10 



and in Pluto the darkness and horror of imagi- 

 nary eternal gloom. Inanimate nature, too, was 

 represented by a fanciful, but most beautiful 

 mythology. What classical reader has not been 

 charmed with such grotesque and fanciful beings 

 as Pan, and Pomona, and Flora, and Vertumnus, 

 all creatures of imagination, sweetly breathing of 

 their fresh and flowery domains ? Or, who that 

 ever tasted the pure waters of ancient poesy,, and 

 imbibed the peculiar feelings and joys of the 

 olden Grecian times, has not beheld, in fancied 

 vision, the wild nymphs of the mountains, or the 

 Dryads and Fauns sporting amidst the sylvan 

 scenery of the untrodden grove, or the Naiads 

 pouring from their urns the limped fountains, or 

 the Neraids moving along the ocean, where Tri- 

 ton blows his hollow-sounding shell, and Proteus 

 drives his herd to pasture on the waves ? But 

 looking upon the moral world, wherever it is 

 presented to our view, we find the Love of Na- 

 ture universally manifested, and equally exerting 

 its power, in the breast of the untutored savage 

 and refined European. In the North American 

 Indians, a passion for nature is a predominate 

 feature ; and to say that any intelligent peasant, 



" Brushing with hasty steps the dews away, 

 To meet the sun upon the upland lawn," 



beheld his rising with indifference, and all the 

 beauties of the morning scenery, unconscious of 

 delight, were to do great injustice to his charac- 

 ter. It is evident, therefore, that we are fitted, 



