Next, he raises, in a still greater degree, all the mountains beyond,
putting three or four ranges instead of one, but uniting them into a
single massy bank at their base, which he makes overhang the valley, and
thus reduces it nearly to such a chasm as that which he had just passed
through above, so as to unite the expression of this ravine with that
of the stony valley. A few trees, in the hollow of the glen, he feels to
be contrary in spirit to the stones, and fells them, as he did the
others; so also he feels the bridge in the foreground, by its
slenderness, to contradict the aspect of violence in the torrent; he
thinks the torrent and avalanches should have it all their own way
hereabouts; so he strikes down the nearer bridge, and restores the one
farther off, where the force of the stream may be supposed less. Next,
the bit of road on the right, above the bank, is not built on a wall,
nor on arches high enough to give the idea of an Alpine road in general;
so he makes the arches taller, and the bank steeper, introducing, as we
shall see presently, a reminiscence from the upper part of the pass.
[Illustration: 21. Pass of Faido. (2d. Turnerian Topography.)]
Sec. 15. I say he "_thinks_" this, and "introduces" that. But, strictly
speaking, he does not think at all. If he thought, he would instantly go
wrong; it is only the clumsy and uninventive artist who thinks. All
these changes come into his head involuntarily; an entirely imperative
dream, crying, "thus it must be," has taken possession of him; he can
see, and do, no otherwise than as the dream directs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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