278 LANDSCAPE 



with its sufferings acute or blunted, its passions which were 

 sins, its labour which was a curse, its pleasures which were 

 temptations. Infinity and fact, both shadowy, unreal, and 

 unimaginable ; God's world and the devil's world ; each only 

 valuable to the soul in its rapport with man's eternal destiny 

 when time should be no more. Iftiat was the new medium 

 within which the genius of our race, when it recovered from 

 the torpor of the glacial epoch, had to move. Infinity and 

 fact. What would happen should theology relax her grasp 

 upon the intellect, and men once more begin to gaze around 

 with curious delight on their terrestrial dwelling-place ? 



Looking back upon the past, we are able to perceive that 

 when the twilight of the modern age appeared, when the 

 ancient gods had been forgotten and Christianity had lost a 

 portion of its poignant spell, the arts and science of the 

 present time were quickening, like seeds that slumber through 

 the winter and await the spring. But an intermediate stage 

 of long duration had to be traversed. To this we give the 

 name of Eenaissance. In it the intellect of man came pain- 

 fully and gladly to new life through the discovery of itself 

 and nature. 



I cannot expatiate over the prospect here presented to 

 reflection. Having indicated the broad aspect of the Middle 

 Ages in relation to the topic of this essay, it is now my 

 business to show in what way man recovered that nascent 

 sympathy with nature, which had been so rudely interrupted. 

 Landscape is a minor detail in the history of the Renaissance. 

 But it is the one we have to keep in view. 



The Latin songs of the thirteenth century, in so far as 

 these touch nature, reveal a genial thawing of the spirit. 1 

 They dwell on the charm of spring-time in the country, and 

 connect the freedom of the open air with pleasures of the 

 senses. Classical literature is at work as a form-giving 

 influence. But the artistic touch on mythology has altered. 

 Bacchus and Venus and Neptune have ceased to be person- 

 alities. They reappear as names and symbols. 



1 This subject has been more fully treated in my discourse upon the 

 Carmina Vagorum, entitled ' Wine, Women, and Song.' 



