10 THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE — CHAP. 
of the moon, in her increase and wane; the 
rising and setting of all the stars, and the 
inviolable regularity of their courses; when, 
says he, ‘they should see these things, they 
would undoubtedly conclude that there are 
Gods, and that these are their mighty 
works.’ ’’? 
Is my life vulgar, my fate mean, 
Which on such golden memories can lean ? 2 
At the same time the change which has 
taken place in the character of our religion 
has in one respect weakened the hold which 
Nature has upon our feelings. . To the 
Greeks —to our own ancestors, —every River 
or Mountain or Forest had not only its own 
- special Deity, but im some sense was itself 
‘instinct with life. They were not only 
peopled by Nymphs‘ and Fauns, Elves and 
Kelpies, were not only the favourite abodes 
of Water, Forest, or Mountain Spirits, but 
they had a conscious existence of their own. 
In the Middle Ages indeed, these spirits 
1 Cicero, De Natura Deorum. 
2 Thoreau. 
