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that is between one house and the next sinks by degrees into thicker
mist; and yet, being less transparent, it appears whiter; and if the
houses are some higher than the others, since the true [colour] is
always more discernible through the thinner atmosphere, the houses
will look darker in proportion as they are higher up. Let n o p q
represent the various density of the atmosphere thick with moisture,
a being the eye, the house b c will look lightest at the bottom,
because it is in a thicker atmosphere; the lines c d f will appear
equally light, for although f is more distant than c, it is
raised into a thinner atmosphere, if the houses b e are of the
same height, because they cross a brightness which is varied by
mist, but this is only because the line of the eye which starts from
above ends by piercing a lower and denser atmosphere at d than at
b. Thus the line a f is lower at f than at c; and the house
f will be seen darker at e from the line e k as far as m,
than the tops of the houses standing in front of it.
4
67.
OF TOWNS OR OTHER BUILDINGS SEEN IN THE EVENING OR THE MORNING
THROUGH THE MIST.
Of buildings seen at a great distance in the evening or the morning,
as in mist or dense atmosphere, only those portions are seen in
brightness which are lighted up by the sun which is near the
horizon; and those portions which are not lighted up by the sun
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