INCITEMENTS TO THE STUDY OF NATURE. 



L Description of natural scenery, and the feelings associated there- 

 with at different times and among different races and nations. 



IT has often been said, that if delight in nature were not 

 altogether unknown to the ancients, yet that its expression 

 was more rare and less animated among them than in modern 

 times. Schiller, ( 4 ) in his considerations on naive and 

 sentimental poetry, remarks, that "when we think of the 

 glorious scenery which surrounded the ancient Greeks, and 

 remember the free and constant intercourse with nature in 

 which their happier skies enabled them to live, as well as 

 how much more accordant their manners, their habits of 

 feeling, and their modes of representation, were with the 

 simplicity of nature, of which their poetic works convey so 

 true an impress, we cannot but remark with surprise how 

 few traces we find amongst them of the sentimental interest 

 with which we moderns attach ourselves to natural scenes 

 and objects. In the description of these, the Greek is 

 indeed in the highest degree exact, faithful, and circumstan- 

 tial, but without exhibiting more warmth of sympathy than 

 in treating of a garment, a shield, or of a suit of armour. 

 Nature appears to interest his understanding rather than 

 his feelings ; he does not cling to her with intimate affection 

 and sweet melancholy, as do the moderns/' Much as there 

 is that is true and excellent in these remarks, they are far 



