A GOOD WORD FOR WINTER. 25 



your head clear of fog and makes you see things as they are. 

 I thank him for it ! The truth is, between ourselves, I 

 have a very good opinion of the whole family, who always 

 welcome me without making me feel as if I were too much 

 of a poor relation. There ought to be some kind of distance, 

 never so little, you know, to give the true relish. They are 

 as good company, the worst of them, as any I know, and I 

 am not a little flattered by a condescension from any one of 

 them ; but I happen to hold Winter s retainer this time, 

 and, like an honest advocate, am bound to make as good a 

 showing as I can for him, even if it cost a few slurs upon 

 the rest of the household. Moreover, Winter is coming, 

 and one would like to get on the blind side of him. 



The love of Nature in and for herself, or as a mirror for 

 the moods of the mind, is a modern thing. The fleeing to 

 her as an escape from man was brought into fashion by 

 Rousseau ; for his prototype Petrarch, though he had a 

 taste for pretty scenery, had a true antique horror for the 

 grander aspects of nature. He got once to the top of 

 Mount Yentoux, but it is very plain that he did not enjoy 

 it. Indeed, it is only within a century or so that the search 

 after the picturesque has been a safe employment. It is not 

 so even now in Greece or Southern Italy. Where the Anglo- 

 Saxon carves his cold fowl, and leaves the relics of his picnic, 

 the ancient or mediaeval man might be pretty confident 

 that some ruffian would try the edge of his knife on a 

 chicken of the Platonic sort, and leave more precious bones 

 as an offering to the genius of the place. The ancients were 

 certainly more social than we, though that, perhaps, was 

 natural enough, when a good part of the world was still 

 covered with forest. They huddled together in cities as 

 well for safety as to keep their minds warm. The Romans 

 had a fondness for country life, but they had fine roads, and 

 Rome was always within easy reach. The author of the 

 Book of Job is the earliest I know of who showed any 

 profound sense of the moral meaning of the outward world ; 

 and I think none has approached him since, though 

 Wordsworth comes nearest with the first two books of the 



