Thousands of feet of rich coral reef; thousands of feet of barren
sands; then thousands of feet of rich alluvial forest--and all these
sliding into each other, if not in one place, then in another,
without violent break or change; this is the story which the lime in
the mortar and the coal on the fire, between the two, reveal.
VI. THE SLATES ON THE ROOF
The slates on the roof should be, when rightly understood, a pleasant
subject for contemplation to the dweller in a town. I do not ask him
to imitate the boy who, cliff-bred from his youth, used to spend
stolen hours on the house-top, with his back against a chimney-stalk,
transfiguring in his imagination the roof-slopes into mountain-sides,
the slates into sheets of rock, the cats into lions, and the sparrows
into eagles. I only wish that he should--at least after reading this
paper--let the slates on the roof carry him back in fancy to the
mountains whence they came; perhaps to pleasant trips to the lakes
and hills of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and North Wales; and to
recognise--as he will do if he have intellect as well as fancy--how
beautiful and how curious an object is a common slate.
Beautiful, not only for the compactness and delicacy of its texture,
and for the regularity and smoothness of its surface, but still more
for its colour.
Pages:
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151