. 12, 13, (the reference in the note
ought to be to Chap. XV. Sec. 7.)

[60] In the light between the waterfall and the large dark mass on
the extreme right.

SECTION V.

OF TRUTH OF WATER.

CHAPTER I.

OF WATER, AS PAINTED BY THE ANCIENTS.

Sec. 1. Sketch of the functions and infinite agency of water.

Of all inorganic substances, acting in their own proper nature, and
without assistance or combination, water is the most wonderful. If we
think of it as the source of all the changefulness and beauty which we
have seen in clouds; then as the instrument by which the earth we have
contemplated was modelled into symmetry, and its crags chiselled into
grace; then as, in the form of snow, it robes the mountains it has made,
with that transcendent light which we could not have conceived if we had
not seen; then as it exists in the form of the torrent--in the iris
which spans it, in the morning mist which rises from it, in the deep
crystalline pools which mirror its hanging shore, in the broad lake and
glancing river; finally, in that which is to all human minds the best
emblem of unwearied, unconquerable power, the wild, various, fantastic,
tameless unity of the sea; what shall we compare to this mighty, this
universal element for glory and for beauty? or how shall we follow its
eternal changefulness of feeling? It is like trying to paint a soul.

Sec. 2. The ease with which a common representation of it may be given. The
impossibility of a faithful one.

To suggest the ordinary appearance of calm water--to lay on canvas as
much evidence of surface and reflection as may make us understand that
water is meant--is, perhaps, the easiest task of art; and even ordinary
running or falling water may be sufficiently rendered, by observing
careful curves of projection with a dark ground, and breaking a little
white over it, as we see done with judgment and truth by Ruysdael. But
to paint the actual play of hue on the reflective surface, or to give
the forms and fury of water when it begins to show itself--to give the
flashing and rocket-like velocity of a noble cataract, or the precision
and grace of the sea waves, so exquisitely modelled, though so mockingly
transient--so mountainous in its form, yet so cloud-like in its
motion--with its variety and delicacy of color, when every ri