Stranica 39 [39]
REFLEXIONS IN SMOOTH WATER 17
distance, so that, by reason of the different juxtaposi¬
tion of the component parts of our picture, we get
different effects of contrast. The tufts of grass at the
waters edge, instead of being merged into the flat
expanse of green meadow behind them, stand out
sharply against the sky or a background of distant
trees. Surfaces that are turned towards the sky, such
as roofs, are foreshortened in the reflexion, whilst the
reverse is the case with those that face downwards,
as the under side of a boat or the inside of the arch
of a bridge. The reflexion of trees and bushes at
the water’s edge reveals more of the dark lower sur¬
faces of their leaves and branches than appears when
we look straight at them. ‘‘ We see the dark sides
of leaves hanging over a stream, in their reflection,
though we see the light sides above; and all objects
and groups of objects are thus seen in the reflection
under different lights, and in different positions with
respect to each other, from those which they assume
above; some which we see on the bank being entirely
lost in their reflection, and others which we cannot
see on the bank brought into view. Hence nature
contrives never to repeat herself, and the surface of
water is not a mockery, but a new view of what is
above it. And this difference in what is represented,
as well as the obscurity of the representation, is one
of the chief sources by which the sensation of surface
is kept up in the reality. The reflection is not so re¬
markable, it does not attract the eye in the same
degree when it is entirely different from the images
above, as when it mocks them and repeats them, and
we feel that the space and surface have colour and
C