And over
all--the distant sea, the ridge of low dunes marking where the
earth ended and the flat, yellow expanse between--there
brooded a soft bluish silvery haze. A haze that blotted
nothing out, but blended and interfused them all until earth
and air and sea and sands were scarcely distinguishable. The
effect, delicate, mysterious, unearthly, cannot be described.
Ethereal gauze . . .
Visible heat, air-water, and dry sea,
Last conquest of the eye . . .
Sun dust,
Aerial surf upon the shores of earth,
Ethereal estuary, frith of light. . . .
Bird of the sun, transparent winged.
Do we not see that words fail as pigments do--that the effect
is too coarse, since in describing it we put it before the
mental eye as something distinctly visible, a thing of itself
and separate. But it is not so in nature; the effect is of
something almost invisible and is yet a part of all and makes
all things--sky and sea and land--as unsubstantial as itself.
Even living, moving things had that aspect. Far out on the
lowest further strip of sand, which appeared to be on a level
with the sea, gulls were seen standing in twos and threes and
small groups and in rows; but they did not look like gulls
--familiar birds, gull-shaped with grey and white plumage.
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