J 



DESCRIPTIONS OF NATURAL SCENERY. 7 



frSfrrbeing applicable to all antiquity, even in the sense ordi- 

 narily attached to the term ; I cannot, moreover, but regard as 

 far too limited, the restriction of antiquity (as opposed to 

 modern times), exclusively to the Greeks and Romans : a 

 profound feeling of nature speaks forth in the earliest poetry 

 of the Hebrews and of the Indians ; in nations, therefore, 

 of very different descent, Semitic, and Indo-Germanic. 



We can only infer the feeling with which the ancients 

 regarded nature from the portions of its expression which 

 have reached us in the remains of their literature; we 

 must therefore seek for such passages the more diligently, 

 and pronounce upon them the more circumspectly, as they 

 present themselves but sparingly in the two great forms of 

 epical and lyrical poetry. In Hellenic poetry, at that flowery 

 season of the life of mankind, we find, indeed, the tenderest 

 expression of the love and admiration of nature mingling with 

 the poetic representation of human passion, in actions taken 

 from legendary history ; but specific descriptions of natural 

 scenes or objects appear only as subordinate ; for in Grecian 

 art all is made to concenter within the sphere of human life 

 and feeling. 



The description of nature in her manifold diversity, as a 

 distinct branch of poetic literature, was altogether foreign to 

 the ideas of the Greeks. With them the landscape is 

 always the mere background of a picture, in the foreground 

 of which human figures are moving. Passion breaking 

 forth in action rivetted their attention almost exclusively ; 

 the agitation of politics, and a life passed chiefly in public, 

 withdrew men's minds from enthusiastic absorption in the 

 tranquil pursuit of nature. Physical phsenomena were always 

 referred to man ( 5 ) by supposed relations or resemblances 



