50 DESCRIPTIONS OF NATURAL SCENERY. 



tlie Christian fathers of the Church, the fine expression of a 

 love of nature nursed in the seclusion of the hermitage. 

 In considering the Lido-Germanic nations, (the denomination 

 being here taken in its most restricted sense), I have 

 passed from the poetic works of the Germans in the middle 

 ages, to those of the highly cultivated ancient East Arianic 

 nations (the Indians) ; and of the less gifted West Allans, (the 

 inhabitants of ancient Iran) . After a rapid glance at the Celtic 

 or Gaelic songs, and at a newly discovered Finnish epic, I 

 have described the rich perception of the life of nature 

 which, in races of Aramean or Semitic origin, breathes 

 in the sublime poetry of the Hebrews, and in the writings of 

 the Arabians. Thus I have traced the reflected image of the 

 world of phenomena, as mirrored in the imagination of the 

 nations of the north and the south-east of Europe, of the 

 west of Asia, of the Persian plateaus, and of tropical India. 

 In oxder to conceive Nature in all her grandeur, it seemed to 

 me necessary to present her under a two-fold aspect ; first 

 objectively, as an actual phaenomenon; and next as re- 

 flected in the feelings of mankind. 



After the fading of Aramaic, Greek, and Roman glory I 

 might say after the destruction of the ancient world we 

 find in the great and inspired founder of a new world, Dante 

 Alighieri, scattered passages which manifest the most 

 profound sensibility to the aspect of external nature. 

 The period at which he lived followed immediately that of 

 the decline of the minstrelsy of the Suabian Minnesingers, 

 on the north side of the Alps, of whom I have already 

 spoken. Dante, when treating of natural objects, withdraws 

 iimself for a time from the passionate, the subjective, and 

 Hie mystic elements of his wide range of ideas. Inimitably 



