18 DESCRIPTIONS OP NATURAL SCENERY 



the original tendencies, capacities, and powers of his own 

 inner being. 



In the midst of the stormy and eventful period of the 

 year 708 (from the foundation of Rome), Cicero found con- 

 solation in his villas, alternately at Tusculum, Arpinuin, 

 Cumae, and Antium. " Nothing," he writes to Atticus ( 27 ), 

 " can be more delightful than this solitude ; more pleasing 

 than this country dwelling, the neighbouring shore, and 

 the prospect over the sea. In the lonely island of Astura, 

 at the mouth of the river of the same name, and on the 

 shore of the Tyrrhenian sea, no human being disturbs me ; 

 and when, early in the morning, I hide myself in a thick 

 wild forest, I do not leave it until the evening. Next to 

 my Atticus, nothing is so dear to me as solitude, in which I 

 cultivate intercourse with philosophy; but this intercourse 

 is often interrupted with tears. I strive against these as 

 much as I can, but I have not yet prevailed." It has been 

 repeatedly remarked, that in these letters, and in those of 

 the younger Pliny, expressions resembling those so common 

 amongst the sentimental writers of modern times may be 

 unequivocally recognised ; I find in them only the accents 

 of a mind deeply moved, such as in every age, and every 

 nation or race, escape from the heavily-oppressed bosom. 



From the general diffusion of Roman literature, the master 

 works of Virgil, Horace, and Tibullus, are so widely and 

 intimately known, that it would be superfluous to dwell on 

 individual instances of the delicate and ever wakeful sensi- 

 bility to nature, by which many of them are animated. In 

 the JEneid, the epic character forbids the appearance of 

 descriptions of natural scenes and objects otherwise than as 



