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its violence, there may be appointed, in the natural order
of things, convulsions to take place after certain epochs, on
a scale which the human race has not yet lived long enough
to witness. The soft silver cloud which writhes innocently on
the crest of Vesuvius, rests there without intermission; but the
fury which lays cities in sepulchres of lava bursts forth only
after intervals of centuries; and the still fiercer indignation
of the greater volcanoes, which makes half the globe quake
with earthquake, and shrivels up whole kingdoms with flame,
is recorded only in dim distances of history; so that it is not
irrational to admit that there may yet be powers dormant, not
destroyed, beneath the apparently calm surface of the earth,
whose date of rest is the endurance of the human race, and
whose date of action must be that of its doom.³9
It is this sombre reflective mood that also underscores John
Brett's
Mount Etna from the heights of Taormina
(1870), and
Ruskin's own watercolour of Etna (1874), with its soft silver cloud
writhing innocently. The scientific intention of Brett's painting
John Brett,
Etna from
the Heights of Taormina
,
1870, oil on canvas.
Image not available - no digital rights
