XX11 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



Not vainly did the early Persian make 

 His altar the high places, and the peak 

 Of earth-o'ergazing mountains, and thus take 

 A fit and unwalled temple, there to seek 

 The spirit, in whose honour shrines are weak, 

 Upreared of human hands. Come and compare 

 Columns and idol-dwellings, Goth or Greek, 

 With Nature's realms of worship, earth and air, 

 Nor fix on fond abodes to circumscribe thy prayer. 



CHILDE HAROLD, Canto in. 



To particularize amongst our living poets 

 those who have displayed a deep sense of the 

 beauty and power of Nature, would be to enu- 

 merate all who are by any means distinguished ; 

 but Scott, Southey, Coleridge, Campbell, and 

 Rogers, who were amongst the first to call back 

 our poetry from Art to Nature, must not be 

 passed in silence ; and Wordsworth has so gazed 

 upon her, not only with the eyes of love, but of 

 philosophy, he has so completely retired to the 

 perpetual contemplation of her charms, and the 

 communion of her spirit ; and has so fully ex- 

 pressed all that I am anxious to testify of her 

 moral influence, that I must make from . him 

 one quotation. 



Nature never did betray 

 The heart that loved her ! 'Tis her privilege, 



