THE PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. Bit) 
What completeness in the details of this picture? You would 
know the place if you happened to visit it. 
Read also for example the following passage from Marmion, de- 
scriptive of the hero’s journey on the day after leaving Norham Castle. 
Oft on the trampling band, from crown 
Of some tall cliff, the deer looked down ; 
On wing of jet, from his repose 
In the deep heath, the black-cock rose ; 
Sprung from the gorse the timid roe, 
Nor waited for the bending bow ; 
And when the stony path began, 
By which the naked peak they wan, 
Up flew the snowy ptarmigan. 
There are no generalities here ; the description is marked by ex- 
ceeding accuracy ; Scott had himself seen these details with delight 
and reproduces them with pleasure. 
But of all modern English poets Wordsworth is perhaps most dis- 
tinguished for the love of nature. He spent his life in one of the 
most beautiful parts of England and composed much of his poetry 
out of doors. He tried in prose to give expression to his theory of 
the essential beauty of the commonest sights. His poems show how 
he loved the external world, not only in its general aspect but in its 
minute details. They likewise show that he was inspired by a love 
of nature for herself which was entirely independent of any meaning 
he saw in her. He says: 
The sounding cataract 
Haunted me like a passion ; the tall rock, 
The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood, 
Their colours and their forms, were then to me 
An appetite, a feeliag and a love, 
That had no need of a remoter charm 
By thought supplied, or any interest 
Unborrowed from the eye. 
Very many of us now share this mental attitude ; but that should 
not lead us to forget that as a prevailing habit of mind the love of 
nature has gained greatly in depth and range in the last century. It 
is only within that period that the love of scenery has appreciably 
influenced the travelling public. It may be that previously the diffi- 
culty of going from place to place was so great as effectually to nip 
in the bud any nascent taste for natural scenery ; but this explana- 
27 
