of the restless, crashing abyss below, the
blue of the water, paled by the foam in its body, shows purer than the
sky through white rain-cloud; while the shuddering iris stoops in
tremulous stillness over all, fading and flushing alternately through
the choking spray and shattered sunshine, hiding itself at last among
the thick golden leaves which toss to and fro in sympathy with the wild
water; their dripping masses lifted at intervals, like sheaves of loaded
corn, by some stronger gush from the cataract, and bowed again upon the
mossy rocks as its roar dies away; the dew gushing from their thick
branches through drooping clusters of emerald herbage, and sparkling in
white threads along the dark rocks of the shore, feeding the lichens
which chase and checker them with purple and silver. I believe, when you
have stood by this for half an hour, you will have discovered that there
is something more in nature than has been given by Ruysdael. Probably
you will not be much disposed to think of any mortal work at the time;
but when you look back to what you have seen, and are inclined to
compare it with art, you will remember--or ought to remember--Nesfield.
He is a man of extraordinary feeling, both for the color and the
spirituality of a great waterfall; exquisitely delicate in his
management of the changeful veil of spray or mist; just in his curves
and contours; and unequalled in color except by Turner. None of our
water-color painters can approach him in the management of the variable
hues of clear water over weeded rocks; but his feeling for it often
leads him a little too far, and, like Copley Fielding, he loses sight of
simplicity and dignity for the sake of delicacy or prettiness. His
waterfalls are, however, unequalled in their way; and, if he would
remember, that in all such scenes there is much gloom as well as much
splendor, and relieve the lustre of his attractive passages of color
with more definite and prevalent grays, and give a little more substance
to parts of his picture unaffected by spray, his work would be nearly
perfect. His seas are also most instructive; a little confused in
chiaroscuro, but refined in form and admirable in color.

Sec. 5. The admirable water-drawing of J. D. Harding.

Sec. 6. His color; and painting of sea.

J. D. Harding is, I think, nearly unequalled in the _drawing_ of running
water. I do not know what Stanfield would do; I have never seen an
important piece of torrent drawn