APRIL DAYS 81 
When Ben grows up to maturity, bearing such 
terrible definitions in his unshrinking hands, 
which of us will be safe ? 
The softer aspects of Nature, especially, 
require time and culture before man can enjoy 
them. To rude races her processes bring only 
terror, which is very slowly outgrown. Hum- 
boldt has best exhibited the scantiness of finer 
natural perceptions in Greek and Roman litera- 
ture, in spite of the grand oceanic rhythm of 
Homer and the delicate water-coloring of the 
Greek Anthology and of Horace. The Orien- 
tal and the Norse sacred books are full of fresh 
and beautiful allusions; but the Greek saw in 
nature only a framework for art, and the Ro- 
man only a camping-ground for men. Even 
Virgil describes the grotto of ASneas merely as 
a “black grove ” with “horrid shade,” — “ Hor- 
venti atrum nemus imminet umbra.” Words- 
worth points out that, even in English litera- 
ture, the “ Windsor Forest’ of Anne, Countess 
of Winchelsea, was the first poem which repre- 
sented nature as a thing to be consciously 
enjoyed ; and as she was almost the first Eng- 
lish poetess, we might be tempted to think that 
we owe this appreciation, like some other good 
things, to the participation of woman in litera- 
ture. But, on the other hand, it must be re- 
membered that the voluminous Duchess of 
