ntrary, has not described a thunderstorm as he saw
it, but according to the effect that it produced on his own mind. His
epithets are rarely descriptive of the qualities that exist in the objects
to which they are applied. They have reference rather to the emotions
which their presence produces in himself. Thus, in the first line,
'boding' is not a quality that can be predicated of silence. To the
feeling that the silence preceding a storm is wont to excite, the epithet
is properly enough applied. So with the expression 'dubious dusk.'

In connection with these extracts, we will look at one taken from
SCOTT'S description of the scenery around Loch Katrine:

'Boon nature scattered free and wild,
Each plant, or flower, the mountain's child;
Here eglantine embalmed the air,
Hawthorn and hazel mingled there;
The primrose pale, and violet flower,
Found in each cleft a narrow bower;
Foxglove and night-shade, side by side
Emblems of punishment and pride,
Grouped their dark hues with every stain
The weather-beaten crags retain;
With boughs that quaked at every breath,
Gray-birch and aspen wept beneath;
Aloft the ash and warrior oak
Cast anchor in the rifted rock;
And higher yet the pine tree hung
His scattered trunk, and frequent flung
Where seemed the cliffs to meet on high
His boughs athwart the narrowed sky.
Highest of all, where white peaks glanced,
Where glistening streamers waved and danced,
The wanderer's eye could barely view
The summer heaven's delicious blue.'

The same remarks which we applied to Irving are applicable with some
little restriction here. With one or two exceptions, the epithets mark
attributes that exist in the subjects. Every one can see at a glance the
appropriateness of such terms as _pale_ primrose, _gray_ birch, and
_narrow_ bower. They are not dependent for their effect upon any fanciful
train of associations which their names may excite.

If we compare the above extracts together, we arrive at certain results
which we shall briefly state. We will throw out of view for a moment any
pleasure which the rhythm may give us, as foreign to our present purpose.
Each of these writers is describing a scene from nature. Each of them has
the same object, to interest others by a representation of those sights
and sounds that interested themselves. Scott accomplishes his purpose by
presenting as exact a picture of nature as it is possible perhaps for
wor