Fluminaque illa queunt summis labentia ripis.[505]
So, too, he makes us realise, with a quickening and expanding emotion, which seems to bring us nearer to the core of Nature, the majesty of the sea breaking on a great expanse of shore,—the solemn stillness of midnight,—the invisible agency by which the clouds form the pageantry of the sky,—the active noiseless energy by which rivers wear away their banks,—by the use of words that seem exactly equivalent to the thing which they describe,—
Quam fluitans circum magnis anfractibus aequor
Ionium glaucis aspargit virus ab undis.[506]
Severa silentia noctis
Undique cum constent.[507]
Ut nubes facile interdum concrescere in alto
Cernimus et mundi speciem violare serenam
Aera mulcentes motu.[508]
Pars etiam glebarum ad diluviem revocatur