DESCRIPTIONS OF NATURE BY THE ANCIENTS. 373 



of thought, the bent of their imaginations, and the habits of 

 their lives to the simplicity of nature, which was so faithfully 

 reflected in their poetic works, we cannot fail to remark with 

 surprise, how few traces arc to be met amongst them of 

 the sentimental interest with which we, in modern times, 

 attach ourselves to the individual characteristics of natural 

 scenery. The Greek poet is certainly, in the highest degree, 

 correct, faithful, and circumstantial in his descriptions of 

 nature, but his heart has no more share in his words than if 

 he were treating of a garment, a shield, or a suit of armour. 

 Nature seems to interest his understanding more than his 

 moral perceptions ; he does not cling to her charms with the 

 fervour and the plaintive passion of the poet of modern 

 times." 



However much truth and excellence there may be in these 

 remarks, they must not be extended to the whole of antiquity ; 

 and I moreover consider that \ve take a very limited view of 

 antiquity when, in contradistinction to the present time, we 

 restrict the term exclusively to the Greeks and Romans. A 

 profound feeling of nature pervades the most ancient poetry 

 of the Hebrews and Indians ; and exists, therefore, amongst 

 nations of very different descent Semitic and Indo-Germanic. 



We can only draw conclusions regarding the feelings en- 

 tertained by the ancients for nature, from those expressions 

 of the sentiment which have come down to us in the remains 

 of their literature, and we must, therefore, seek them with a 

 care, and judge of them with a caution proportionate to the 

 infrequency of their occurrence in the grand forms of lyric 

 and epic poetry. In the periods of Hellenic antiquity the 

 flowery season in the history of mankind we certainly 

 meet with the tenderest expressions of deep natural emotion, 

 blended with the most poetic representations of human pas- 

 sion, as delineating some action derived from mythical history; 

 but specific descriptions of nature occur only as accessories, 

 for, in Grecian art, all things are centred in the sphere of 

 human life. 



The description of nature in its manifold richness of form, 

 as a distinct branch of poetic literature, was wholly unknown 

 to the Greeks. The landscape appears among them merely 

 as the background of the picture of which human figures con- 

 stitute the main subject. Passions, breaking forth into 



