10 DESCRIPTIONS OF NATURAL SCENERY 



smiling pictures of the many-fountained poplar groves of 

 the Phseacian Islands, and especially with the land of the 

 Cyclops, " where swelling meads of rich waving grass sur- 

 round the hills of undressed vines" ( n ). Pindar, in a vernal 

 dithyrambus recited at Athens, sings "the earth covered 

 with new flowers, what time in Argive Nemea the first 

 opening shoot of the palm announces the approach of balmy 

 spring ;" he sings of Etna, " the pillar of heaven, the nurse 

 of enduring snows ? but he quickly hastens to turn from 

 the awful form of inanimate nature, to celebrate Hiero of 

 Syracuse, and the Greeks' victorious combats with the 

 powerful Persian nation. 



Let us not forget that Grecian scenery possesses the 

 peculiar charm of blended and intermingled land and sea; 

 the breaking waves and changing brightness of the resound- 

 ing ocean, amidst shores adorned with vegetation, or pictu- 

 resque cliffs richly tinged with aerial hues. Whilst to other 

 nations the different features and the different pursuits 

 belonging to the sea and to the land appeared separate and 

 distinct, the Greeks, not only of the islands, but also of 

 almost all the southern portion of the mainland, enjoyed the 

 continual presence of the greater variety and richness, as 

 well as of the higher character of beauty, given by the con- 

 tact and mutual influence of the two elements. How can 

 we imagine that a race so happily organised by nature, and 

 whose perception of beauty was so intense, should have been 

 unmoved by the aspect of the wood-crowned cliffs of the 

 deeply-indented shores of the Mediterranean, the varied 

 distribution of vegetable forms, and, spread over all, the 

 added charms dependent on atmospheric influences, varying 

 by a silent interchange with the varying surfaces of land 



