to the study of nature in all her aspects, arises another striking peculiarity; the marked attention of both writers to what is called in painting Chiaroscuro. There are, comparatively speaking, very few poetical descriptions in the works of either, which do not owe part of their beauty to the management of the light and shade; this, indeed, appears to be the circumstance that first strikes the imagination of each, when he figures any scene to himself; and they sometimes even step aside from the direct course of narrative, to point out some remarkable appearance of illumination or obscurity. Thus, in the conversation between Miss Vere and the Black Dwarf, we are told that the recluse at one time, "laid his hand with a fierce smile on the long dagger which he always wore beneath his garment, and unsheathed it so far that the blade glimmered clear in the fire-light. *" And when Redmond bore Wilfrid from the blazing hall of Rokeby,

"Beneath an oak he laid him down,

That in the blaze gleamed ruddy brown."

Canto V. st. 37.

I could not, in any convenient number of extracts, do justice to the infinite copiousness and felicity of invention with which the two authors have distributed their flashes, gleams, glares, sparkles, blazes, sunshine, moonlight, and reflections of all these from water and from metal +;

* Chapter vii.

We are presented with some striking effects of torch-light in Guy Mannering, Vol. II. ch. 5. The Black Dwarf, ch. 18. Legend of Montrose, ch. 4. Marmion, Canto VI. St. 11. And of fire-light, Marmion, Canto III. St. 6, 7. Guy Manner

but I am tempted to copy the two following descriptions, by their strong mutual resemblance. Both are highly poetical, more particularly the passage in prose, and it

seems evident to me that both are the work of the same poet.

"Then sudden through the darkened air

A flash of lightning came;

So broad, so bright, so red the glare,
The castle seemed on flame;

Glanced every rafter of the hall,

Glanced every shield upon the wall,
Each trophied beam, each sculptured stone,
Were instant seen, and instant gone;
Full through the guests' bedazzled band
Resistless flashed the levin-brand,

And filled the hall with smouldering smoke,
As on the elvish Page it broke;

It broke with thunder long and loud,
Dismayed the brave, appalled the proud,
From sea to sea the larum rung;

On Berwick wall, and at Carlisle withal,
To arms the startled warders sprung.
When ended was the dreadful roar,

The elvish Dwarf was seen no more!"

Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto VI. St. 25.

He saluted her, as the ceremonial of the time enjoined upon such occasions. Their cheeks had touched and ing, Vol. III. ch. 15. Kenilworth, Vol. I. ch. 10. And a beautiful gleam of reflected sun-shine, Waverley, Vol. I. ch. 8. Contrasts of moonlight and lamplight, Rokeby, Canto V. St. 31. Antiquary, Vol. II. ch. 6. Antiquary, Vol. III. ch. 3. ch. 11. Ivanhoe, Vol. II. ch. 8.

Compositions after Rembrandt,
Heart of Mid Lothian, Vol. I.

'were withdrawn from each other-Ravenswood had not

quitted the hand which he had taken in kindly courtesy -a blush, which attached more consequence by far 'than was usual to such ceremony, still mantled on Lucy 'Ashton's beautiful cheek, when the apartment was suddenly illuminated by a flash of lightning, which seemed absolutely to swallow the darkness of the hall. Every object might have been for an instant seen distinctly. 'The slight and half sinking form of Lucy Ashton, the 'well proportioned and stately figure of Ravenswood, 'his dark features, and the fiery, yet irresolute expression ' of his eyes-the old arms and scutcheons which hung on the walls of the apartment, were for an instant 'distinctly visible to the Keeper by a strong red brilliant 'glare of light. Its disappearance was almost instantly 'followed by a burst of thunder, for the storm cloud was "very near the castle; and the peal was so sudden and dreadful, that the old tower rocked to its foundation, ' and every inmate concluded it was falling on them. The 'soot, which had not been disurbed for centuries, showered 'down the huge tunnelled chimnies-lime and dust flew ' in clouds from the wall; and whether the lightning had actually struck the castle, or whether through the violent concussion of the air, several heavy stones were hurled 'from the mouldering battlements into the roaring sea ' beneath. It might seem as if the ancient founder of the 'castle was 'bestriding the thunder-storm, and proclaim'ing his displeasure at the reconciliation of his descendant 'with the enemy of his house.'-Bride of Lammermoor, Vol. I. ch. 9.

The next two passages have also a strong family likeness

"Through narrow loop and casement barr'd
The sunbeams sought the Court of Guard,
And, struggling with the smoky air,
Deadened the torches' yellow glare.
In comfortless alliance shone

The lights through arch of blackened stone,
And showed wild shapes in garb of war,
Faces deformed with beard and scar,

All haggard, from the midnight watch." &c.

Lady of the Lake, Canto VI. St. 2.

"There is no period at which men look worse in the 'eyes of each other, or feel more uncomfortable, than ' when the first dawn of daylight finds them watchers. •• 'Such was the pale, inauspicious, and ungrateful light, ' which began to beam upon those who kept watch all night, in the hall at Say's Court, and which mingled its 'cold pale blue diffusion with the red, yellow, and smoky 'beams of expiring lamps and torches. The young gal

lant was so struck with the forlorn and ghastly aspects ' of his companions of the watch, that he exclaimed,' &c. Kenilworth, Vol. II. ch. 3.

A mixture of lights is also very poetically described in this passage:

'From behind the same projection glimmered a strong 'red light,' (that of Burley's fire in the cavern), which, glancing in the waves of the falling water, and tinging 'them partially with crimson, had a strange preternatural ' and sinister effect when contrasted with the beams of 'the rising sun, which glanced on the first broken waves ' of the fall, though even its meridian splendour could not 'gain the third of its full. depth.'-Old Mortality, last Vol. ch. 14.

A similar effect is thus again pointed out:

$

'The table at which the earl was seated was lighted 'with two lamps wrought in silver, shedding that un'pleasant and doubtful light which arises from the mingling of artificial lustre with that of general day"light.'-Antiquary, Vol. II. ch. 13.

The following moonlight scenes have great and very similar beauties.

'A sharp frost wind, which made itself heard and felt 'from time to time, removed the clouds of mist which 6 might otherwise have slumbered till morning on the valley; and, though it could not totally disperse the 'clouds of vapour, yet threw them in confused and changeful masses, now hovering round the heads of the 'mountains, now filling, as with a dense and voluminous 'stream of smoke, the various deep gullies where masses ' of the composite rock, or brescia, tumbling in fragments from the cliffs, have rushed to the valley, leaving each 'behind its course a rent and torn ravine, resembling a ' deserted water-course. The moon, which was now high, ' and twinkled with all the vivacity of a frosty atmosphere, 'silvered the windings of the river, and the peaks and 'precipices which the mist left visible, while her beams 'seemed, as it were, absorbed by the fleecy whiteness of 'the mist, where it lay thick and condensed; and gave ' to the more light and vapoury specks, which were elsewhere visible, a sort of filmy transparency resembling 'the lightest veil of silver gauze.'-Rob Roy, Vol. III. ch. 6.

"Till when, through hills of azure borne,
The moon renew'd her silver horn,
Just at the time her waning ray

Had faded in the dawning day,

A summer mist arose ;