d the
indistinct labours of the giant. In other places the rock was damasked
like a Saracen buckler, or engraved like a Florentine vase. There were
portions which appeared like Corinthian brass, then like arabesques, as
on the door of a mosque; then like Runic stones with obscure and mystic
prints of claws. Plants with twisted creepers and tendrils, crossing and
recrossing upon the groundwork of golden lichens, covered it with
filigree. The grotto resembled in some wise a Moorish palace. It was a
union of barbarism and of goldsmith's work, with the imposing and rugged
architecture of the elements.

The magnificent stains and moulderings of the sea covered, as with
velvet, the angles of granite. The escarpments were festooned with
large-flowered bindweed, sustaining itself with graceful ease, and
ornamenting the walls as by intelligent design. Wall-pellitories showed
their strange clusters in tasteful arrangement. The wondrous light which
came from beneath the water, at once a submarine twilight and an Elysian
radiance, softened down and blended all harsh lineaments. Every wave was
a prism. The outlines of things under these rainbow-tinted undulations
produced the chromatic effects of optical glasses made too convex. Solar
spectra shot through the waters. Fragments of rainbows seemed floating
in that transparent dawn. Elsewhere--in other corners--there was
discernible a kind of moonlight in the water. Every kind of splendour
seemed to mingle there, forming a strange sort of twilight. Nothing
could be more perplexing or enigmatical than the sumptuous beauties of
this cavern. Enchantment reigned over all. The fantastic vegetation,
the rude masonry of the place seemed to harmonise. It was a happy
marriage this, between these strange wild things. The branches seeming
but to touch one another clung closely each to each. The stern rock and
the pale flower met in a passionate embrace. Massive pillars had
capitals and entwining wreaths of delicate garlands, that quivered
through every fibre, suggestive of fairy fingers tickling the feet of a
Behemoth, and the rock upheld the plant, and the plant clasped the rock
with unnatural joy of attraction.

The effect produced by the mysterious reconciliation of these strange
forms was of a supreme and inexpressible beauty.

The works of nature, not less than the works of genius, contain the
absolute, and produce an impression of awe. Something unexpected about
them imperiously insists