Nothing,  I  said,  breaks  the  deathfulness  of  the  scene  ;  there  is  only  one
thing  that  adds  to  it.  A  long  line  of  vultures  is  seen  in  the  distance,  and
one  of  these  loathsome  birds  is  hovering  above  the  dead  and  the  doomed  :
the  camel  bends  back  his  neck  to  watch  it,  with  an  expression  of  terror  and
anguish  almost  human,  and  anticipates  its  doom.  You  can  not  look  at  the
print  without  a  vivid  sense  and  conception  of  despair.  You  go  through
street  after  street  before  the  impression  ceases  to  haunt  you.  Had  the  plate
been  better  executed,  it  is  quite  possible  it  might  not  have  been  so  poetical.
The  very  rudeness  and  vagueness  of  it  leave  much  to  the  imagination.  Had
the  plumage  of  the  vulture  or  the  hair  of  the  camel  more  accurately  copied
the  living  texture,  or  the  face  of  the  corpse  been  more  deathlike,  so  as,  in
stead  of  kindling  the  imagination  with  the  leading  idea,  to  have  drawn  away
the  attention  to  the  fidelity  with  which  the  accessories  had  been  painted,  the
poetry  would  have  been  lessened.  It  is  the  effort  to  express  a  feeling,  and
the  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  expression,  which  together  constitute  the  po
etical.
