pple and
wreath has some peculiar passage of reflection upon itself alone, and
the radiating and scintillating sunbeams are mixed with the dim hues of
transparent depth and dark rock below;--to do this perfectly, is beyond
the power of man; to do it even partially, has been granted to but one
or two, even of those few who have dared to attempt it.

Sec. 3. Difficulty of properly dividing the subject.

As the general laws which govern the appearances of water have equal
effect on all its forms, it would be injudicious to treat the subject in
divisions; for the same forces which govern the waves and foam of the
torrent, are equally influential on those of the sea; and it will be
more convenient to glance generally at the system of water-painting of
each school and artist, than to devote separate chapters to the
examination of the lake, river, or sea-painting of all. We shall,
therefore, vary our usual plan, and look first at the water-painting of
the ancients; then at that of the moderns generally; lastly, at that of
Turner.

Sec. 4. Inaccuracy of study of water-effect among all painters.

It is necessary in the outset to state briefly one or two of the optical
conditions by which the appearance of the surface of water is affected;
to describe them all would require a separate essay, even if I possessed
the requisite knowledge, which I do not. The accidental modifications
under which general laws come into play are innumerable, and often, in
their extreme complexity, inexplicable, I suppose, even by men of the
most extended optical knowledge. What I shall here state are a few only
of the broadest laws verifiable by the reader's immediate observation,
but of which nevertheless, I have found artists frequently ignorant;
owing to their habit of sketching from nature without thinking or
reasoning, and especially of finishing at home. It is not often, I
believe, that an artist draws the reflections in water as he sees them;
over large spaces, and in weather that is not very calm, it is nearly
impossible to do so; when it is possible, sometimes in haste, and
sometimes in idleness, and sometimes under the idea of improving nature,
they are slurred or misrepresented; it is so easy to give something like
a suggestive resemblance of calm water, that, even when the landscape is
finished from nature, the water is merely indicated as something that
may be done at any time, and then, in the home work, come the cold
leaden grays