320 HUMBOLDT S COSMOS : 



and other more refined associations, which has now become 

 a source of such various delight, both in the direct contem- 

 plation of nature and through the medium of works of 

 representative art. The Greek poet, for the most part, 

 takes his objects from nature singly, or under some very 

 simple combination ; and generally for purposes closely con- 

 nected with human feeling or action. They are not brought 

 forward, as in the passages of modern descriptive poetry or 

 prose, explicitly to place a landscape or group of natural 

 objects before the eye of the imagination, but to illustrate or 

 invigorate those narratives, of which man is the chief object 

 and centre.* 



Our author has alluded to this fact in his chapter on Land- 

 scape Painting, but more cursorily than we should desire. 

 We consider it (especially as regards the Greeks, to whom 

 Eome was the debtor in art though an illustrious one) as 

 one of those singular anomalies which perplex all common 

 calculations of probability. It is easy to state that in classical 

 antiquity the taste and feelings were mainly directed to repre- 

 sentations of the human form, or to the perfection of archi- 

 tecture in its various styles. This is doubtless true ; but it 

 yet leaves open the question, why this exclusiveness existed ? 

 how a people like the Greeks, keen in their perceptions 

 of grandeur and beauty, animated and vigorous in the exercise 

 of all their faculties, and capable of works so exquisite in 

 poetry, sculpture, and architecture, should have failed in 



* M. Humboldt notices, with proper commendation, JElian's description of 

 Tempe, as the most detailed description of natural scenery by a Greek prose- 

 writer which we possess. Livy's description of the same celebrated valley 

 merits similar commendation ; as well as his picture of the great plain of 

 Thessaly suddenly bursting into view from the pass over Mount Othrys. The 

 accuracy of both these descriptions we can ourselves attest from personal ob- 

 servation ; and the proof they afford, in common with many other passages, of 

 Livy's strong perception of the objects of landscape. But the general fact, as 

 to the deficiency of this perception among the ancients, we believe to be as 

 stated above. 



