TRAVELLERS OF THE 14TH AND 15TH CENTURIES. 67 



At that time the elegiac idyllic element predominated in a 

 heavy style of landscape poetry, in which, even in Voss, the 

 noble and profound classical student of antiquity, the poverty 

 of the materials could not be veiled by happy and elevated, 

 as well as highly finished diction. It was not until the 

 study of the earth's surface gained depth and variety, and 

 natural science, no longer limited to tabular enumerations of 

 extraordinary occurrences and productions, rose to the great- 

 views of comparative geography, that this finish of language 

 could become available in aiding to impart life and freshness 

 to the pictures of distant zones. 



The older travellers of the middle ages, such as John 

 Mandeville (1353), Hans Schiltbergtr of Munich (1425), 

 and Bernhard von Breytenbach (1486), still delight us by 

 an amiable naivete, by the freedom with which they write, 

 and the apparent feeling of security with which they come 

 before a public who, being wholly unprepared, listen with 

 the greater curiosity and readiness of belief, because they 

 have not yet learnt to feel ashamed of being amused or even 

 astonished. The interest of books of travels was at that 

 period almost wholly dramatic ; and the indispensable mix- 

 ture of the marvellous which they so easily and naturally 

 acquired, gave them also somewhat of an epic colouring. 

 The manners cf the inhabitants of the different countries 

 are not so much described, as shewn incidentally in the 

 contact between the travellers and the natives. The vege- 

 tation is unnamed and unheeded, excepting where a fruit 

 of particularly pleasant flavour or curious form, or a stem 

 or leaves of extraordinary dimensions, induce a special notice. 

 Amongst animals, the kinds which they are most fond of re- 

 marking are, first, those which shew some resemblance to the 



