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IRature IRotes : 
Zbe Selbocne Society’s flfcaga3tne. 
No. 201. SEPTEMBER, 1906. Vol. XVIL 
SHAKESPEARE’S TREATMENT OF NATURE 
COMPARED WITH THAT OF MODERN POETS. 
[ROM the earliest dawn of man’s reason, Nature, per- 
force, demanded a large share of his attention. Natural 
phenomena are the basis of nearly all old religions and 
mythologies. But at this period of human development 
Nature is not studied for her own sake, and there is no love of 
her at all. Natural objects are either the vehicle or dwelling 
place of a god, as in the fetich, or the temporary abiding place 
of a spiritual existence, as in the totem ; or certain objects are 
in some way or another sacred to various deities or possessed 
of mystical power or symbolical of divine life. All powers and 
forces of Nature are directly and separately controlled by super- 
human intelligences, and they are feared accordingly, not studied 
or correlated. Even in ages long past, the earliest of which we 
have records, the Divine Will is thought to be learned from 
insignificant natural events; and in more than a metaphorical 
sense the thunder is considered as the voice of God. Such a 
theocratic treatment of Nature has, of course, long ceased to be 
possible, but the same fundamental tendency of man’s mind, 
though developed and changed, may still be traced in the 
philosophical and subjective treatment of her by our modern 
poets. This, and the aesthetical treatment, are what chiefly 
attract our attention in their manner of writing of her. Let us 
take the latter first. Mankind in general — to whose feelings 
poets give expression — now loves Nature for her own sake. 
We take a sensuous delight in her sights, her sounds, her 
smells ; and more than that, we are conscious of our love for 
her. We analyse it, we criticise it, we take pleasure in the 
knowledge that we love her. All our modern poets who deal 
with Nature at all, and they do it much more generally than 
earlier ones, exemplify this. Wordsworth’s “ Lines above 
Tintern Abbey ” : — 
