XVi INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



diffuse them through society in counteraction of 

 the deadening spirit of the world,) are found inva- 

 riably ardent lovers of Nature. To them it is a 

 passion and an appetite their voice sounds from 

 antiquity in 



Flumina amem sylvasque inglorius. 



Need I advert to our older poets, who are full of 

 it ? To Chaucer, to Gawain Douglas, to the pic- 

 turesque and Arcadian Spenser, to the universal 

 Shakspeare, to the solemn majesty of Milton? 

 What a beauty and a freshness mark the poetry 

 of the last great man whenever he touches on 

 Nature ! We feel, as expressed in his own simile, 



As one who long- in populous cities pent, 

 Where houses thick and sewers annoy the air, 

 Forth issuing on a summer morn to breathe 

 Among the pleasant villages and farms. 



But the full extent of his love is only to be felt 

 where he laments the loss of his sight. Speaking 

 of light, he says, 



Thee I revisit safe, 



And feel thy sovran, vital lamp ; but thou 

 Revisit'st not these eyes, that roll in vain 

 To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn; 

 So thick a drop serene hath quenched their orbs, 

 Or dim suffusion veiled : yet not the more 

 Cease I to wander where the Muses haunt 

 Clear spring, or shady grove, or sunny hill, 

 Smit with the love of sacred song ; but chief 

 Thee, Sion, and the flowery brooks beneath, 



