32 LANDSCAPE AND IMAGINATION 



of its historical development. I shall try to show first, 

 by reference to primitive myth and legend what were 

 the earliest and most obvious effects of prominent 

 elements of topography on the imagination, and 

 secondly, what these effects are or should be now in 

 the midst of modern science and universal education. 

 The mythology of Ancient Greece supplies many 

 illustrations of the way in which the physical aspects 

 of the land have impressed their character on the 

 religious beliefs and superstitions of a people. The 

 surface of that country is almost everywhere rugged, 

 rising into groups of bare, rocky hills and into chains 

 of lofty mountains which separate and enclose isolated 

 plains and valleys. The climate embraces all the 

 softness of the Mediterranean shores, together with 

 the year-long snows and frosts of Olympus on the 

 one hand, and the almost sub-tropical heat of the 

 lowlands of Attica on the other. The clouds and 

 rains of the mountains have draped the slopes with 

 umbrageous forests, and have spread over the plains 

 a fertile soil which has been cultivated since before 

 the dawn of history. Thus, while a luxuriant vege- 

 tation clothes the lower grounds with beauty, bare 

 crags and crests are never far away. The soft and 

 the harsh of nature, the soothing and the repulsive, 

 are placed side by side. The indolence begotten of 

 a teeming soil and sunny clime is quickened by 

 proximity to the stern mountain-world — the home 

 of thunder-clouds, tempests, and earthquakes. In 

 the childhood of mankind, the physical features of 

 such a country could not fail to react powerfully 

 upon the imagination of those who dwelt among 



