slightest notion where it is going
to, and unregulated by any general influence whatsoever. I could not
bring together two finer or more instructive examples, the one of
everything that is perfect, the other of everything that is childish or
abominable, in the representation of the same facts.

Sec. 20. Entire expression of tempest by minute touches and circumstances
in the Coventry.

But there is yet more to be noticed in this noble sky of Turner's. Not
only are the lines of the rolling cloud thus irregular in their
parallelism, but those of the falling rain are equally varied in their
direction, indicating the gusty changefulness of the wind, and yet kept
so straight and stern in their individual descent, that we are not
suffered to forget its strength. This impression is still farther
enhanced by the drawing of the smoke, which blows every way at once, yet
turning perpetually in each of its swirls back in the direction of the
wind, but so suddenly and violently, as alm