MODERN TRAVELLERS. 73 



furnished in our days a powerful incentive to the general 

 study of nature : the secret charm excited by a deep insight 

 into organic life is not limited to the tropical world ; every 

 region of the earth offers the wonders of progressive forma- 

 tion and development, and the varied connection of recurring 

 or slightly deviating types. Everywhere diffused is the 

 awful domain of those powerful .forces, which in the dark 

 storm clouds that veil the sky, as well as in the delicate 

 tissues of organic substances, resolve the ancient discord of 

 the elements into harmonious union. Therefore, wherever 

 spring unfolds a bud, from the equator to the frigid zone, 

 our minds may receive and may rejoice in the inspiration of 

 nature pervading every part of the wide range of creation. 

 Well may our German fatherland cherish such belief; where 

 is the more southern nation who would not envy us the 

 great master of our poetry, through all whose works there 

 breathes a profound feeling of external nature, seen alike in the 

 Sorrows of Werter, in the Reminiscences of Italy, in the Meta- 

 morphoses of Plants, and in his Miscellaneous Poems. Who 

 has more eloquently excited his cotemporaries to " solve the 

 sacred enigma of the universe" (" des Weltalls heilige Ptath- 

 sel zu losen") ; and to renew the ancient alliance which m 

 the youth of humankind united philosophy, physical science, 

 and poetry in a common bond? Who has pointed with 

 more powerful charm to that land, his intellectual home, 

 where 



Ein sanfter Wind vom blauem Hinvmel weht, 

 Die Myrte still, und hock der Lorbeer stehtP 



