6 DIFFERENT GRADATIONS OP 



reason in the path wherein it is given to man to press towards 

 the full comprehension of nature, to unveil a portion of her 

 secrets, and, by the force of thought, to subject, so to speak, 

 to his intellectual dominion, the rough materials which he 

 collects by observation. 



If we attempt to analyse the different gradations of enjoy- 

 ment derived from the contemplation of nature, we find, first, 

 an impression which is altogether independent of any know- 

 ledge of the mode of action of physical powers, and which 

 does not even depend on the particular character of the 

 objects contemplated. When we behold a plain bounded 

 by the horizon, and clothed by a uniform covering of any of 

 the social plants (heaths, grasses, or cistusses), when we 

 gaze on the sea, where its waves, gently washing the shore, 

 leave behind them long undulating lines of weeds, then, 

 while the heart expands at the free aspect of nature, there is 

 at the same time revealed to the mind an impression of the 

 y existence of comprehensive and permanent laws governing 

 the phenomena of the universe. The mere contact with 

 nature, the issuing forth into the open air, that which by 

 an expression of deep meaning my native language terms in 

 das Freie, exercises a soothing and a calming influence 

 on the sorrows and on the passions of men, whatever may be 

 the region they inhabit, or the degree of intellectual culture 

 which they enjoy. That which is grave and solemn in these 

 impressions is derived from the presentiment of order and 

 of law/ unconsciously awakened by the simple contact with 

 external nature ; it is derived from the contrast of the narrow 

 limits of our being with that image of infinity, which every 

 where reveals itself in the starry heavens, in the boundless 

 plain, or in the indistinct horizon of the ocean. 



