4 INCITEMENTS TO THE STUDY OF NATURE. 



what in aesthetic performances belongs essentially to the 

 powers and dispositions of the mind, and what to the parti- 

 cular direction of the intellectual activity, but that we may 

 trace the sources of that animated contemplation which 

 enhances a genuine enjoyment of nature, and discover the 

 particular causes which, in modern times especially, have 

 so powerfully promoted, through the medium of the imagi- 

 nation, a predilection for the study of nature, and for the 

 undertaking of distant voyages. 



I have alluded, in the preceding volume, to three ( l ) kinds 

 of incitement more frequent in modern than in ancient 

 times ; 1st, the aesthetic treatment of natural scenery by vivid 

 and graphical descriptions of the vegetable and animal world, 

 which is a very modern branch of literature ; 2d, landscape 

 painting, so far as it pourtrays the characteristic aspect of 

 vegetation ; and, 3d, the more extended cultivation of tro- 

 pical plants, and the assemblage of contrasted exotic forms. 

 Each of these subjects might be historically treated and 

 investigated at some length ; but it appears to me better 

 suited to the spirit and object of my work, to unfold only a 

 few leading ideas relating to them, to recal how differently 

 the contemplation of nature has acted on the intellect and 

 the feelings of different races of men, and at different periods 

 of time, and to notice how, at epochs when there has been 

 a general cultivation ot the mental faculties, the severe pur- 

 suit of exact knowledge, and the more delicate workings of 

 the imagination, have tended to interpenetrate and blend 

 with each other. If we would describe the full majesty of 

 nature, we must not dwell solely on her external pheno- 

 mena, but we must also regard her in her reflected image 

 at one time filling the visionary land of physical myths with 



