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vol.1 p.99
eye: and at a distance, when the summits of the waves,
agreeably to the rules of perspective, appear in
contact, the whole surface in that part will be
light.
But when the sky is splendid, and at the same time calm, the
water (being then a perfect mirror,) will glow all
over with correspondent tints; unless other reflections,
from the objects around, intervene, and form more vivid
pictures.
Often you will see a spacious bay, screened by some
projecting promontory, in perfect repose; while the rest of
the lake, more pervious to the air, is crisped over by a
gentle ripple.
Sometimes also, when the whole lake is tranquil, a
gentle perturbation will arise in some distant part, from no
apparent cause, from a breath of air, which nothing else can
feel, and creeping softly on, communicate a tremulous
shudder with exquisite sensibility over half the surface. In
this observation I do little more than translate from Ovid:
----- Exhorruit, aequoris instar,
Quod fremit, exigua cum summum stringitur aura.
No pool, no river-bay, can present this idea in it's utmost
purity. In them every crystalline particle is set, as it
were, in a socket of mud.
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