The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1893-10-18
aEAUTY IN THE CLOUDS.
By JOHN RusKINs.

By JOHN RusKINs.
4a upon the peak of some iso-
lal ountain at daybrenlz, wher
the 1l mists first rise from of
the Ana, and watch their white
an a-side fields as they float in
lo7 ys and winding CULTS about
tb1 Apded SUBMITS of the lower
pi| Untouched yet by more than
ds colder and more quiet than a
vi s sea under the moon OF
mi bt; watch when the first sum
be sent upon the silver chan
ne now the foam of their undula-
% Rrfaee parts and passes away;
az own under their depths the
g rug city and green pasture
o. Atlantis, betw cen the white
p Of winding rivers; the fakes
o falling every moment faster
BROADER among the starry
the wretched surges break
Fanish above them, and the
confused crests and ridges of the
dark hills shorten their grey shad.
oxs upon the plain.
Wait a little longer, and you will
see those scattered mists rallying in
the ravines, and floating up toward
you, along the winding valleys, till
they couch in quiet masses, irrides.
cent with the morning light, upon
the broad breasts of the higher
hills, whose leagues of massy undu-
Iation Will melt back and back into
that robe of material light until
they fade away, lost in its lustre, to
appear again above in the serene
heaven, like a wild, bright, impossi-
bic dream, foundationless and mac
cessibIe, their very bases vanishing
in the unsubstantial and mocking
blue of the deep Lake below. Wait
yet a little longer, and you shall see
those mists gather themselves into
white towers, and stand like fort
resses along tho promontories, ,massy
and motionless, only piled with
every instant higher and higher
into the sky, and casting longer
shadows athwart the rocks; and out
of the pale blue of the horizon you
will see forming and advancing a
troup of narrow, dark, pointed va
pors, which will cover the sky, inch
by inch, with their grey network,
and take the light off the landscape
with an eclipse which will stop the
singing of the birds aud the motion
of the leaves together; and then
you will see the horizontal bars of
black shadow forming under them,
and furid wreaths create themselves,
you know not how, along the
shoulders of the hills; you never
see them form, but when you look
back to a place which was clear an
instant ago, there is a cloud on it,
hanging by the precipices as a
hawk pauses over its prey.
And then you will hear the sud
den rush of the awakened wind,
and you will see those watch towers
of vapor swept away from their
foundations, and waving curtains
OF Opaque rain let down to the val
Ieys, swinging from the burdened
clouds in black, bending fringes, or
pacing in pale columns along the
lake level, grazing its surface with
foam as they go. And then as the
sun sinks, you shall see the storm
drift for an instant from off the bills,
leaving their. broad sides smoking
and loaded yet with snow-white,
torn, steam-like rags of capricious
vapor, now gone, now gathered
again; while the smouldering sun,
seeming not far away, but burning
like red-hot ball beside you, and
as if you could reach it, plunges
through the rushing wind and
rolling cloud with headIong fall, as
if it meant to rise no more, dyeing
all the air about it with blood.
And then you shall hear the
fainting tempest die in the hollow
of the night, and you shall see a
green halo kindling on the summit
Of the eastern hills, brighter, bright
er yet, till the large white circle of
the slow moon is lifted up among
the barred clouds, step by step, line
by line; star after star she quenches
with her kindling light, setting in
their stead an army of pale, pene-
trable, fleecy wreaths in the heaven,
to give light upon the earth, which
move together, hand in hand, com
pany by company, troup by troup,
SO measured in their unity ofmo-
ton that the whole heaven seems