noes INTRODUCTION : 11 
were regarded as often mischievous, and apt 
to take offence; sometimes as essentially 
malevolent —even the most beautiful, like 
the Venus of Tannhiuser, being often on that 
very account all the more dangerous; while 
the Mountains and Forests, the Lakes and . 
Seas, were the abodes of hideous ghosts and 
horrible monsters, of Giants and Ogres, Sor- 
cerers and Demons. These fears, though 
vague, were none the less extreme, and the 
judicial records of the Middle Ages furnish 
only too conclusive evidence that they were 
a terrible reality. The light of Science has 
now happily dispelled these fearful nightmares. 
Unfortunately, however, as men have mul- 
tiplied, their energies have hitherto tended, 
not to beautify, but to mar. Forests have 
been cut down, and replaced by flat fields in 
geometrical squares, or on the continent by 
narrow strips. Here and there indeed we 
meet with oases, in which beauty has not 
been sacrificed to profit, and it is then happily 
found that not only is. there no loss, but the 
_earth seems to reward even more richly those 
who treat her with love and respect. 
