the exquisite beauty of the opening day, when light came gloaming off from everything; the lazy motion of the boat, when one lay idly on the deck, looking through, rather than at, the deep blue sky ( Dickens, American Notes, p. 198)
Dickens based this work of 1842 on his disillusioning tour of America with his wife. As well as describing the many inconveniences of a four-day journey on a canal boat, he recorded a few noteworthy pleasures, including the above. Ruskin admired Dickens's work, and here quotes it hot off the press (see Ruskin and Dickens).