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diff --git a/13814-0.txt b/13814-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c410af7 --- /dev/null +++ b/13814-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15270 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13814 *** + +THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FEELING FOR NATURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES +AND MODERN TIMES + +by + +ALFRED BIESE + +Director of the K. K. Gymnasium at Neuwied + +Authorized translation from the German + +1905 + + + + + + + +AUTHOR'S PREFACE + + +The encouraging reception of my "Development of the Feeling for +Nature among the Greeks and Romans" gradually decided me, after some +years, to carry the subject on to modern tunes. Enticing as it was, I +did not shut my eyes to the great difficulties of a task whose +dimensions have daunted many a savant since the days of Humboldt's +clever, terse sketches of the feeling for Nature in different times +and peoples. But the subject, once approached, would not let me go. +Its solution seemed only possible from the side of historical +development, not from that of _a priori_ synthesis. The almost +inexhaustible amount of material, especially towards modern times, +has often obliged me to limit myself to typical forerunners of the +various epochs, although, at the same time, I have tried not to lose +the thread of general development. By the addition of the chief +phases of landscape, painting, and garden craft, I have aimed at +giving completeness to the historical picture; but I hold that +literature, especially poetry, as the most intimate medium of a +nation's feelings, is the chief source of information in an enquiry +which may form a contribution, not only to the history of taste, but +also to the comparative history of literature. At a time too when the +natural sciences are so highly developed, and the cult of Nature is +so widespread, a book of this kind may perhaps claim the interest of +that wide circle of educated readers to whom the modern delight in +Nature on its many sides makes appeal. And this the more, since books +are rare which seek to embrace the whole mental development of the +Middle Ages and modern times, and are, at the same time, intended for +and intelligible to all people of cultivation. + +The book has been a work of love, and I hope it will be read with +pleasure, not only by those whose special domain it touches, but by +all who care for the eternal beauties of Nature. To those who know my +earlier papers in the _Preussische Jahrbücher_, the _Zeitschrift für +Vergleichende Litteraturgeschichte_, and the _Litteraturbeilage des +Hamburgischen Correspondents_, I trust this fuller and more connected +treatment of the theme will prove welcome. + +ALFRED BIESE. + + + + +Published Translations of the following Authors have been used: + +SANSCRIT.--Jones, Wilson, Arnold, anonymous translator in a +publication of the Society for Resuscitation of Ancient Literature. + +LATIN AND GREEK.--Lightfoot, Jowett, Farrar, Lodge, Dalrymple, Bigg, +Pilkington, Hodgkin, De Montalembert, Gary, Lok, Murray, Gibb, a +translator in Bonn's Classics. + +ITALIAN.--Gary, Longfellow, Cayley, Robinson, Kelly, Bent, Hoole, +Roscoe, Leigh Hunt, Lofft, Astley, Oliphant. + +GERMAN.--Horton and Bell, Middlemore, Lytton, Swanwick, Dwight, +Boylau, Bowling, Bell, Aytoun, Martin, Oxenford, Morrison, M'Cullum, +Winkworth, Howorth, Taylor, Nind, Brooks, Lloyd, Frothingham, Ewing, +Noel, Austin, Carlyle, Storr, Weston, Phillips. + +SPANISH.--Markham, Major, Bowring, Hasell, M'Carthy, French. + +FRENCH.--Anonymous translator of Rousseau. + +PORTUGUESE.--Aubertin. + +The Translator's thanks are also due to the author for a few +alterations in and additions to the text, and to Miss Edgehill, Miss +Tomlinson, and Dr B. Scheifers for translations from Greek and Latin, +Italian, and Middle German respectively. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Nature in her ever-constant, ever-changing phases is indispensable to +man, his whole existence depends upon her, and she influences him in +manifold ways, in mind as well as body. + +The physical character of a country is reflected in its inhabitants; +the one factor of climate alone gives a very different outlook to +northerner and southerner. But whereas primitive man, to whom the +darkness of night meant anxiety, either feared Nature or worshipped +her with awe, civilised man tries to lift her veil, and through +science and art to understand her inner and outer beauty--the +scientist in her laws, the man of religion in her relation to his +Creator, the artist in reproducing the impressions she makes upon +him. + +Probably it has always been common to healthy minds to take some +pleasure in her; but it needs no slight culture of heart and mind to +grasp her meaning and make it clear to others. Her book lies open +before us, but the interpretations have been many and dissimilar. A +fine statue or a richly-coloured picture appeals to all, but only +knowledge can appreciate it at its true value and discover the full +meaning of the artist. And as with Art, so with Nature. + +For Nature is the greatest artist, though dumb until man, with his +inexplicable power of putting himself in her place, transferring to +her his bodily and mental self, gives her speech. + +Goethe said 'man never understands how anthropomorphic he is.' No +study, however comprehensive, enables him to overstep human limits, +or conceive a concrete being, even the highest, from a wholly +impersonal point of view. His own self always remains an encumbering +factor. In a real sense he only understands himself, and his measure +for all things is man. To understand the world outside him, he must +needs ascribe his own attributes to it, must lend his own being to +find it again. + +This unexplained faculty, or rather inherent necessity, which implies +at once a power and a limit, extends to persons as well as things. +The significant word sympathy expresses it. To feel a friend's grief +is to put oneself in his place, think from his standpoint and in his +mood--that is, suffer with him. The fear and sympathy which condition +the action of tragedy depend upon the same mental process; one's own +point of view is shifted to that of another, and when the two are in +harmony, and only then, the claim of beauty is satisfied, and +æsthetic pleasure results. + +By the well-known expression of Greek philosophy, 'like is only +understood by like,' the Pythagoreans meant that the mathematically +trained mind is the organ by which the mathematically constructed +cosmos is understood. The expression may also serve as an æsthetic +aphorism. The charm of the simplest lyrical song depends upon the +hearer's power to put himself in the mood or situation described by +the poet, on an interplay between subject and object. + +Everything in mental life depends upon this faculty. We observe, +ponder, feel, because a kindred vibration in the object sets our own +fibres in motion. + +'You resemble the mind which you understand.' + +It is a magic bridge from our own mind, making access possible to a +work of art, an electric current conveying the artist's ideas into +our souls. + +We know how a drama or a song can thrill us when our feeling vibrates +with it; and that thrill, Faust tells us, is the best part of man. + +If inventive work in whatever art or science gives the purest kind of +pleasure, Nature herself seeming to work through the artist, rousing +those impulses which come to him as revelations, there is pleasure +also in the passive reception of beauty, especially when we are not +content to remain passive, but trace out and rethink the artist's +thoughts, remaking his work. + +'To invent for oneself is beautiful; but to recognise gladly and +treasure up the happy inventions of others is that less thine?' said +Goethe in his _Jahreszeiten_; and in the _Aphorisms_, confirming what +has just been said: 'We know of no world except in relation to man, +we desire no art but that which is the expression of this relation.' +And, further, 'Look into yourselves and you will find everything, and +rejoice if outside yourselves, as you may say, lies a Nature which +says yea and amen to all that you have found there.' + +Certainly Nature only bestows on man in proportion to his own inner +wealth. As Rückert says, 'the charm of a landscape lies in this, that +it seems to reflect back that part of one's inner life, of mind, +mood, and feeling, which we have given it.' And Ebers, 'Lay down your +best of heart and mind before eternal Nature; she will repay you a +thousandfold, with full hands.' + +And Vischer remarks, 'Nature at her greatest is not so great that she +can work without man's mind.' Every landscape can be beautiful and +stimulating if human feeling colours it, and it will be most so to +him who brings the richest endowment of heart and mind to bear: +Nature only discloses her whole self to a whole man. + +But it is under the poet's wand above all, that, like the marble at +Pygmalion's breast, she grows warm and breathes and answers to his +charm; as in that symbolic saga, the listening woods and waters and +the creatures followed Orpheus with his lute. Scientific knowledge, +optical, acoustical, meteorological, geological, only widens and +deepens love for her and increases and refines the sense of her +beauty. In short, deep feeling for Nature always proves considerable +culture of heart and mind. + +There is a constant analogy between the growth of this feeling and +that of general culture. + +As each nation and time has its own mode of thought, which is +constantly changing, so each period has its 'landscape eye.' The same +rule applies to individuals. Nature, as Jean Paul said, is made +intelligible to man in being for ever made flesh. We cannot look at +her impersonally, we must needs give her form and soul, in order to +grasp and describe her. + +Vischer says[1] 'it is simply by an act of comparison that we think +we see our own life in inanimate objects.' We say that Nature's +clearness is like clearness of mind, that her darkness and gloom are +like a dark and gloomy mood; then, omitting 'like,' we go on to +ascribe our qualities directly to her, and say, this neighbourhood, +this air, this general tone of colour, is cheerful, melancholy, and +so forth. Here we are prompted by an undeveloped dormant +consciousness which really only compares, while it seems to take one +thing for another. In this way we come to say that a rock projects +boldly, that fire rages furiously over a building, that a summer +evening with flocks going home at sunset is peaceful and idyllic; +that autumn, dripping with rain, its willows sighing in the wind, is +elegiac and melancholy and so forth. + +Perhaps Nature would not prove to be this ready symbol of man's inner +life were there no secret rapport between the two. It is as if, in +some mysterious way, we meet in her another mind, which speaks a +language we know, wakening a foretaste of kinship; and whether the +soul she expresses is one we have lent her, or her own which we have +divined, the relationship is still one of give and take. + +Let us take a rapid survey of the course of this feeling in +antiquity. Pantheism has always been the home of a special tenderness +for Nature, and the poetry of India is full of intimate dealings +between man and plants and animals. + +They are found in the loftiest flights of religious enthusiasm in the +Vedas, where, be it only in reference to the splendour of dawn or the +'golden-handed sun,' Nature is always assumed to be closely connected +with man's inner and outer life. Later on, as Brahminism appeared, +deepening the contemplative side of Hindoo character, and the drama +and historical plays came in, generalities gave way to definite +localizing, and in the Epics ornate descriptions of actual landscape +took independent place. Nature's sympathy with human joys and griefs +was taken for granted, and she played a part of her own in drama. + +In the _Mahâbhârata_, when Damajanti is wandering in search of her +lost Nala and sees the great mountain top, she asks it for her +prince. + + Oh mountain lord! + Far seen and celebrated hill, that cleav'st + The blue o' the sky, refuge of living things, + Most noble eminence, I worship thee!... + O Mount, whose double ridge stamps on the sky + Yon line, by five-score splendid pinnacles + Indented; tell me, in this gloomy wood + Hast thou seen Nala? Nala, wise and bold! + Ah mountain! why consolest thou me not, + Answering one word to sorrowful, distressed, + Lonely, lost Damajanti? + +And when she comes to the tree Asoka, she implores: + + Ah, lovely tree! that wavest here + Thy crown of countless shining clustering blooms + As thou wert woodland king! Asoka tree! + Tree called the sorrow-ender, heart's-ease tree! + Be what thy name saith; end my sorrow now, + Saying, ah, bright Asoka, thou hast seen + My Prince, my dauntless Nala--seen that lord + Whom Damajanti loves and his foes fear. + +In Maghas' epic, _The Death of Sisupala_, plants and animals lead the +same voluptuous life as the 'deep-bosomed, wide-hipped' girls with +the ardent men. + +'The mountain Raivataka touches the ether with a thousand heads, +earth with a thousand feet, the sun and moon are his eyes. When the +birds are tired and tremble with delight from the caresses of their +mates, he grants them shade from lotos leaves. Who in the world is +not astonished when he has climbed, to see the prince of mountains +who overshadows the ether and far-reaching regions of earth, standing +there with his great projecting crags, while the moon's sickle +trembles on his summit?' + +In Kalidasa's _Urwasi_, the deserted King who is searching for his +wife asks the peacock: + + Oh tell, + If, free on the wing as you soar, + You have seen the loved nymph I deplore-- + You will know her, the fairest of damsels fair, + By her large soft eye and her graceful air; + Bird of the dark blue throat and eye of jet, + Oh tell me, have you seen the lovely face + Of my fair bride--lost in this dreary wilderness? + +and the mountain: + + Say mountain, whose expansive slope confines + The forest verge, oh, tell me hast thou seen + A nymph as beauteous as the bride of love + Mounting with slender frame thy steep ascent, + Or wearied, resting in thy crowning woods? + +As he sits by the side of the stream, he asks whence comes its charm: + + Whilst gazing on the stream, whose new swollen waters + Yet turbid flow, what strange imaginings + Possess my soul and fill it with delight. + The rippling wave is like her aching brow; + The fluttering line of storks, her timid tongue; + The foaming spray, her white loose floating vest; + And this meandering course the current tracks + Her undulating gait. + +Then he sees a creeper without flowers, and a strange attraction +impels him to embrace it, for its likeness to his lost love: + + Vine of the wilderness, behold + A lone heartbroken wretch in me, + Who dreams in his embrace to fold + His love, as wild he clings to thee. + +Thereupon the creeper transforms itself into Urwasi. + +In Kalidasa's _Sakuntala_, too, when the pretty girls are watering +the flowers in the garden, Sakuntala says: 'It is not only in +obedience to our father that I thus employ myself. I really feel the +affection of a sister for these young plants.' Taking it for granted +that the mango tree has the same feeling for herself, she cries: 'Yon +Amra tree, my friends, points with the fingers of its leaves, which +the gale gently agitates, and seems inclined to whisper some secret'; +and with maiden shyness, attributing her own thoughts about love to +the plants, one of her comrades says: 'See, my Sakuntala, how yon +fresh Mallica which you have surnamed Vanadosini or Delight of the +Grove, has chosen the sweet Amra for her bridegroom....' + +'How charming is the season, when the nuptials even of plants are +thus publicly celebrated!'--and elsewhere: + +'Here is a plant, Sakuntala, which you have forgotten.' Sakuntala: +'Then I shall forget myself.' + +Birds,[2] clouds, and waves are messengers of love; all Nature +grieves at the separation of lovers. When Sakuntala is leaving her +forest, one of her friends says: 'Mark the affliction of the forest +itself when the time of your departure approaches! + +'The female antelope browses no more on the collected Cusa grass, and +the pea-hen ceases to dance on the lawn; the very plants of the +grove, whose pale leaves fall on the ground, lose their strength and +their beauty.' + +The poems of India, especially those devoted to descriptions of +Nature, abound in such bold, picturesque personifications, which are +touching, despite their extravagance, through their intense sympathy +with Nature. They shew the Hindoo attitude toward Nature in general, +as well as his boundless fancy. I select one example from 'The +Gathering of the Seasons' in Kalidasa's _Ritusanhare_: a description +of the Rains. + +'Pouring rain in torrents at the request of the thirst-stricken +Chatakas, and emitting slow mutterings pleasing to the ears, clouds, +bent down by the weight of their watery contents, are slowly moving +on.... + +'The rivers being filled up with the muddy water of the rivers, their +force is increased. Therefore, felling down the trees on both the +banks, they, like unchaste women, are going quickly towards the +ocean.... + +'The heat of the forest has been removed by the sprinkling of new +water, and the Ketaka flowers have blossomed. On the branches of +trees being shaken by the wind, it appears that the entire forest is +dancing in delight. On the blossoming of Ketaka flowers it appears +that the forest is smiling. Thinking, "he is our refuge when we are +bent down by the weight of water, the clouds are enlivening with +torrents the mount Vindhya assailed with fierce heat (of the +summer)."' + +Charming pictures and comparisons are numerous, though they have the +exaggeration common to oriental imagination, 'Love was the cause of +my distemper, and love has healed it; as a summer's day, grown black +with clouds, relieves all animals from the heat which itself had +caused.' + +'Should you be removed to the ends of the world, you will be fixed in +this heart, as the shade of a lofty tree remains with it even when +the day is departed.' + +'The tree of my hope which had risen so luxuriantly is broken down.' + +'Removed from the bosom of my father, like a young sandal tree rent +from the hill of Malaja, how shall I exist in a strange soil?' + +This familiar intercourse with Nature stood far as the poles asunder +from the monotheistic attitude of the Hebrew. The individual, it is +true, was nothing in comparison with Brahma, the All-One; but the +divine pervaded and sanctified all things, and so gave them a certain +value; whilst before Jehovah, throned above the world, the whole +universe was but dust and ashes. The Hindoo, wrapt in the +contemplation of Nature, described her at great length and for her +own sake, the Hebrew only for the sake of his Creator. She had no +independent significance for him; he looked at her only 'sub specie +eterni Dei,' in the mirror of the eternal God. Hence he took interest +in her phases only as revelations of his God, noting one after +another only to group them synthetically under the idea of Godhead. +Hence too, despite his profound inwardness--'The heart is deceitful +above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?' +(_Jeremiah_)--human individuality was only expressed in its relation +to Jehovah. + +'The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his +handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth +knowledge.'--_Psalm_ 19. + +'Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, +and the fulness thereof. + +'Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein; then shall all the +trees of the wood rejoice.'--_Psalm_ 96. + +'Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful +together.'--_Psalm_ 98. + +'The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their +voice; the floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier +than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the +sea.'--_Psalm_ 93. + +'The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back. The mountains +skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.'--_Psalm_ 114. + +'The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: +the depths also were troubled.'--_Psalm_ 77. + +All these lofty personifications of inanimate Nature only +characterise her in her relation to another, and that not man but +God. Nothing had significance by itself, Nature was but a book in +which to read of Jehovah; and for this reason the Hebrew could not be +wrapt in her, could not seek her for her own sake, she was only a +revelation of the Deity. + +'Lord, how great are thy works, in wisdom hast thou made them all: +the earth is full of thy goodness.' + +Yet there is a fiery glow of enthusiasm in the songs in praise of +Jehovah's wonders in creation. + +'0 Lord my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and +majesty. + +'Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment; who stretchest +out the heavens like a curtain. + +'Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters; who maketh the +clouds his chariot; who walketh upon the wings of the wind. + +'Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire; who +laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for +ever. + +'Thou coveredst the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above +the mountains. + +'At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted +away. + +'They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the +place which thou hast founded for them. + +'Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn +not again to cover the earth. + +'He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills. + +'They give drink to every beast of the field: the wild asses quench +their thirst. + +'By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, which +sing among the branches ... + +'He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the +service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth. + +'And wine that maketh glad the heart of man ... + +'The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which +he hath planted. + +'Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees +are her house. + +'The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats, and the rocks for +the conies. + +'He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down. + +'Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the +forest do creep forth. + +'The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God. + +'The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and lay them down +in their dens. + +'Man goeth forth to his work and to his labour until the evening.... + +'This great and wide sea, wherein are creeping things innumerable, +both small and great beasts.... + +'He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth; he toucheth the hills, +and they smoke. + +'I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to +my God as long as I have my being.'--_Psalm_ 104. + +And what a lofty point of view is shewn by the overpowering words +which Job puts into the mouth of Jehovah; 'Where wast thou when I +laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast +understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof if thou knowest, or +who hath stretched the line upon it? + +'Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the +corner stone thereof? + +'When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God +shouted for joy?... + +'Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the +dayspring to know his place? + +'That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked +might be shaken out of it?... + +'Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea, or hast thou walked +in the search of the deep?... + +'Declare, if thou knowest it all!... + +'Where is the way where light dwelleth, and as for darkness, where is +the place thereof?' etc. + +Compare with this _Isaiah_ xl. verse 12, etc. + +Metaphors too, though poetic and fine, are not individualized. + +'Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water-spouts: all thy +waves and thy billows are gone over me.'--_Psalm_ 42. + +'Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in +deep mire, where there is no standing; I am come into deep waters, +where the floods overflow me.'--_Psalm_ 69. + +There are many pictures from the animal world; and these are more +elaborate in Job than elsewhere (see _Job_ xl. and xli.). +Personifications, as we have seen, are many, but Nature is only +called upon to sympathise with man in isolated cases, as, for +instance, in 2 _Samuel_ i.: + +'Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be +rain upon you, nor fields of offerings: for there the shield of the +mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as if he had not been +anointed with oil.' + +The Cosmos unfolded itself to the Hebrew[3] as one great whole, and +the glance fixed upon a distant horizon missed the nearer lying +detail of phenomena. His imagination ranged the universe with the +wings of the wind, and took vivid note of air, sky, sea, and land, +but only, so to speak, in passing; it never rested there, but hurried +past the boundaries of earth to Jehovah's throne, and from that +height looked down upon creation. + +The attitude of the Greek was very different. Standing firmly rooted +in the world of sense, his open mind and his marvellous eye for +beauty appreciated the glorious external world around him down to its +finest detail. His was the race of the beautiful, the first in +history to train all its powers into harmony to produce a culture of +beauty equal in form and contents, and his unique achievement in art +and science enriched all after times with lasting standards of the +great and beautiful. + +The influence of classic literature upon the Middle Ages and modern +times has not only endured, but has gone on increasing with the +centuries; so that we must know the position reached by Greece and +Rome as to feeling for Nature, in order to discover whether the line +of advance in the Middle Ages led directly forward or began by a +backward movement--a zigzag. + +The terms ancient and modern, naive and sentimental, classic and +romantic, have been shibboleths of culture from Jean Paul, Schiller, +and Hegel, to Vischer. Jean Paul, in his _Vorschule zur Aesthetik_, +compares the ideally simple Greek poetry, with its objectivity, +serenity, and moral grace, with the musical poetry of the romantic +period, and speaks of one as the sunlight that pervades our waking +hours, the other as the moonlight that gleams fitfully on our +dreaming ones. Schiller's epoch-making essay _On Naive and +Sentimental Poetry_, with its rough division into the classic-naive +depending on a harmony between nature and mind, and the +modern-sentimental depending on a longing for a lost paradise, is +constantly quoted to shew that the Greeks took no pleasure in Nature. +This is misleading. Schiller's Greek was very limited; in the very +year (1795) in which the essay appeared in _The Hours_, he was asking +Humboldt's advice as to learning Greek, with special reference to +Homer and Xenophon. + +To him Homer was the Greek _par excellence_, and who would not agree +with him to-day? + +As in Greek mythology, that naive poem of Nature, the product of the +artistic impulse of the race to stamp its impressions in a beautiful +and harmonious form, so in the clear-cut comparisons in Homer, the +feeling for Nature is profound; but the Homeric hero had no personal +relations with her, no conscious leaning towards her; the +descriptions only served to frame human action, in time or space. + +But that cheerful, unreflecting youth of mankind, that naive Homeric +time, was short in spite of Schiller, who, in the very essay referred +to, included Euripides, Virgil, and Horace among the sentimental, and +Shakespeare among the naive, poets--a fact often overlooked. + +In line with the general development of culture, Greek feeling for +Nature passed through various stages. These can be clearly traced +from objective similes and naive, homely comparisons to poetic +personifications, and so on to more extended descriptions, in which +scenery was brought into harmony or contrast with man's inner life; +until finally, in Hellenism, Nature was treated for her own sake, and +man reduced to the position of supernumerary both in poetry and +also--so approaching the modern--in landscape-painting. + +Greece had her sentimental epoch; she did not, as we have said, long +remain naive. From Sophist days a steady process of decomposition +went on--in other words, a movement towards what we call modern, a +movement which to the classic mind led backward; but from the wider +standpoint of general development meant advance. For the path of +culture is always the same in the nations; it leads first upward and +then downward, and all ripening knowledge, while it enriches the +mind, brings with it some unforeseen loss. Mankind pays heavily for +each new gain; it paid for increased subjectivity and inwardness by a +loss in public spirit and patriotism which, once the most valued of +national possessions, fell away before the increasing individuality, +the germ of the modern spirit. For what is the modern spirit but +limitless individuality? + +The greater the knowledge of self, the richer the inner life. Man +becomes his own chief problem--he begins to watch the lightest +flutter of his own feelings, to grasp and reflect upon them, to look +upon himself in fact as in a mirror; and it is in this doubling of +the ego, so to speak, that sentimentality in the modern sense +consists. It leads to love of solitude, the fittest state for the +growth of a conscious love of Nature, for, as Rousseau said 'all +noble passions are formed in solitude,' 'tis there that one +recognizes one's own heart as 'the rarest and most valuable of all +possessions.' 'Oh, what a fatal gift of Heaven is a feeling heart!' +and elsewhere he said: 'Hearts that are warmed by a divine fire find +a pure delight in their own feelings which is independent of fate and +of the whole world.' Euripides, too, loved solitude, and avoided the +noise of town life by retiring to a grotto at Salamis which he had +arranged for himself with a view of the sea; for which reason, his +biographer tells us, most of his similes are drawn from the sea. He, +rather than Petrarch or Rousseau, was the father of sentimentality. +His morbidly sensitive Hippolytos cries 'Alas! would it were possible +that I should see myself standing face to face, in which case I +should have wept for the sorrows that we suffer'; and in the chorus +of _The Suppliants_ we have: 'This insatiate joy of mourning leads me +on like as the liquid drop flowing from the sun-trodden rock, ever +increasing of groans.' In Euripides we have the first loosening of +that ingenuous bond between Nature and the human spirit, as the +Sophists laid the axe to the root of the old Hellenic ideas and +beliefs. Subjectivity had already gained in strength from the birth +of the lyric, that most individual of all expressions of feeling; and +since the lyric cannot dispense with the external world, classic song +now shewed the tender subjective feeling for Nature which we see in +Sappho, Pindar, and Simonides. Yet Euripides (and Aristophanes, whose +painful mad laugh, as Doysen says, expresses the same distraction and +despair as the deep melancholy of Euripides) only paved the way for +that sentimental, idyllic feeling for Nature which dwelt on her quiet +charms for their own sake, as in Theocritus, and, like the modern, +rose to greater intensity in the presence of the amorous passion, as +we see in Kallimachos and the Anthology. It was the outcome of +Hellenism, of which sentimental introspection, the freeing of the ego +from the bonds of race and position, and the discovery of the +individual in all directions of human existence, were marks. And this +feeling developing from Homer to Longos, from unreflecting to +conscious and then to sentimental pleasure in Nature, was expressed +not only in poetry but in painting, although the latter never fully +mastered technique. + +The common thoughtless statement, so often supported by quotations +from Schiller, Gervinus, and others, that Greek antiquity was not +alive to the beauty of Nature and her responsiveness to human moods, +and neither painted scenery nor felt the melancholy poetic charm of +ruins and tombs, is therefore a perversion of the truth; but it must +be conceded that the feeling which existed then was but the germ of +our modern one. It was fettered by the specific national beliefs +concerning the world and deities, by the undeveloped state of the +natural sciences, which, except botany, still lay in swaddling-clothes, +by the new influence of Christendom, and by that strict feeling for +style which, very much to its advantage, imposed a moderation that +would have excluded much of our senseless modern rhapsody. + +It was not unnatural that Schiller, in distaste for the weak riot of +feeling and the passion for describing Nature which obtained in his +day, was led to overpraise the Homeric naïvete and overblame the +sentimentality which he wrongly identified with it. + +In all that is called art, the Romans were pupils of the Greek, and +their achievements in the region of beauty cannot be compared with +his. But they advanced the course of general culture, and their +feeling--always more subjective, abstract, self-conscious, and +reflective--has a comparatively familiar, because modern, ring in the +great poets. + +The preference for the practical and social-economic is traceable in +their feeling for Nature. Their mythology also lay too much within +the bounds of the intelligible; shewed itself too much in forms and +ceremonies, in a cult; but it had not lost the sense of awe--it still +heard the voices of mysterious powers in the depths of the forest. + +The dramatists wove effective metaphors and descriptions of Nature +into their plays. + +Lucretius laid the foundations of a knowledge of her which refined +both his enjoyment and his descriptions; and the elegiac sentimental +style, which we see developed in Tibullus, Propertius, Ovid, Virgil, +and Horace, first came to light in the great lyrist Catullus. In +Imperial times feeling for Nature grew with the growth of culture in +general; men turned to her in times of bad cheer, and found comfort +in the great sky spaces, the constant stars, and forests that +trembled with awe of the divine Numen. + +It was so with Seneca, a pantheist through and through. Pliny the +younger was quite modern in his choice of rural solitudes, and his +appreciation of the views from his villa. With Hadrian and Apuleius +the Roman rococo literature began; Apuleius was astonishingly modern, +and Ausonius was almost German in the depth and tenderness of his +feeling for Nature. Garden-culture and landscape-painting shewed the +same movement towards the sympathetic and elegiac-sentimental. + +Those who deny the Roman feeling for Nature might learn better from a +glance at the ruins of their villas. As H. Nissen says in his +_Italische Landeskunde_: + +'It was more than mere fashion which drew the Roman to the sea-side, +and attracted so strongly all those great figures, from the elder +Scipio Africanus and his noble daughter, Cornelia, down to Augustus +and Tiberius and their successors, whenever their powers flagged in +the Forum. There were soft breezes to cool the brow, colour and +outline to refresh the eye, and wide views that appealed to a race +born to extensive lordship. + +'In passing along the desolate, fever-stricken coasts of Latium and +Campania to-day, one comes upon many traces of former splendour, and +one is reminded that the pleasure which the old Romans took in the +sea-side was spoilt for those who came after them by the havoc of the +time.' + +In many points, Roman feeling for Nature was more developed than +Greek. For instance, the Romans appreciated landscape as a whole, and +distance, light and shade in wood and water, reflections, the charms +of hunting and rowing, day-dreams on a mountain side, and so forth. + +That antiquity and the Middle Ages had any taste for romantic scenery +has been energetically denied; but we can find a trace of it. The +landscape which the Roman admired was level, graceful, and gentle; he +certainly did not see any beauty in the Alps. Livy's 'Foeditas +Alpinum' and the dreadful descriptions of Ammian, with others, are +the much-quoted vouchers for this. Nor is it surprising; for modern +appreciation, still in its youth, is really due to increased +knowledge about Nature, to a change of feeling, and to the +conveniences of modern travelling, unknown 2000 years ago. + +The dangers and hardships of those days must have put enjoyment out +of the question; and only served to heighten the unfavourable +contrast between the wildness of the mountain regions and the +cultivation of Italy. + +Lucretius looked at wild scenery with horror, but later on it became +a favourite subject for description; and Seneca notes, as shewing a +morbid state of mind, in his essay on tranquillity of mind, that +travelling not only attracts men to delightful places, but that some +even exclaim: 'Let us go now into Campania; now that delicate soil +delighteth us, let us visit the wood countries, let us visit the +forest of Calabria, and let us seek some pleasure amidst the deserts, +in such sort as these wandering eyes of ours may be relieved in +beholding, at our pleasure, the strange solitude of these savage +places.' + +We have thus briefly surveyed on the one hand, in theory, the +conditions under which a conscious feeling for Nature develops, and +the forms in which it expresses itself; and, on the other, the course +this feeling has followed in antiquity among the Hindoos, Hebrews, +Greeks, and Romans. The movement toward the modern, toward the +subjective and individual, lies clear to view. We will now trace its +gradual development along lines which are always strictly analogous +to those of culture in general, through the Middle Ages. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +CHRISTIANITY AND GERMANISM + + +When the heathen world had outlived its faculties, and its creative +power had failed, it sank into the ocean of the past--a sphinx, with +her riddle guessed,--and mediæval civilization arose, founded upon +Christianity and Germanism. There are times in the world's history +when change seems to be abrupt, the old to be swept away and all +things made new at a stroke, as if by the world-consuming fire of the +old Saga. But, in reality, all change is gradual; the old is for ever +failing and passing out of sight, to be taken up as a ferment into +the ever emerging new, which changes and remodels as it will. It was +so with Christianity. It is easy to imagine that it arose suddenly, +like a phoenix, from the ashes of heathendom; but, although dependent +at heart upon the sublime personality of its Founder, it was none the +less a product of its age, and a result of gradual development--a +river with sources partly in Judea, partly in Hellas. And mediæval +Christianity never denied the traces of its double origin. + +Upon this syncretic soil its literature sprang up, moulded as to +matter upon Old Testament and specifically Christian models, as to +form upon the great writers of antiquity; but matter and form are +only separable in the abstract, and the Middle Ages are woven through +and through with both Greco-Roman and Jewish elements. + +But these elements were unfavourable to the development of feeling +for Nature; Judaism admitted no delight in her for her own sake, and +Christianity intensified the Judaic opposition between God and the +world, Creator and created. + +'Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world; if any +man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him': by which +John meant, raise your eyes to your Heavenly Father, throned above +the clouds. + +Christianity in its stringent form was transcendental, despising the +world and renouncing its pleasures. It held that Creation, through +the entrance of sin, had become a caricature, and that earthly +existence had only the very limited value of a thoroughfare to the +eternal Kingdom. + +While joy in existence characterized the Hellenic world until its +downfall, and the Greek took life serenely, delighting in its smooth +flow; with Christianity, as Jean Paul put it, 'all the present of +earth vanished into the future of Heaven, and the Kingdom of the +Infinite arose upon the ruins of the finite.' + +The beauty of earth was looked upon as an enchantment of the devil; +and sin, the worm in the fruit, lurked in its alluring forms. + +Classic mythology created a world of its own, dimly veiled by the +visible one; every phase of Nature shewed the presence or action of +deities with whom man had intimate relations; every form of life, +animated by them, held something familiar to him, even sacred--his +landscape was absorbed by the gods. + +To Judaism and Christianity, Nature was a fallen angel, separated as +far as possible from her God. They only recognized one world--that of +spirit; and one sphere of the spiritual, religion--the relation +between God and man. Material things were a delusion of Satan's; the +heaven on which their eyes were fixed was a very distant one. + +The Hellenic belief in deities was pandemonistic and cosmic; +Christianity, in its original tendency, anti-cosmic and hostile to +Nature. And Nature, like the world at large, only existed for it in +relation to its Creator, and was no longer 'the great mother of all +things,' but merely an instrument in the hands of Providence. + +The Greek looked at phenomena in detail, in their inexhaustible +variety, rarely at things as a whole; the Christian considered Nature +as a work of God, full of wonderful order, in which detail had only +the importance of a link in a chain. + +As Lotze says, 'The creative artistic impulse could be of no use to a +conception of life in which nothing retained independent +significance, but everything referred to or symbolized something +else.' But yet, the idea of individuality, of the importance of the +ego, gained ground as never before through this introspection and +merging of material in spiritual, this giving spirit the exclusive +sway; and Christianity, while it broke down the barriers of nation, +race, and position, and widened the cleft between Nature and spirit, +discovered at the same time the worth of the individual. + +And this individuality was one of the chief steps towards an +artistic, that is, individual point of view about Nature, for it was +not possible to consider her freely and for her own sake alone, until +the unlimited independence of mind had been recognized. + +But the full development of Christianity was only reached when it +blended with the Germanic spirit, with the German Gemüth (for which +no other language has a word), and intensified, by so doing, the +innately subjective temperament of the race. + +The northern climate gives pause for the development of the inner +life; its long bleak winter, with the heavy atmosphere and slow +coming of spring, wake a craving for light and warmth, and throw man +back on himself. This inward inclination, which made itself felt very +early in the German race, by bringing out the contemplative and +independent sides of his character, and so disinclining him for +combined action with his fellows, forwarded the growth of the +over-ripe seeds of classic culture and vital Christianity. + +The Romanic nations, with their brilliant, sharply-defined landscape +and serene skies, always retained something of the objective delight +in life which belonged to antiquity; they never felt that mysterious +impulse towards dreams and enthusiastic longing which the Northerner +draws from his lowering skies and dark woods, his mists on level and +height, the grey in grey of his atmosphere, and his ever varying +landscape. A raw climate drives man indoors in mind as well as body, +and prompts that craving for spring and delight in its coming which +have been the chief notes in northern feeling for Nature from +earliest times. + +Vischer has shewn in his _Aesthetik_, that German feeling was early +influenced by the different forms of plant life around it. Rigid +pine, delicate birch, stalwart oak, each had its effect; and the +wildness and roughness of land, sea, and animal life in the North +combined with the cold of the climate to create the taste for +domestic comfort, for fireside dreams, and thought-weaving by the +hearth. + +Nature schooled the race to hard work and scanty pleasure, and yet +its relationship to her was deep and heartfelt from the first. +Devoutly religious, it gazed at her with mingled love and fear; and +the deposit of its ideas about her was its mythology. + +Its gods dwelt in mountain tops, holes in the rocks, and rivers, and +especially in dark forests and in the leafy boughs of sacred trees; +and the howling of wind, the rustle of leaves, the soughing in the +tree tops, were sounds of their presence. The worship of woods lasted +far into Christian times, especially among the Saxons and +Frisians.[1] + +Wodan was the all-powerful father of gods and men--the highest god, +who, as among all the Aryan nations, represented Heaven. Light was +his shining helmet, clouds were the dark cap he put on when he spread +rain over the earth, or crashed through the air as a wild hunter with +his raging pack. His son Donar shewed himself in thunder and +lightning, as he rode with swinging axe on his goat-spanned car. +Mountains were sacred to both, as plants to Ziu. Freyr and Freya were +goddesses of fertility, love, and spring; a ram was sacred to them, +whose golden fleece illuminated night as well as day, and who drew +their car with a horse's speed.[2] As with Freya, an image of the +goddess Nerthus was drawn through the land in spring, to announce +peace and fertility to mortals. + +The suggestive myth of Baldur, god of light and spring, killed by +blind Hödur, was the expression of general grief at the passing of +beauty. + +The _Edda_ has a touching picture of the sorrow of Nature, of her +trees and plants, when the one beloved of all living things fell, +pierced by an arrow. Holda was first the mild and gracious goddess, +then a divine being, encompassing the earth. She might be seen in +morning hours by her favourite haunts of lake and spring, a beautiful +white woman, who bathed and vanished. When snow fell, she was making +her bed, and the feathers flew. Agriculture and domestic order were +under her care. + +Ostara was goddess of bright dawn, of rising light, and awakening +spring, as Hel of subterranean night, the darkness of the underworld. +Frigg, wife of the highest god, knew the story of existence, and +protected marriage. She was the Northern Juno or Hera. + +Ravines and hollows in the mountains were the dwelling-places of the +dwarfs (Erdmännlein), sometimes friendly, sometimes unfriendly to +man; now peaceful and helpful, now impish spirits of mischief in +cloud caps and grey coats, thievish and jolly. + +They were visible by moonlight, dancing in the fields; and when their +track was found in the dew,[3] a good harvest was expected. Popular +belief took the floating autumn cobwebs for the work of elves and +fairies. The spirits of mountain and wood were related to the +water-spirits, nixies who sat combing their long hair in the sun, or +stretched up lovely arms out of the water. The elves belonged to the +more spiritual side of Nature, the giants to the grosser. Rocks and +stones were the weapons of the giants; they removed mountains and +hills, and boulders were pebbles shaken out of their shoes. + +Among animals the horse was sacred to many deities, and gods and +goddesses readily transformed themselves into birds. Two ravens, +Hugin and Munin, whose names signify thought and memory, were Odin's +constant companions. The gift of prophecy was ascribed to the cuckoo, +as its monotonous voice heralded the spring: + + Kukuk vam haven, wo lange sail ik leven? + +There were many legends of men and snakes who exchanged shapes, and +whom it was unlucky to kill.[4] + +The sun and moon, too, were familiar figures in legends. + +Their movement across the sky was a flight from two pursuing wolves, +of which one, the Fenris wolf, was fated one day to catch and devour +the moon. The German, like the Greek, dreaded nothing more than the +eclipse of sun or moon, and connected it with the destruction of all +things and the end of the world. In the moon spots he saw a human +form carrying a hare or a stick or an axe on his shoulder. + +The Solstices impressed him most of all, with their almost constant +day in summer, almost constant night in winter. Sun, moon, and stars +were the eyes of heaven; there was a pious custom to greet the stars +before going to bed. Still earlier, they were sparks of fire from +Muspilli, to light the gods home. Night, day, and the sun had their +cars--night and day with one horse, the sun with two: sunrise brought +sounds sweeter than the song of birds or strings; the rising sun, it +was said, rings for joy, murmuring daybreak laughs.[5] + +Day brought joy, night sorrow; the first was good and friendly, the +second bad and hostile. The birds greeted daytime and summer with +songs of delight, but grieved in silence through night and winter: +the first swallow and stork were hailed as spring's messengers. May +with greening woods led in beloved summer, frost and snow the winter. + +So myth, fable, and legend were interlaced in confusion; who can +separate the threads? + +At any rate, the point of view which they indicate remained the +common one even far into the Middle Ages, and shewed simple familiar +intercourse with Nature. Even legal formulæ were full of pictures +from Nature. In the customary oath to render a contract binding, the +promise is to hold, so it runs, 'so long as the sun shines and rivers +flow, so long as the wind blows and birds sing, so far off as earth +is green and fir trees grow, so far as the vault of heaven reaches.' +As Schnaase says,[6] though with some exaggeration, such formulæ, in +their summary survey of earth and sky, often give a complete +landscape poem in a few words. He points out that in northern, as +opposed to classic mythology, Nature was considered, not in the +cursory Hebrew way, that hurried over or missed detail, but as a +whole, and in her relation to man's inner life. + +'The collective picture of heaven and earth, of cloud movement, of +the mute life of plants--that side of Nature which had almost escaped +the eye of antiquity--occupied the Northerner most of all. + +'The _Edda_ even represents all Nature together in one colossal +form--the form of the giant Ymir, whom the sons of Boer slew, in +order to make the mountains from his bones, the earth from his flesh, +the skies from his skull.' + +A still grander mythical synthesis was the representation of the +whole world under the form of the sacred ash tree Yggdrasil. This was +the world tree which united heaven, earth, and hell. Its branches +stretched across the world and reached up to the skies, and its roots +spread in different directions--one toward the race of Asa in heaven, +another toward the Hrimthursen, the third toward the underworld; and +on both roots and branches creatures lived and played--eagle, +squirrel, stag, and snake; while by the murmuring Urdhar stream, +which rippled over one root, the Nones sat in judgment with the race +of Asa. + +Not less significant was the conception of the end of the world, the +twilight of the gods (Götterdämmerung), according to which all the +wicked powers broke loose and fought against the gods; the sun and +moon were devoured by wolves, the stars fell and earth quaked, the +monster world-serpent Joermungande, in giant rage, reared himself out +of the water and came to land: Loki led the Hrimthursen and the +retinue of hell, and Surt, with his shining hair, rode away from the +flaming earth across Bifröst, the rainbow, which broke beneath him. + +After the world conflagration a new and better earth arose, with +rejuvenated gods.[7] + +German mediæval poetry, as a whole, epic and lyric, was interwoven +with a hazy network of suggestive myth and legend; and moral +elements, which in mythology were hidden by the prominence of Nature, +stood out clear to view in the fate and character of the heroes. The +germ of many of our fairy tales is a bit of purest poetry of +Nature--a genuine Nature myth transferred to human affairs, which lay +nearer to the child-like popular mind, and were therefore more +readily understood by it. + +So, for instance, from the Maiden of the Shield, Sigrdrifa, who was +pierced by Odin's sleep thorn, and who originally represented the +earth, frozen in winter, kissed awake by the sun-god, came Brunhild, +whose mail Siegfried's sword penetrated as the sun rays penetrate the +frost, and lastly the King's daughter, who pricked herself with the +fateful spindle, and sank into deep sleep. And as Sigrdrifa was +surrounded by walls of flame, so now we have a thorny hedge of wild +briar round the beautiful maiden (hence named Dornröschen) when the +lucky prince comes to waken her with a kiss.[8] + +Not all fairy tales have preserved the myth into Christian times in +so poetic and transparent a form as this. Its poetic germ arose from +hidden depths of myth and legend, and, like heathen superstitions in +the first centuries of Christianity, found its most fruitful soil +among the people. It has often been disguised beyond recognition by +legends, and by the worship of the Madonna and saints, but it has +never been destroyed, and it keeps its magic to the present day. + +We see then that the inborn German feeling for Nature, conditioned by +climate and landscape, and pronounced in his mythology, found both an +obstacle and a support in Christianity--an obstacle in its +transcendentalism, and a support in its inwardness. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE THEOLOGICAL CHRISTIAN AND THE SYMPATHETIC +HEATHEN FEELING OF THE FIRST TEN CENTURIES A.D. + + +The Middle Ages employed its best intellectual power in solving the +problems of man's relation to God and the Redeemer, his moral +vocation, and his claim to the Kingdom of the blessed. Mind and heart +were almost entirely engrossed by the dogmas of the new faith, such +as the incarnation, original sin, and free-will, and by doubts which +the Old Testament had raised and not solved. Life was looked upon as +a test-place, a thoroughfare to the heavenly Kingdom; earth, with its +beauty and its appeal to the senses, as a temptress. + +To flee the world and to lack artistic feeling were therefore marks +of the period. We have no trace of scientific knowledge applied to +Nature, and she was treated with increasing contempt, as the +influence of antiquity died out. In spite of this, the attitude of +the Apostolic Fathers was very far from hostile. Their fundamental +idea was the Psalmist's 'Lord, how great are Thy works; in wisdom +hast Thou made them all!' and yet they turned to Nature--at any rate, +the noblest Grecians among them--not only for proof of divine wisdom +and goodness, but with a degree of personal inclination, an +enthusiasm, to which antiquity was a stranger. + +Clement of Rome wrote to the Corinthians: + +'Let us note how free from anger He is towards all His creatures. The +heavens are moved by His direction and obey Him in peace. Day and +night accomplish the course assigned to them by Him, without +hindrance one to another. The sun and the moon and the dancing stars, +according to His appointment, circle in harmony within the bounds +assigned to them, without any swerving aside. The earth, bearing +fruit in fulfilment of His will at her proper seasons, putteth forth +the food that supplieth abundantly both men and beasts and all living +things which are thereupon, making no dissension, neither altering +anything which He hath decreed. Moreover, the inscrutable depths of +the abysses and unutterable statutes of the nether regions are +constrained by the same ordinances. The basin of the boundless sea, +gathered together by His workmanship into its reservoirs, passeth not +the barriers wherewith it is surrounded; but even as He ordered it, +so it doeth. For He said, "so far shalt thou come, and thy waves +shall be broken within thee." The ocean which is impassable for men, +and the worlds beyond it, are directed by the same ordinances of the +Master. The seasons of spring and summer and autumn and winter give +way in succession one to another in peace. The winds in their several +quarters at their proper seasons fulfil their ministry without +disturbance, and the overflowing fountains, created for enjoyment and +health, without fail give their breasts which sustain the life for +men. Yea, the smallest of living things come together in concord and +peace.'[1] + +The three great Cappadocians, the most representative of the Greek +Fathers and leaders of the fourth century, wrote about the scenery +round them in a tone of sentimentality not less astonishing, in view +of the prejudice which denies all feeling for Nature to the Middle +Ages, than their broad humanity and free handling of dogma. + +It was no ascetic renouncing the world and solitude[2]; but rather a +sensitive man, thoughtful and dreamy at once, who wrote as follows +(Basil the Great to Gregory Nazianzen): + + It is a lofty mountain overshadowed with a deep wood, irrigated + on the north by cold and transparent streams. At its foot is + spread a low plain, enriched perpetually with the streams from + the mountains. The wood, a virgin forest of trees of various + kinds and foliage which grows around it, almost serves it as a + rampart; so that even the Isle of Calypso, which Homer evidently + admired as a paragon of loveliness, is nothing in comparison with + this. For indeed it is very nearly an island, from its being + enclosed on all sides with rocky boundaries. On two sides of it + are deep and precipitous ravines, and on another side the river + flowing from the steep is itself a continuous and almost + impassable barrier. The mountain range, with its moon-shaped + windings, walls off the accessible parts of the plain. There is + but one entrance, of which we are the masters. My hut is built on + another point, which uplifts a lofty pinnacle on the summit, so + that this plain is outspread before the gaze, and from the height + I can catch a glimpse of the river flowing round, which to my + fancy affords no less delight than the view of the Strymore as + you look from Amphipolis. For the Strymore broadens into lakes + with its more tranquil stream, and is so sluggish as almost to + forfeit the character of a river. The Iris, on the other hand, + flowing with a swifter course than any river I know, for a short + space billows along the adjacent rock, and then, plunging over + it, rolls into a deep whirlpool, affording a most delightful view + to me and to every spectator, and abundantly supplying the needs + of the inhabitants, for it nurtures an incredible number of + fishes in its eddies. + + Why need I tell you of the sweet exhalations from the earth or + the breezes from the river? Other persons might admire the + multitude of the flowers, or of the lyric birds, but I have no + time to attend to them. But my highest eulogy of the spot is, + that, prolific as it is of all kinds of fruits from its happy + situation, it bears for me the sweetest of all fruits, + tranquillity; not only because it is free from the noises of + cities, but because it is not traversed by a single visitor + except the hunters, who occasionally join us. For, besides its + other advantages, it also produces animals--not bears and wolves, + like yours--heaven forbid! But it feeds herds of stags, and of + wild goats and hares, and creatures of that kind. Do you not then + observe what a narrow risk I ran, fool that I was, to change such + a spot for Tiberine, the depth of the habitable world? I am now + hastening to it, pardon me. For even Alcmæon, when he discovered + the Echinades, no longer endured his wanderings.[3] + +This highly-cultured prince of the Church clearly valued the place +quite as much for its repose, its idyllic solitude, for what we +moderns would call its romantic surroundings, sylvan and rugged at +once, as for its fertility and practical uses. But it is too much to +say, with Humboldt[4]: + + In this simple description of scenery and forest life, feelings + are expressed which are more intimately in unison with those of + modern tunes, than anything which has been transmitted to us from + Greek or Roman antiquity. From the lonely Alpine hut to which + Basil withdrew, the eye wanders over the humid and leafy roof of + the forest below.... The poetic and mythical allusion at the + close of the letter falls on the Christian ear like an echo from + another and earlier world. + +The Hellenic poets of the Anthology, and the younger Pliny in +Imperial days, held the same tone, elegiac and idyllic[5]; as +Villemain says, 'These pleasant pictures, these poetic allusions, do +not shew the austerity of the cloister.'[6] The specifically +Christian and monastic was hidden by the purely human. + +Other writings of Basil's express still more strongly the mild +dejection which longs for solitude. For instance, when Gregory had +been dwelling upon the emptiness of all earthly things, he said in +reply, that peace of soul must be man's chief aim, and could only be +attained by separation from the world, by solitude; 'for the +contemplation of Nature abates the fever of the soul, and banishes +all insincerity and presumption.' Therefore he loved the quiet corner +where he was undisturbed by human intercourse. + +He drew melancholy comparisons from Nature: men were compared to +wandering clouds that dissolve into nothing, to wavering shadows, and +shipwrecked beings, etc. + +His homilies on the Hexameron, too, shew thought of Nature. There is +a fine sense for the play of colour on the sea here: 'A pleasant +sight is the glistening sea when a settled calm doth hold it; but +pleasant too it is to behold its surface ruffled by gentle breezes, +and its colour now purple, now white, now dark; when it dasheth not +with violence against the neighbouring coast, but holdeth it in +tranquil embrace.'[7] + +There is enthusiastic admiration for Nature mixed with his profound +religious feeling in the whole description of the stars, the seasons, +etc. The expression of Ptolymäos, that when he gazed at the stars he +felt himself raised to the table of Zeus, is weak in comparison with +Basil's words, 'If, on a clear night, you have fixed your gaze upon +the beauty of the stars, and then suddenly turned to thoughts of the +artist of the universe, whoever he be, who has adorned the sky so +wonderfully with these undying flowers, and has so planned it that +the beauty of the spectacle is not less than its conformity to +law....if the finite and perishable world is so beautiful, what must +the infinite and invisible be?'[8] + +For him, as for modern minds, starlight brought thoughts of eternity: +'If the greatness of the sky is beyond human comprehension, what +mind, what understanding could fathom eternal things?' + +Gregory Nazianzen's feeling for Nature was intensely melancholy. His +poem _On Human Nature_ says: + + For yesterday, worn out with my grief alone, I sat apart in a + shady grove, gnawing my heart out. For somehow I love this remedy + in time of grief, to talk with mine own heart in silence. And the + breezes whispered to the note of the songster birds, and from the + branches brought to me sweet slumber, though my heart was + well-nigh broken. And the cicadas, friends of the sun, chirped + with the shrill note that issues from their breasts, and filled + the whole grove with sound. A cold spring hard by bedewed my feet + as it flowed gently through the glen; but I was held in the + strong grip of grief, nor did I seek aught of these things, for + the mind, when it is burdened with sorrow, is not fain to take + part in pleasure. + +The classic writers had also contrasted Nature with mind, as, for +example, Ibykos in his famous _Spring Song_[9]; but not with +Gregory's brooding melancholy and self-tormenting introspection. The +poem goes on to compare him to a cloud that wanders hither and +thither in darkness, without even a visible outline of that for which +he longed; without peace: + + I am a stream of troubled water: ever onward I move, nor hath any + part of me rest; thou wilt not a second time pass over that + stream thou didst before pass over, nor wilt thou see a second + time the man thou sawest before. + +In his dreamy enthusiasm he likes nothing better than solitude: +'Happy he who leads a lonely life, happy he who with the mighty force +of a pure mind seeth the glory of the lights of heaven.' + +The same tone constantly recurs in his writings. Human life is but +dust, blown by the wind; a stormy voyage, faded grass; kingdoms and +powers are waves of the sea, which suck under and drown; a charming +girl is a rose with thorns, etc. + +Gregory of Nyssa again praises the order and splendour of Nature and +her Creator in Old Testament style: 'Seeing the harmony of the whole, +of wonders in heaven and in earth, and how the elements of things, +though mutually opposed, are all by Nature welded together, and make +for one aim through a certain indefinable intercommunion.' + +With the pathos of Job he cries: + + Who has spread out the ground at my feet? + Who has made the sky firm over me as a dome? + Who carries the sun as a torch before me? + Who sends springs into the ravines? + Who prepares the path of the waters? + + And who gives my spirit the wing for that high flight in which I + leave earth behind and hasten through the wide ocean of air, know + the beauty of the ether, and lift myself to the stars and observe + all their splendour, and, not staying there, but passing beyond + the limits of mutable things, comprehend unchangeable Nature--the + immutable Power which is based upon itself, and leads and + supports all that exists? + +This, with its markedly poetic swing, is surprisingly like the +passage in Plato's _Phædo_, where Socrates says: 'If any man could +arrive at the exterior limit or take the wings of a bird and come to +the top, then, like a fish who puts his head out of the water and +sees this world, he would see a world beyond; and if the nature of +man could sustain the sight, he would acknowledge that this other +world was the place of the true heaven and the true light and the +true earth.' But even the thought, that the order and splendour of +Nature witnessed to the eternal powers which had created her, was not +strange to the Greek, as Aristotle proves in the remarks which Cicero +preserved to us in his treatise _On the Nature of the Gods_. + +Well then did Aristotle observe: 'If there were men whose habitations +had been always underground, in great and commodious houses, adorned +with statues and pictures, finished with everything which they who +are reputed happy abound with, and if, without stirring from thence, +they should be informed of a certain divine power and majesty, and +after some time the earth should open, and they should quit their +dark abode to come to us, where they should immediately behold the +earth, the seas, the heavens, should consider the vast extent of the +clouds and force of the winds, should see the sun, and observe his +grandeur and beauty, and also his generative power, inasmuch as day +is occasioned by the diffusion of his light through the sky, and when +night has obscured the earth, they should contemplate the heavens +bespangled and adorned with stars, the surprising variety of the moon +in her increase and wane, the rising and setting of all the stars and +the inviolable regularity of all their courses; when,' says he, 'they +should see these things, they would undoubtedly conclude that there +are gods, and that these are their mighty works.' + +Thus unconsciously the Greek Fathers of the Church took over the +thoughts of the great classic philosophers, only substituting a unity +for a plurality of godhead. To soar upon the wings of bird, wind, or +cloud, a _motif_ which we find here in Gregory of Nyssa, and which +reached its finest expression in Ganymede and the evening scene in +Faust, had reached a very modern degree of development in +antiquity.[10] + +Gregory of Nyssa was still more sentimental and plaintive than Basil +and Gregory Nazianzen: + + When I see every ledge of rock, every valley and plain, covered + with new-born verdure, the varied beauty of the trees, and the + lilies at my feet decked by Nature with the double charms of + perfume and of colour, when in the distance I see the ocean, + towards which the clouds are onward borne, my spirit is + overpowered by a sadness not wholly devoid of enjoyment. When in + autumn the fruits have passed away, the leaves have fallen, and + the branches of the trees, dried and shrivelled, are robbed of + their leafy adornments, we are instinctively led, amid the + everlasting and regular change in Nature, to feel the harmony of + the wondrous powers pervading all things. He who contemplates + them with the eye of the soul, feels the littleness of man amid + the greatness of the universe. + +Are not these thoughts, which Humboldt rightly strings together, +highly significant and modern? Especially in view of the opinion +which Du Bois Reymond, for example, expresses: 'In antiquity, +mediæval times, and in later literature up to the last century, one +seeks in vain for the expression of what we call a feeling for +Nature.'[11] + +Might not Werther have written them? They have all his sentimental +melancholy, coupled with that 'delight of sorrow' which owes its name +(Wonne der Wehmuth) to Goethe, although its meaning was known to +Euripides. + +Yet it was only in rare cases, such as Seneca and Aristotle, that +classic writers combined such appreciation of Nature's individual +traits with that lofty view of the universe which elevates and +humbles at once. + +Gregory shewed the blending of Christian with classic feeling; and +the deepening of the inner life through the new faith is quite as +clear in patristic writings as their close relationship to the +classic. + +But the thinkers and poets of the Middle Ages did not always see +Nature under the brilliant light of Hellenic influence; there were +wide spaces of time in which monkish asceticism held sway, and she +was treated with most unscientific contempt. For the development of +feeling did not proceed in one unswerving line, but was subject to +backward movements. The rosy afterglow of the classic world was upon +these Greek Fathers; but at the same time they suffered from the +sorrowfulness of the new religion, which held so many sad and +pessimistic elements. + +The classic spirit seemed to shudder before the eternity of the +individual, before the unfathomable depths which opened up for +mankind with this religion of the soul, which can find no rest in +itself, no peace in the world, unless it be at one with God in +self-forgetting devotion and surrender. + +Solitude, to which all the deeper minds at this time paid homage, +became the mother of new and great thoughts, and of a view of the +world little behind the modern in sentimentality. + +What Villemain says of the quotation from Gregory Nazianzen just +given, applies with equal force to the others: + + No doubt there is a singular charm in this mixture of abstract + thoughts and emotions, this contrast between the beauties of + Nature and the unrest of a heart tormented by the enigma of + existence and seeking to find rest in faith.... It was not the + poetry of Homer, it was another poetry.... It was in the new form + of contemplative poetry, in this sadness of man about himself, in + these impulses towards God and the future, in this idealism so + little known by the poets of antiquity, that the Christian + imagination could compete without disadvantage. It was there that + that poetry arose which modern satiety seeks for, the poetry of + reverie and reflection, which penetrates man's heart and + deciphers his most intimate thoughts and vaguest wishes. + +Contempt for art was a characteristic of the Fathers of the Church, +and to that end they extolled Nature; man's handiwork, however +dazzling, was but vanity in their eyes, whereas Nature was the +handiwork of the Creator. Culture and Nature were purposely set in +opposition to each other.[12] St Chrysostom wrote: + + If the aspect of the colonnades of sumptuous buildings would lead + thy spirit astray, look upwards to the vault of heaven, and + around thee on the open fields, in which herds graze by the + water's side. Who does not despise all the creations of art, when + in the stillness of his soul he watches with admiration the + rising of the sun, as it pours its golden light over the face of + the earth; when resting on the thick grass beside the murmuring + spring, or beneath the sombre shade of a thick and leafy tree, + the eye rests on the far receding and hazy distance? + +The visible to them was but a mirror of the invisible; as Paul says +(13th of the 1st Corinthians): 'Here we see in a glass darkly,' and +Goethe: 'Everything transitory is but a similitude.' + + God (says St Chrysostom again) has placed man in the world as in + a royal palace gleaming with gold and precious stones; but the + wonderful thing about this palace is, that it is not made of + stone, but of far costlier material; he has not lighted up a + golden candelabra, but given lights their fixed course in the + roof of the palace, where they are not only useful to us, but an + object of great delight.[13] + +The Roman secular writers of the first Christian centuries had not +this depth of thought and sadness; but from them too we have notable +descriptions of Nature in which personal pleasure and sympathy are +evident motives as well as religious feeling. + +In the little _Octavius_ of Minucius Felix, a writing full of genuine +human feeling of the time of Commodus, the mixture of the heathen +culture and opinions of antiquity with the Christian way of thinking +has a very modern ring. The scenery is finely sketched. + + The heats of summer being over, autumn began to be temperate ... + we (two friends, a heathen and a Christian) agreed to go to the + delightful city of Ostia.... As, at break of day, we were + proceeding along the banks of the Tiber towards the sea, that the + soft breeze might invigorate our limbs, and that we might enjoy + the pleasure of feeling the beach gently subside under our + footsteps, Cæcilius observed an image of Serapis, and having + raised his hands to his lips, after the wont of the superstitious + vulgar, he kissed it.... Then Octavius said: 'It is not the part + of a good man, brother Marcus, thus to leave an intimate + companion and friend amidst blind popular ignorance, and to + suffer him, in such open daylight, to stumble against stones,' + etc.... Discoursing after this sort, we traversed the space + between Ostia and the sea, and arrived at the open coast. There + the gentle surges had smoothed the outermost sands like a + pleasure walk, and as the sea, although the winds blow not, is + ever unquiet, it came forward to the shore, not hoary and + foaming, but with waves gently swelling and curled. On this + occasion we were agreeably amused by the varieties of its + appearance, for, as we stood on the margin and dipped the soles + of our feet in the water, the wave alternately struck at us, and + then receding, and sliding away, seemed to swallow up itself. We + saw some boys eagerly engaged in the game of throwing shells in + the sea.... Cæcilius said: 'All things ebb into the fountain from + which they spring, and return back to their original without + contriver, author, or supreme arbiter ... showers fall, winds + blow, thunder bellows, and lightnings flash ... but they have no + aim.' Octavius answers: 'Behold the heaven itself, how wide it is + stretched out, and with what rapidity its revolutions are + performed, whether in the night when studded with stars, or in + the daytime when the sun ranges over it, and then you will learn + with what a wonderful and divine hand the balance is held by the + Supreme Moderator of all things; see how the circuit made by the + sun produces the year, and how the moon, in her increase, wanes + and changes, drives the months around.... Observe the sea, it is + bound by a law that the shore imposes; the variety of trees, how + each of them is enlivened from the bowels of the earth! Behold + the ocean, it ebbs and flows alternately. Look at the springs, + they trickle with a perpetual flow; at rivers, they hold on their + course in quick and continued motion. Why should I speak of the + ridges of mountains, aptly disposed? of the gentle slope of + hills, or of plains widely extended?... In this mansion of the + world, when you fully consider the heaven and the earth, and that + providence, order, and government visible in them, assure + yourself that there is indeed a Lord and Parent of the whole ... + do not enquire for the name of God--God is his name.... If I + should call Him Father, you would imagine Him earthly; if King, + carnal; and if Lord, mortal. Remove all epithets, and then you + will be sensible of His glory....' + +How like Faust's confession of faith to Gretchen: + + Him who dare name + And yet proclaim, + Yes! I believe... + The All-embracer, + All-sustainer, + Doth he not embrace, sustain, + Thee, me, Himself? + Lifts not the Heaven its dome above? + Doth not the firm-set earth beneath us rise?... + And beaming tenderly with looks of love + Climb not the everlasting stars on high?... + Fill thence thy heart, how large so e'er it be, + And in the feeling when thou'rt wholly blest, + Then call it what thou wilt--Bliss! Heart! Love! God! + I have no name for it--'tis feeling all + Name is but sound and smoke + Shrouding the glow of Heaven. + +Such statements of belief were not rare in the Apologists; but Nature +at this time was losing independent importance in men's minds, like +life itself, which after Cyprian was counted as nothing but a fight +with the devil.[14] + +There is deep reverence for Nature in the lyrics, the hymns of the +first centuries A.D., as a work of God and an emblem of moral ideas. +Ebert observes[15] + + In comparison with the old Roman, one can easily see the + peculiarities and perfect originality of these Christian lyrics. + I do not mean merely in that dominance of the soul life in which + man appeared to be quite merged, and which makes them such + profound expressions of feeling; but in man's relationship to + Nature, which, one might say, supplies the colour to the + painter's brush.[16] Nature appears here in the service of ideal + moral powers and robbed of her independence;[17] the servant of + her Creator, whose direct command she obeys. She is his + instrument for man's welfare, and also at times, under the + temporary mastery of the devil, for his destruction. Thus Nature + easily symbolizes the moral world. + +'Bountiful Giver of light, through whose calm brightness, when the +time of night is past and gone, the daylight is suffused abroad, +Thou, the world's true morning star, clearer than the full glorious +sun, Thou very dayspring, very light in all its fulness, that dost +illumine the innermost recesses of the heart,' sings St Hilary in his +Morning Hymn; and in another hymn, declaring himself unworthy to lift +his sinful eyes to the clear stars, he urges all the creatures, and +heaven, earth, sea and river, hill and wood, rose, lily, and star to +weep with him and lament the sinfulness of man. + +In the Morning Hymn of St Ambrose dawn is used symbolically; dark +night pales, the light of the world is born again, and the new birth +of the soul raises to new energy; Christ is called the true sun, the +source of light; 'let modesty be as the dawn, faith as the noonday, +let the mind know no twilight.' + +And Prudentius sings in a Morning Hymn [18]: 'Night and mist and +darkness fade, light dawns, the globe brightens, Christ is coming!' +and again: 'The herald bird of dawn announces day, Christ the awaker +calls us to life.' And in the ninth hymn: 'Let flowing rivers, waves, +the seashore's thundering, showers, heat, snow, frost, forest and +breeze, night, day, praise Thee throughout the ages.'[19] + +He speaks of Christ as the sun that never sets, never is obscured by +clouds, the flower of David, of the root of Jesse; of the eternal +Fatherland where the whole ground is fragrant with beds of purple +roses, violets, and crocuses, and slender twigs drop balsam. + +St Jerome united Christian genius, as Ebert says, with classic +culture to such a degree that his writings, especially his letters, +often shew a distinctly modern tone,[20] and go to prove that +asceticism so deepened and intensified character that even literary +style took individual stamp.[21] But the most perfect representative, +the most modern man, of his day was Augustine. + +As Rousseau's _Confessions_ revealed the revolutionary genius of the +eighteenth century, Augustine's opened out a powerful character, +fully conscious of its own importance, striving with the problems of +the time, and throwing search-lights into every corner of its own +passionate heart. He had attained, after much struggling, to a +glowing faith, and he described the process in characteristic and +drastic similes from Nature, which are scarcely suitable for +translation. He said on one occasion: + + For I burned at times in my youth to satiate myself with deeds of + hell, and dared to run wild in many a dark love passage.... In + the time of my youth I took my fill passionately among the wild + beasts, and I dared to roam the woods and pursue my vagrant loves + beneath the shade; and my beauty consumed away and I was + loathsome in Thy sight, pleasing myself and desiring to please + the eyes of men.... The seething waves of my youth flowed up to + the shores of matrimony.... + +Comfortless at the death of his friend: + + I burned, I sighed, I wept, I was distraught, for I bore within + me a soul rent and bloodstained, that would no longer brook my + carrying; yet I found no place where I could lay it down, neither + in pleasant groves nor in sport was it at rest. All things, even + the light itself, were filled with shuddering. + +Augustine, like Rousseau, understood 'que c'est un fatal présent du +ciel qu'une ame sensible.' + +He looked upon his own heart as a sick child, and sought healing for +it in Nature and solitude, though in vain. + +The pantheistic belief of the Manicheans that all things, fire, air, +water, etc., were alive, that figs wept when they were picked and the +mother tree shed milky tears for the loss of them, that everything in +heaven and earth was a part of godhead, gave him no comfort; it was +rather the personal God of the Psalms whom he saw in the ordering of +Nature. + +The cosmological element in theism has never been more beautifully +expressed than in his words: + + I asked the earth, and she said: 'I am not He,' and all things + that are in her did confess the same. I asked the sea and the + depths and creeping things, and they answered: 'We are not thy + God, seek higher.' I asked the blowing breezes, and the whole + expanse of air with its inhabitants made answer: 'Anaxagoras was + at fault, I am not God.' I asked the sky, the sun, the moon, the + stars, and with a loud voice did they exclaim: 'He made us.' My + question was the enquiry of my spirit, their answer was the + beauty of their form. + +In another place: + + Not with uncertain but with sure consciousness, Lord, I love + Thee. But behold, sea and sky and all things in them from all + sides tell me that I must love Thee, nor do they cease to give + all men this message, so that they are without excuse. Sky and + earth speak to the deaf Thy praises: when I love Thee, I love not + beauty of form, nor radiancy of light; but when I love my God, I + love the light, the voice, the sweetness, the food, the embrace + of my innermost soul. That is what I love when I love my God. + +Augustine's interest in Nature was thus religious. At the same time, +the soothing influence of quiet woods was not unknown to him. + +The likeness and unlikeness between the Christian and heathen points +of view are very clear in the correspondence between Ausonius, the +poet of the Moselle, and Paulinus, Bishop of Nola; and the deep +friendship expressed in it raises their dilettante verses to the +level of true poetry. + +Ausonius, thoroughly heathen as he was, carries us far forward into +Christian-Germanic times by his sentimentality and his artistic +descriptions of the scenery of the Moselle.[22] + +It is characteristic of the decline of heathendom, that the lack of +original national material to serve as inspiration, as the Æneas Saga +had once served, led the best men of the time to muse on Nature, and +describe scenery and travels. Nothing in classic Roman poetry attests +such an acute grasp of Nature's little secret charms as the small +poem about the sunny banks of the Moselle, vine-clad and crowned by +villas, and reflected in the crystal water below. It seemed as if the +Roman, with the German climate, had imbibed the German love of +Nature; as if its scenery had bewitched him like the German maiden +whom he compared to roses and lilies in his song. + +Many parts of his poetical epistles are in the same tone, and we +learn incidentally from them that a lengthy preamble about weather +and place belonged to letter-writing even then.[23] + +Feeling for Nature and love of his friend are interwoven into a truly +poetic appeal in No. 64, in which Ausonius complains that Paulinus +does not answer his letters: + + Rocks give answer to the speech of man, and his words striking + against the caves resound, and from the groves cometh the echo of + his voice. The cliffs of the coast cry out, the rivers murmur, + the hedge hums with the bees that feed upon it, the reedy banks + have their own harmonious notes, the foliage of the pine talks in + trembling whispers to the winds: what time the light south-east + falls on the pointed leaves, songs of Dindymus give answer in the + Gargaric grove. Nature has made nothing dumb; the birds of the + air and the beasts of the earth are not silent, the snake has its + hiss, the fishes of the sea as they breathe give forth their + note.... Have the Basque mountains and the snowy haunts of the + Pyrenees taken away thy urbanity?... May he, who advises thee to + keep silence, never enjoy the singing of sweet songs nor the + voices of Nature ... sad and in need may he live in desolate + regions, and wander silent in the rounded heights of the Alpine + range. + +The sounds of Nature are detailed with great delicacy in this appeal, +and we see that the Alps are referred to as desolate regions. + +In another letter (25) he reminded his friend of their mutual love, +their home at Burdigala, his country-house with its vine-slopes, +fields, woods, etc., and went on: + + Yet without thee no year advanceth with grateful change of + season; the rainy spring passeth without flower, the dog-star + burns with blazing heat, Pomona bringeth not the changing scents + of autumn, Aquarius pours forth his waters and saddens winter. + Pontius, dear heart, seest thou what thou hast done? + +Closing in the same tender strain with a picture of his hope +fulfilled: + + Now he leaves the snowy towns of the Iberians, now he holds the + fields of the Tarbellians, now passeth he beneath the halls of + Ebromagus, now he is gliding down the stream, and now he knocketh + at thy door! Can we believe it? Or do they who love, fashion + themselves dreams? + +The greater inwardness of feeling here, as contrasted with classic +times, is undeniable; the tone verges on the sentimentality of the +correspondences between 'beautiful souls' in the eighteenth century. + +Paulinus was touchingly devoted to his former teacher Ausonius, and +in every way a man of fine and tender feeling. He gave himself with +zeal to Christianity, and became an ascetic and bishop. + +It was a bitter grief to him that his Ausonius remained a heathen +when he himself had sworn allegiance to Christ and said adieu to +Apollo. There is a fine urbanity and humanity in his writings, but he +did not, like Ausonius, love Nature for her own sake. The one took +the Christian ascetic point of view, the other the classic heathen, +with sympathy and sentiment in addition. + +Paulinus recognized the difference, and contrasted their ideas of +solitude. 'They are not crazed, nor is it their savage fierceness +that makes men choose to live in lonely spots; rather, turning their +eyes to the lofty stars, they contemplate God, and set the leisure +that is free from empty cares, to fathom the depths of truth they +love.' + +In answer to his friend's praise of home, he praised Spain, in which +he was living, and many copious descriptions of time and place run +through his other writings[24]; but while he yielded nothing to +Ausonius in the matter of friendship, 'sooner shall life disappear +from my body than thy image from my heart,' he was without his quiet +musing delight in Nature. For her the heathen had the clearer eye and +warmer heart; the Christian bishop only acknowledged her existence in +relation to his Creator, declaring with pride that no power had been +given to us over the elements, nor to them over us, and that not from +the stars but from our own hearts come the hindrances to virtue. + +Lives of the saints and paraphrases of the story of creation were the +principal themes of the Christian poets of the fourth and fifth +centuries. In some of these the hermit was extolled with a dash of +Robinson Crusoe romance, and the descriptions of natural phenomena in +connection with Genesis often showed a feeling for the beauty of +Nature in poetic language. Dracontius drew a detailed picture of +Paradise with much self-satisfaction. + + Then in flight the joyous feathered throng passed through the + heavens, beating the air with sounding wings, various notes do + they pour forth in soothing harmony, and, methinks, together + praise for that they were accounted worthy to be created.[26] + +For the charming legend of Paradise was to many Christian minds of +this time what the long-lost bliss of Elysium and the Golden Age had +been to the Hellenic poets and the Roman elegist--the theme of much +vivid imagery and highly-coloured word-painting. + + Eternal spring softens the air, a healing flame floods the world + with light, all the elements glow in healing warmth; as the + shades of night fade, day rises.... Then the feathered flocks fly + joyfully through the air, beating it with their wings in the rush + of their passage, and with flattering satisfaction their voices + are heard, and I think they praise God that they were found + worthy to be created; some shine in snowy white, some in purple, + some in saffron, some in yellow gold; others have white feathers + round the eyes, while neck and breast are of the bright tint of + the hyacinth ... and upon the branches, the birds are moved to + and fro with them by the wind. + +This shews careful observation of detail; but, for the most part, +such idyllic feeling was checked by lofty religious thoughts. + +'Man,' he cries, 'should rule over Nature, over all that it contains, +over all earth offers in fruit, flowers, and verdure that tree and +vine, sea and spring, can give.' He summons all creation to praise +the Creator--stars and seasons, hail-storm and lightning, earth, sea, +river and spring, cloud and night, plants, animals, and light; and he +describes the flood in bold flights of fancy. + +In the three books of Avitus[27] we have 'a complete poem of the lost +Paradise, far removed from a mere paraphrase or versification of the +Bible,'[28] which shews artistic leanings and sympathetic feeling +here and there. As Catullus[29] pictures the stars looking down upon +the quiet love of mortals by night, and Theocritus[30] makes the +cypresses their only witnesses, the Christian poet surrounds the +marriage of our first parents with the sympathy of Nature: + + And angel voices joined in harmony and sang to the chaste and + pure; Paradise was their wedding-chamber, earth their dowry, and + the stars of heaven rejoiced with gladsome radiance.... The + kindness of heaven maintains eternal spring there; the tumultuous + south wind does not penetrate, the clouds forsake an air which is + always pure.... The soil has no need of rains to refresh it, and + the plants prosper by virtue of their own dew. The earth is + always verdant, and its surface animated by a sweet warmth + resplendent with beauty. Herbs never abandon the hills, the trees + never lose their leaves, etc. + +And when Adam and Eve leave it, they find all the rest of the +beautiful world ugly and narrow in comparison. 'Day is dark to their +eyes, and under the clear sun they complain that the light has +disappeared.' + +It was the reflection of their own condition in Nature. Among heathen +writers who were influenced, without being entirely swayed, by +Christian teaching, and imitated the rhetorical Roman style in +describing Nature, Apollonius Sidonius takes a prominent place. In +spite of many empty phrases and a stilted style, difficult to +understand as well as to translate, his poems, and still more his +letters, give many interesting pictures of the culture of his part of +the fifth century. In Carm. 2 he draws a highly--coloured picture of +the home of Pontius Leontas,[31] a fine country property, and paints +the charms of the villa with all the art of his rhetoric and some +real appreciation. The meeting of the two rivers, the Garonne and the +Dordogne, in the introduction is poetically rendered, and he goes on +to describe the cool hall and grottos, state-rooms, pillars--above +all, the splendid view: 'There on the top of the fortress I sit down +and lean back and gaze at the mountains covered by olives, so dear to +the Muse and the goats. I shall wander in their shade, and believe +that coward Daphne grants me her love.' He delighted in unspoilt +Nature, and describes: + + My fountain, which, as it flows from the mountain-side, is + overshadowed by a many-covered grotto with its wide circle. It + needs not Art; Nature has given it grace. That no artist's hand + has touched it is its charm; it is no masterpiece of skill, no + hammer with resounding blow will adorn the rocks, nor marble fill + up the place where the tufa is worn away. + +He lays stress upon the contrast between culture and Nature, town +luxury and country solitude, in his second letter to Domidius, and +describes the beauties of his own modest estate with sentimental +delight: + + You reproach me for loitering in the country; I might complain + with more reason that you stay in the town when the earth shines + in the light of spring, the ice is melting from the Alps, and the + soil is marked by the dry fissures of tortuous furrows ... the + stones in the stream, and the mud on the banks are dried up ... + here neither nude statues, comic actors, nor Hippodrome are to be + found ... the noise of the waters is so great that it drowns + conversation. From the dining-room, if you have time to spare at + meals, you can occupy it with the delight of looking at the + scenery, and watch the fishing ... here you can find a hidden + recess, cool even in summer heat, a place to sleep in. Here what + joy it is to listen to the cicadas chirping at noonday, and to + the frogs croaking when the twilight is coming on, and to the + swans and geese giving note at the early hours of the night, and + at midnight to the cocks crowing together, and to the boding + crows with three-fold note greeting the ruddy torch of the rising + dawn; and in the half light of the morning to hear the + nightingale warbling in the bushes, and the swallow twittering + among the beams.... Between whiles, the shepherds play in their + rustic fashion. Not far off is a wood where the branches of two + huge limes interlace, though their trunks are apart (in their + shade we play ball), and a lake that rises to such fury in a + storm that the trees that border it are wetted by the spray. + +In another letter to Domidius he described a visit to the +country-seat of two of his friends: + + We were torn from one pleasure to another--games, feastings, + chatting, rowing, bathing, fishing. + +As a true adherent even as a bishop of classic culture and humanity, +Sidonius is thus an interesting figure in these wild times, with his +Pliny-like enthusiasm for country rather than city, and his +susceptibility to woodland and pastoral life. + +The limit of extravagance in the bombastic rhetoric of the period was +reached in the travels of Ennodius,[32] who was scarcely more than a +fantastic prattler. The purest, noblest, and most important figure of +the sixth century was undoubtedly Boetius; but it is Cassiodorus, a +statesman of the first rank under Theodoric, who in his _Variorium +libris_ gives the most interesting view of the attitude of his day +towards Nature. He revelled in her and in describing her. After +praising Baja for its beauty[33] and Lactarius for its healthiness, +he said of Scyllacium: + + The city of Scyllacium hangs upon the hills like a cluster of + grapes, not that it may pride itself upon their difficult ascent, + but that it may voluptuously gaze on verdant plains and the blue + back of the sea. The city beholds the rising sun from its very + cradle, when the day that is about to be born sends forward no + heralding Aurora; but as soon as it begins to rise, the quivering + brightness displays its torch. It beholds Phoebus in his joy; it + is bathed in the brightness of that luminary so that it might be + thought to be itself the native land of the sun, the claims of + Rhodes to that honour being outdone.... It enjoys a translucent + air, but withal so temperate, that its winters are sunny and its + summers cool, and life passes there without sorrow, since hostile + seasons are feared by none. Hence, too, man himself is here freer + of soul than elsewhere, for this temperateness of the climate + prevails in all things.... Assuredly for the body to imbibe muddy + waters is a different thing from sucking in the transparency of a + sweet fountain. Even so the vigour of the mind is repressed when + it is clogged by a heavy atmosphere. Nature itself hath made us + subject to these influences.... clouds make us feel sad, and + again a bright day fills us with joy.... At the foot of the + Moscian Mount we hollowed out the bowels of the rock, and + tastefully introduced therein the eddying waves of Nereus. Here a + troop of fishes sporting in free captivity refreshes all minds + with delight, and charms all eyes with admiration. They run + greedily to the hand of man, and, before they become his food, + seek dainties from him. + +He described the town as rich in vineyards and olive woods, +cornfields and villas. + +He awarded the palm of beauty to Como and its lake, and although he +wrote in the clumsy language of a decaying literature, this +sixth-century sketch still strikes us as surprisingly complete and +artistic in feeling: + + Como, with its precipitous mountains and its vast expanse of + lake, seems placed there for the defence of the Province of + Liguria; and yet again, it is so beautiful, that one would think + it was created for pleasure only. + + To the south lies a fertile plain with easy roads for the + transport of provisions; on the north, a lake sixty miles long + abounding in fish, soothing the mind with delicious + recreation.... Rightly is it called Como, because it is adorned + with such gifts. The lake lies in a shell-like valley with white + margins. Above rises a diadem of lofty mountains, their slopes + studded with bright villas; a girdle of olives below, vineyards + above, while a crest of thick chestnut woods adorns the very + summit of the hills. Streams of snowy clearness dash from the + hill-sides into the lake. On the eastern side these unite to form + the river Addua, so called because it contains the added volume + of two streams.... So delightful a region makes men delicate and + averse to labour.... Therefore the inhabitants deserve special + consideration, and for this reason we wish them to enjoy + perpetually the royal bounty. + +This shews, beyond dispute, that the taste for the beauty of Nature, +even at that wild time, was not dead, and that the writer's attitude +was not mainly utilitarian. He noted the fertility of the land in +wine and grain, and of the sea in fish, but he laid far greater +stress upon its charms and their influence upon the inhabitants. + +On _a priori_ grounds (so misleading in questions of this kind) one +would scarcely expect the most disturbed period in the history of the +European people to have produced a Venantius Fortunatus, the greatest +and most celebrated poet of the sixth century. His whole personality, +as well as his poetry, shewed the blending of heathenism and +Christianity, of Germanism and Romanism, and it is only now and then +among the Roman elegists and later epic poets that we meet a feeling +for Nature which can be compared to his. Like all the poets of this +late period, his verse lacks form, is rugged and pompous, moving upon +the stilts of classic reminiscences, and coining monstrous new +expressions for itself; but its feeling is always sincere. It was the +last gleam of a setting sun of literature that fell upon this one +beneficent figure. He was born in the district of Treviso near +Venice, and crossed the Alps a little before the great Lombard +invasion, while the Merovingians, following in the steps of Chlodwig, +were outdoing each other in bloodshed and cruelty. In the midst of +this hard time Fortunatus stood out alone among the poets by virtue +of his talent and purity of character. His poems are often disfigured +by bombast, prolixity, and misplaced learning; but his keen eye for +men and things is undeniable, and his feeling for Nature shews not +only in dealing with scenery, but in linking it with the inner life. + +The lover's wish in _On Virginity_,[34] one of his longer poems, +suggests the Volkslieder: + + O that I too might go, if my hurrying foot could poise amid the + lights of heaven and hold on its starry course. But now, without + thee, night comes drearily with its dark wings, and the day + itself and the glittering sunshine is darkness to me. Lily, + narcissus, violet, rose, nard, amomum, bring me no joy--nay, no + flower delights my heart. That I may see thee, I pass hovering + through each cloud, and my love teaches my wandering eyes to + pierce the mist, and lo! in dread fear I ask the stormy winds + what they have to tell me of my lord. Before thy feet I long to + wash the pavement, and with my hair to sweep thy temples. + Whatever it be, I will bear it; all hard things are sweet; if + only I see thee, this penalty is my joy. But be thou mindful, for + thy vows do I yearn; I have thee in my heart, have me in thy + heart too. + +This is more tender in feeling than any poem by Catullus or Tibullus. +We can only explain it by two facts--the deepening of the inner life +through Christianity (we almost hear Christ's words about the 'great +sinner'), and the intimate friendship which Fortunatus enjoyed with a +German lady, who may justly be called the noblest and purest figure +of her time in Franconia. + +This was Radegunde, the unhappy daughter of a Thuringian king, who +first saw her father's kingdom lost, and then, fleeing from the +cruelty of her husband, the bloodstained Chlotaire, took the veil in +Poitiers and founded a convent, of which she made Agnes, a noble +Franconian lady, the abbess. When Fortunatus visited the place, these +ladies became his devoted friends, and he remained there as a priest +until the death of Radegunde. His poems to them, which were often +letters and notes written off-hand, are full of affection and +gratitude (he was, by the way, a gourmet, and the ladies made +allowance for this weakness in dainty gifts), and form an enduring +witness of a pure and most touching friendship. They contain many +pretty sketches of Nature and delicate offerings of flowers. In one +he said: 'If the season brought white lilies or blossomed in red +roses, I would send them to you, but now you must be content with +purple violets for a greeting'; and in another, because gold and +purple are not allowable, he sends her flowers, that she may have +'her gold in crocuses, her purple in violets, and they may adorn her +hair with even greater delight than she draws from their fragrance.' +Once, when following pious custom, she had withdrawn into her cell, +his 'straying thoughts go in search of her': + + How quickly dost thou hide the light from mine eyes! for without + thee I am o'erweighted by the clouds that bear me down, and + though thou flee and hide thyself here but for a few short days, + that month is longer than the whole hurrying year. Prithee, let + the joys of Easter bring thee back in safety, and so may a + two-fold light return to us at once. + +And when she comes out, he cries: + + Thou hadst robbed me of my happiness; now it returns to me with + thee, thou makest me doubly celebrate this solemn festival.... + Though the seedlings are only just beginning to shoot up from the + furrows, yet I to-day will reap my harvest in seeing thee once + more. To-day do I gather in the fruit and lay the peaceful + sheaves together. Though the field is bare, nor decked with ears + of corn, yet all, through thy return, is radiant fulness. + +The comparison is tedious and spun out; but the idea is poetic. We +find it in the classics: for instance, in Theocritus, when he praises +Nais, whose beauty draws even Nature under her sway, and whose coming +makes spring everywhere: + + Where has my light hidden herself from my straying eyes? When I + see not thee, I am ne'er satisfied. Though the heavens be bright, + though the clouds have fled, yet for me is the day sunless, if it + hide thee from me. + +The most touching evidence of this friendship is the poem _On the +Downfall of Thuringia_. + +'One must,' says Leo,[35] 'refer the chief excellence of the poem to +the lady who tells the tale, must grant that the irresistible power +of the description, the spectacle of the freshly open wounds, the +sympathy in the consuming sorrow of a friend, gave unwonted power of +the wing to this low-flying pen.' Radegunde is thinking of her only +remaining relative, Amalafried: + + When the wind murmurs, I listen if it bring me some news, but of + all my kindred not even a shadow presents itself to me.... And + thou, Amalafried, gentle son of my father's brother, does no + anxiety for me consume thy heart? Hast thou forgotten what + Radegunde was to thee in thy earliest years, and how much thou + lovedst me, and how thou heldst the place of the father, mother, + brother, and sister whom I had lost? An hour absent from thee + seemed to me eternal; now ages pass, and I never hear a word from + thee. A whole world now lies betwixt those who loved each other + and who of old were never separate. If others, for pity alone, + cross the Alps to seek their lost slaves, wherefore am I + forgotten?--I who am bound to thee by blood? Where art thou? I + ask the wind as it sighs, the clouds as they pass--at least some + bird might bring me news of thee. If the holy enclosure of this + monastery did not restrain me, thou shouldst see me suddenly + appear beside thee. I could cross the stormy seas in winter if it + were necessary. The tempest that alarms the sailors should cause + no fear to me who love thee. If my vessel were dashed to pieces + by the tempest, I should cling to a plank to reach thee, and if I + could find nothing to cling to, I should go to thee swimming, + exhausted. If I could but see thee once more, I should deny all + the perils of the journey.... + +There is little about Nature in this beautiful avowal of love and +longing, but the whole colouring of the mood forms a background of +feeling for his longer descriptions. His very long and tedious poem +about the bridal journey of Gelesiuntha, the Spanish princess, who +married King Chilperic, shews deep and touching feeling in parts. She +left her Toledo home with a heavy heart, crossing the Pyrenees, where +'the mountains shining with snow reach to the stars, and their sharp +peaks project over the rain clouds.' In the same vein as Ausonius, +when he urged Paulinus to write to him, she begs her sister for news: + + By thy name full oft I call thee, Gelesiuntha, sister mine: with + this name fountains, woods, rivers, and fields resound. Art thou + silent, Gelesiuntha? Answer as to thy sister stones and + mountains, groves and waters and sky, answer in language mute. + +In troubled thought and care she asked the very breezes, but of her +sister's safety all were silent. + +Fortunatus, like Ausonius, not only looked at Nature with sympathy, +but was a master in description of scenery. His lengthy descriptions +of spring are mostly only decorative work, but here and there we find +a really poetic idea. For example: + +At the first spring, when earth has doffed her frost, +the field is clothed with variegated grass; the mountains +stretch their leafy heads towards the sky, the +shady tree renews its verdant foliage, the lovely vine +is swelling with budding branches, giving promise that +a weight of grapes shall hang from its prolific stems. +While all joys return, the earth is dead and dull. + +And: + + The soft violets paint the field with their own purple, the + meadows are green with grass, the grass is bright with its fresh + shoots. Little by little, like stars, the bright flowers spring + up, and the sward is joyous and gay with flecks of colour, and + the birds that through the winter cold have been numb and silent, + with imprisoned song, are now recalled to their song. + +He describes the cold winter, and a hot summer's day, when + + Even in the forests no shade was to be found, and the traveller + almost fainted on the burning roads, longing for shade and cool + drinks. At last the rustle of a crystal stream is heard, he + hurries to it with delight, he lies down and lays his limbs in + the soft kisses of the grass. + +His poems about beautiful and noteworthy places include some on the +Garonne and Gers (Egircius): + + So dried up by heat that it is neither river nor land, and the + grumbling croak of the frog, sole ruler of the realm from which + the fish are banished, is heard in the lonely swamp; but when the + rain pours down, the flood swells, and what was a lake suddenly + becomes a sea. + +He has many verses of this sort, written with little wit but great +satisfaction. + +More attractive are descriptions of the Rhine and Moselle, recalling +Ausonius, and due to love partly of Nature, partly of verbal +scene-painting. The best and most famous of these is on his journey +by the Moselle from Metz to Andernach on the Rhine. Here he shews a +keen eye and fine taste for wide views and high mountains, as well as +for the minutiæ of scenery, with artistic treatment. He also blends +his own thoughts and feelings with his impressions of Nature, making +it clear that he values her not merely for decoration, but for her +own sake. + +He has been called the last Roman poet; in reality, he belonged not +only to the period which directly succeeded his own, when the Roman +world already lay in ruins, but to the fully-developed Middle +Ages--the time when Christianity and Germanism had mated with Roman +minds. + +In his best pieces, such as his famous elegy, he caught the classic +tone to perfection, feeling himself in vital union with the great of +bygone centuries; but in thought and feeling he was really modern and +under the influence of the Christian Germanic spirit with all its +depth and intensity. His touching friendship with Radegunde is, as it +were, a symbol of the blending of the two elements out of which the +modern sprang. It was the stimulating influence of the noble Germanic +princess, herself Christian in soul, which fanned the dying sparks of +classic poetry into a flame. + +Fortunatus stood upon a borderland. Literature was retreating further +and further from the classic models, and culture was declining to its +fall. In Gaul, as in Spain and Italy, the shadows of coming night +were broadening over literary activity, thought, and feeling. + +It is a characteristic fact in Roman literature, that not only its +great lights, but the lesser ones who followed them, were +enthusiastically imitated. Latin poetry of the Middle Ages lived upon +recollections of the past, or tried to raise itself again by its +help; even so late a comer as Fortunatus became in his turn an object +of marvel, and was copied by poets who never reached his level. + +It is not surprising that feeling for Nature shewed a corresponding +shallowness and lassitude. + +Not only bucolic but didactic writing was modelled upon the classic. +Isodorus and Beda, in their works with identical titles 'concerning +the existence of things,' relied on Roman models no less than Alcuin, +who had formed himself on the pattern of Augustine's time in his +_Conflict between Winter and Spring_, as well as in many single +verses, directly inspired by Virgil.[36] + +His _Farewell to his Cell_ caught the idyllic tone very neatly: + + Beloved cell, retirement's sweet abode! + Farewell, a last farewell, thy poet bids thee! + Beloved cell, by smiling woods embraced, + Whose branches, shaken by the genial breeze, + To meditation oft my mind disposed. + Around thee too, their health-reviving herbs + In verdure gay the fertile meadows spread; + And murmuring near, by flowery banks confined, + Through fragrant meads the crystal streamlets glide, + Wherein his nets the joyful fisher casts, + And fragrant with the apple bending bough, + With rose and lily joined, the gardens smile; + While jubilant, along thy verdant glades + At dawn his melody each songster pours, + And to his God attunes the notes of praise. + +These heartfelt effusions express a feeling which certainly inspired +many monks when they turned from their gloomy cells to the gardens +and woods beyond--a feeling compounded of renunciation of the world +with idyllic comfort in their surroundings. If their fundamental +feeling was worship and praise of the Creator, their constant outdoor +work, which, during the first centuries, was strenuous cultivation of +the soil, must have roused a deep appreciation of Nature in the +nobler minds among them. Their choice of sites for monasteries and +hermitages fully bears out this view.[37] + +_The Conflict between Spring and Winter_, with its classic +suggestions, is penetrated by a truly German love of spring.[38] It +described the time when the cuckoo sings high in the branches, grass +clothes earth with many tints, and the nightingale sings untiringly +in the red-gold butcher's broom, captivating us with her changing +melodies. + +Among the savants whom Charlemagne gathered round him was Angilbert. +Virgil was his model, but the influence of the lighter fluency of +Fortunatus was visible, as in so many of his contemporaries. With a +vivid and artistic pen he described the wood and park of Aachen and +the Kaiser's brilliant hunt[39]; the great forest grove, the grassy +meadows with brooks and all sorts of birds flitting about, the +thicket stocked with many kinds of game. + +At the same time, his writing betrayed the conventional tone of +courts in its praise of his great secular lord, and a 'thoughtful +romantic inclination' for the eternal feminine, for the beautiful +women with splendid ornaments, and necks shining like milk or snow or +glowing like a rose, who, as Ebert puts it, 'lay far from the +asceticism of the poetry of the saints.' + +Naso Muadorinus in his pastorals took Calpurnius and Nemesianus for +his models, just as they had taken Virgil, and Virgil Theocritus. +Muadorinus imitated the latter in his pastorals. + +In an alternate song of his between an old man and a boy, the old man +draws an artistic contrast between the shady coolness of the wood and +the mid-day glow of the sun, while the boy praises Him whose songs +the creatures follow as once they followed Orpheus with his lute; and +at the end, Charlemagne, who was extolled at the beginning as a +second Cæsar, is exalted to heaven as the founder of a new Golden +Age. + +In the Carolingian Renaissance of the Augustine epoch of literature, +Theodulf, Bishop of Orleans, takes first place. At any rate, he +described in a very superior way, and, like Fortunatus, with some +humour, the draining of the Larte at Le Mans, Feb. 820; also, in a +light and lively strain, the Battle of the Birds, and, with the same +strong colouring, Paradise. + +The idyll of the cloister garden, so often treated, became famous in +the much-read _Hortulus_ of Wahlafried.[40] + +Despite classical flourishes from Virgil and Columella, and +pharmaceutical handling of plants, there is a good deal of thoughtful +observation of Nature in these 444 hexameters. + +They contain descriptions of seasons, of recipes, flowers and +vegetables, of the gardener's pleasure in digging his fields in +spring, clearing them of nettles, and levelling the ground thrown up +by the moles, in protecting his seedlings from rain and sun, and, +later on, in his gay beds of deciduous plants. + +There is a touch here and there which is not unpoetic--for instance: + + A bright green patch of dark blue rue paints this shady grove; it + has short leaves and throws out short umbels, and passes the + breath of the wind and the rays of the sun right down to the end + of the stalk, and at a gentle touch gives forth a heavy scent. + +and: + + With what verse, with what song, can the dry thinness of my + meagre muse rightly extol the shining lily, whose whiteness is as + the whiteness of gleaming snow, whose sweet scent is as the scent + of Sabian woods? + +He closes pleasantly too, adjuring Grimald to read the book under the +shade of the peach tree, while his school-fellows play round and pick +the great delicate fruit which they can barely grasp with one hand. +In the poem to the layman Ruodbern (100 hexameters) he described the +dangers of Alpine travelling, both from weather and other foes. In +those days the difficulties of the road excluded all interest in +mountain beauty. There is a tender and expressive poem in Sapphic +metre, in which, homesick and cold in winter, he sang his longing for +beautiful Reichenau. But even he, like most of his predecessors and +all his followers, wielded his pen with labour, expression often +failing to keep pace with thought. + +It only remains to mention Wandalbert, a monk of the monastery at +Prün, who, in a postscript to the _Conclusio des Martyrologium_, +gives a charming account of a landowner's life in field, garden, and +hunt. + +In the cloister, then, idyllic comfort, delighting in Nature and a +quiet country life, was quite as much at home as scholarship and +classical study. But we shall look there in vain for any trace of the +sentimental, the profoundly melancholy attitude of the Fathers of the +Church, Basil and Gregory, or for Augustine's deep faith and devout +admiration of the works of creation: even the tone of Ausonius and +Fortunatus, in their charming descriptions of scenery, was now a +thing of the past. Feeling for Nature--sentimental, sympathetic, +cosmic, and dogmatic--had dwindled down to mere pleasure in +cultivating flowers in the garden, to the level Aachen landscape and +such like; and the power to describe the impression made by scenery +was, like the impression itself, lame and weary. + +It was the night of the decline breaking over Latin literature. + +And how did it stand with German literature up to the eleventh +century? A German Kingdom had existed from the treaties of Verdun and +Mersen (842), but during this period traces of German poetry are few, +outweighed by Latin. + +The two great Messianic poems, _Heliand_ and _Krist_, stand out +alone. In the _Heliand_ the storm on the lake of Gennesaret is +vividly painted: + + Then began the power of the storm; in the whirlwind the waves + rose, night descended, the sea broke with uproar, wind and water + battled together; yet, obedient to the command and to the + controlling word, the water stilled itself and flowed serenely. + +In _Krist_ there is a certain distinction in the description of the +Ascension, as the rising figures soar past the constellations of +stars, which disappear beneath their feet; for the rest, the symbolic +so supplants the direct meaning, that in place of an epic we have a +moralizing sermon. But there are traces of delight in the beauty of +the outer world, in the sunshine, and sympathy is attributed to +Nature: + + She grew very angry at such deeds. + +The poem _Muspilli_ (the world fire) shews the old northern feeling +for Nature; still more the few existing words of the _Wessobrunner +Prayer_: + + This I heard as the greatest marvel among men, + That once there was no earth nor heaven above, + The bright stars gave no light, the sun shone not, + Nor the moon, nor the glorious sea. + +How plainly 'the bright stars' and the 'glorious sea' shew joy in the +beauty of the world! + +In the oldest Scandinavian poems the inflexible character of the +Northerner and the northern landscape is reflected; the descriptions +are short and scanty; it is not mountain, rock, and sea which count +as beautiful, but pleasant, and, above all, fruitful scenery. The +imagery is bold: (Kenninger) the wind is the wolf of wood or sail, +the sea the pathway of the whale, the bath of the diving bird, etc. + +The Anglo-Saxon was especially distinguished by his forcible images +and epithets. In Rynerwulf we have 'night falls like a helmet, dark +brown covers the mountains.' 'The sky is the fortress of the storm, +the sun the torch of the world, the jewel of splendour.' 'Fire is +eager, wild, blind, and raging; the sea is the gray sea, and the +sparkling splendid sea; waves are graves of the dead,' etc. + +Vivid feeling for Nature is not among the characteristic features of +either Scandinavian or old German poetry. + +It is naive and objective throughout, and seldom weighty or forcible. + +The Waltharius shews the influence of Virgil's language, in +highly-coloured and sympathetic descriptions like those of the Latin +poetry of the Carolingian Renaissance. + +Animal saga probably first arose just before the twelfth century, and +their home was probably Franconia. + +Like the genial notices of plant life in the Latin poems of the +Carlovingian period, the animal poems shewed interest in the animal +world--the interest of a child who ponders individual differences and +peculiarities, the virtues and failings so closely allied to its own. +It was a naive 'hand-and-glove' footing between man and the +creatures, which attributed all his wishes and weaknesses to them, +wiped out all differences between them with perfect impartiality, and +gave the characteristics of each animal with exactness and poetry. + +The soil for the cultivation of poetry about animals was prepared by +the symbolic and allegorical way of looking at Nature which held sway +all through the Middle Ages. + +The material was used as a symbolic language for the immaterial, the +world of sense conceived of as a great picture-book of the truths of +salvation, in whose pages God, the devil, and, between them man, +figured: thus plant life suggested the flower of the root of Jesse, +foretold by Isaiah, red flowers the Saviour's wounds, and so forth. +In the earliest Christian times, a remarkable letter existed in +Alexandria, the so-called 'Physiologus,' which has affected the +proverbial turns of speech in the world's literature up to the +present day to an almost unequalled degree. + +It gave the symbolic meanings of the different animals. The lamb and +unicorn were symbols of Christ; sheep, fish, and deer, of his +followers; dragons, serpents, and bears, of the devil; swine, hares, +hyenas, of gluttony; the disorderly luxuriance of snow meant death, +the phoenix the resurrection, and so forth, indeed, whole categories +of animals were turned into allegories of the truths of +salvation.[41] The cleverest fables of animals were in _Isengrimen_, +published in Ghent about 1140 in Latin verse--the story of the sick +lion and his cure by the fox, and the outwitting of the wolf. Such +fables did not remain special to German national literature, but +became popular subjects in the literature of the whole world; and it +is a significant fact that they afterwards took root especially in +Flanders, where the taste for still life and delight in Nature has +always found a home, and which became the nursery, in later times, of +landscape, animal, and genre painting. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE NAIVE FEELING AT THE TIME OF THE CRUSADES + + +In the development and maturing of the race, as of the individual, +nothing is more helpful than contact with foreign elements, people of +other manners, thoughts, and feelings. Intimate intercourse between +different nationalities rouses what is best in the soul of a nation, +inviting, as it does, to discussion and opposition, as well as to the +acquisition of new ideas. The conquests of Alexander the Great opened +up a new world to the Greek, and a new culture arose--Hellenism. It +was a new world that rose before the astonished eyes of the +Crusader--in his case too, the East; but the resulting culture did +not last. The most diverse motives fused to bring about this great +migration to a land at once unknown and yet, through religion, +familiar; and a great variety of characters and nations met under the +banner of the Cross. + +Naturally this shaking up together, not only of Europeans among +themselves, but of the eastern with the western world, brought about +a complete revolution in manners, speech, art, science, trade, +manufacture, thought, and feeling, and so became an important factor +in general progress. + +The narrow boundaries of nationality, race, and education were broken +through; all felt equal before the leading idea; men, places, plants, +and animals were alike new and wonderful. Little wonder if German +knights returning home from the East wove fiction with their fact, +and produced the most fantastic and adventurous heroic songs. + +Many of the noblest of the nations joined the Crusades in pious +ardour for the cause, and it is easy to imagine the effect of the +complete novelty of scene upon them. With such tremendous new +impressions to cope with, it is not surprising that even the best +minds, untrained as they were, were unequal to the task, and that the +descriptions of real experiences or events in poetic form failed to +express what they meant. Besides this, there is no doubt that in many +ways the facts fell below their ideals; also that the Crusader's +mantle covered at the same time a rabble, which joined from the +lowest motives, the scum of Europe. It must also be remembered that +it is far easier to experience or feel than to pass on that +experience and feeling to others; that those who wrote did not always +belong to the most educated; and that they wrote, for the most part, +with difficulty in Greek or Latin. When all this has been weighed and +admitted, the fact remains that in existing accounts of the Crusades +there is great poverty of description of scenery, and lack of much +feeling for Nature. The historian, as such, was bound to give first +place to matters of fact and practical importance, and so to judge a +place by its value to an army passing through or occupying it; by its +fertility, water-supply, its swamps or stony ground, and so forth; +but still the modern reader is astonished to see how little +impression the scenery of the Holy Land made, judged by the accounts +we possess, upon the Crusaders. Even when it is conceded that other +important concerns came first, and that danger, want, and hunger must +often have made everything disagreeable, still, references to Nature +are very scanty, and one may look in vain for any interest in +beautiful scenery for its own sake. + +There is only matter-of-fact geographical and mythological +information in William of Tours' _History of the Crusades_; for +instance, in his description of the Bosphorus he does not waste a +word over its beauty. But, as 'fruitful' and 'pleasant' are +ever-recurring adjectives with him, one cannot say that he absolutely +ignored it. + +He said of Durazzo: 'They weather the bad seasons of the year in +fruitful districts rich in woods and fields, and all acceptable +conditions'; of Tyre, 'The town has a most excellent position on a +plain, almost entirely surrounded by mountains. The soil is +productive, the wood of value in many ways.' Of Antioch, 'Its +position is very convenient and pleasant, it lies in valleys which +have excellent and fertile soil, and are most pleasantly watered by +springs and streams. The mountains which enclose the town on both +sides are really very high; but send down very clear water, and their +sides and slopes are covered by buildings up to the very summits.' +There is nothing about beautiful views, unless one takes this, which +really only records a meteorological curiosity: 'From the top of one +mountain one can see the ball of the sun at the fourth watch of the +night, and if one turns round at the time when the first rays light +up the darkness, one has night on one side and day on the other.' + +Tyre is described again as 'conspicuous for the fertility of its soil +and the charm of its position.' Its great waterworks are especially +admired, since by their means 'not only the gardens and most fruitful +orchards flourish, but the cane from which sugar is made, which is so +useful to man for health and other purposes, and is sent by merchants +to the most distant parts of the world.' Other reporters were charmed +by the fertility and wealth of the East. 'On those who came from the +poorer and colder western countries, the rich resources of the sunny +land in comparison with the poverty of home made an impression of +overflowing plenty, and at times almost of inexhaustibleness. The +descriptions of certain districts, extolled for their special +richness, sound almost enthusiastic.[1] + +Burkhard von Monte Sion was enthusiastic about Lebanon's wealth of +meadows and gardens, and the plain round Tripolis, and considered the +Plain of Esdraelon the most desirable place in the world; but, on +exact and unprejudiced examination, there is nothing in his words +beyond homely admiration and matter-of-fact discussion of its great +practical utility. + +He says of La Boneia, 'That plain has many homesteads, and beautiful +groves of olive and fig and other trees of various kinds, and much +timber. Moreover, it abounds in no common measure in rivers and +pasture land'; closes a geographical account of Lebanon thus, 'There +are in Libanus and Antilibanus themselves fertile and well-tilled +valleys, rich in pasture land, vineyards, gardens, plantations--in a +word, in all the good things of the world'; and says of the Plain of +Galilee, 'I never saw a lovelier country, if our sins and wrong-doing +did not prevent Christians from living there.' + +He had some feeling too for a distant view. He wrote of Samaria: 'The +site was very beautiful; the view stretched right to the Sea of Joppa +and to Antipatris and Cæsarea of Palestine, and over the whole +mountain of Ephraim down to Ramathaym and Sophim and to Carmel near +Accon by the sea. And it is rich in fountains and gardens and olive +groves, and all the good things this world desires.' But it would be +going too far to conclude from the following words that he +appreciated the contrast between simple and sublime scenery: 'It must +be noticed too, that the river, from the source of Jordan at the foot +of Lebanon as far as the Desert of Pharan, has broad and pleasant +plains on both sides, and beyond these the fields are surrounded by +very high mountains as far as the Red Sea.' + +In dealing with Gethsemane and the Mount of Olives, religious +enthusiasm suppresses any reference to scenery. + +These descriptions shew that the wealth and fertility of the country +were praised before its beauty, and that this was only referred to in +short, meagre phrases, which tell less about it than any raptures +without special knowledge. + +It was much the same with Phokas, who visited the Holy Land in +1135.[2] + +He was greatly impressed by the position of Antioch, 'with its +meadows and fruitful gardens, and the murmur of waters as the river, +fed by the torrents of the Castalian spring, flows quietly round the +town and besprinkles its towers with its gentle waves ... but most to +be admired of all is the mountain between town and sea, a noble and +remarkable sight--indeed, a delight to the beholder's eye ... the +Orontes flows with countless windings at the foot of it, and +discharges itself into the sea.' + +He thought Lebanon very beautiful and worthy its praise in Holy +Scripture: 'The sun lies like white hair upon its head; its valleys +are crowned with pines, cedars, and cypresses; streams, beautiful to +look at and quite cold, flow from the ravines and valleys down to the +sea, and the freshly melted snow gives the flowing water its crystal +clearness.' + +Tyre, too, was praised for its beauty: 'Strangers were particularly +delighted with one spring, which ran through meadows; and if one +stands on the tower, one can see the dense growth of plants, the +movement of the leaves in the glow of noon.' + +The plain of Nazareth, too, was 'a heaven on earth, the delight of +the soul.' + +But recollections of the sacred story were dearer to Phokas than the +scenery, and elsewhere he limited himself to noting the rich fruit +gardens, shady groups of trees, and streams and rivers with pleasant +banks. + +Epiphanius Monachus Hagiopolitæ, in his _Enarratio Syriæ_, was a very +dry pioneer; so, too, the _Anonymus de locis Hierosolymitanis_; +Perdiccas, in his _Hierosolyma_, describes Sion thus: 'It stands on +an eminence so as to strike the eye, and is beautiful to behold, +owing to a number of vines and flower gardens and pleasant spots.' + +It must be admitted then, that, beside utilitarian admiration of a +Paradise of fruitfulness, there is some record of simple, even +enthusiastic delight in its beauty; but only as to its general +features, and in the most meagre terms. The country was more +interesting to the Crusaders as the scene of the Christian story than +as a place in which to rest and dream and admire Nature for her own +sake. + +The accounts of German pilgrimages[3] of the fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries only contain dry notices, such as those of Jacob von Bern +(1346-47), Pfintzing (1436-40), and Ulrich Leman (1472-80). The +last-mentioned praises Damascus in this clumsy fashion: 'The town is +very gay, quite surrounded by orchards, with many brooks and springs +flowing inside and out, and an inexpressible number of people in it,' +etc. Dietrich von Schachten describes Venice in this way: 'Venice +lies in the sea, and is built neither on land nor on mountain, but on +wooden piles, which is unbelievable to one who has not seen it'; and +Candia: 'Candia is a beautiful town in the sea, well built; also a +very fruitful island, with all sorts of things that men need for +living.' He describes a ride through Southern Italy: 'Saturday we +rode from Trepalda, but the same day through chestnut and hazel +woods; were told that these woods paid the king 16,000 gulden every +year. After that we rode a German mile through a wood, where each +tree had its vine--many trees carried 3 ohms of wine, which is +pleasant to see--and came to Nola.' + +He called Naples 'very pretty and big,' and on: 'Then the king took +us to the sea and shewed us the ports, which are pretty and strong +with bulwarks and gates; we saw many beautiful ships too,' etc. One +does not know which is the more wonderful here, the poverty of the +description or the utter lack of personal observation: what the wood +produced, and how one was protected from the sea, was more important +to the writer than wood and sea themselves, and this, even in +speaking of the Bay of Naples, perhaps the most beautiful spot in +Europe. But instances like these are typical of German descriptions +at the time, and their Alpine travels fared no better.[4] + +Geographical knowledge of the Alps advanced very slowly; there was as +yet no æsthetic enjoyment of their beauty. The Frankish historians +(Gregory of Tours, Fredegar) chronicled special events in the Alps, +but very briefly. Fredegar, for instance, knew of the sudden +appearance of a hot spring in the Lake of Thun, and Gregory of Tours +notes that the land-slip in 563 at the foot of the Dent du Midi, +above the point where the Rhine enters the Lake of Geneva, was a +dreadful event. Not only was the Castle of Tauretunum overwhelmed, +but the blocking of the Rhine caused a deluge felt as far as Geneva. +The pious prince of the Church explained this as a portent of another +catastrophe, the pest, which ravaged Gaul soon after. + +There was much fabling at that time in the legends of saints, about +great mines of iron, gold, and silver, and about chamois and buck, +cattle-breeding and Alpine husbandry in the 'regio montana'; for +example, in von Aribo's _Vita S. Emmerani_. When the Alps became more +frequented, especially when, through Charlemagne, a political bridge +came to unite Italy and Germany, new roads were made and the whole +region was better known--in fact, early in mediæval times, not only +political, but ecclesiastical and mercantile life spread its threads +over a great part of the known world, and began to bind the lives of +nations together, so that the Alps no longer remained _terra +incognita_ to dwellers far and near. + +We have accounts of Alpine journeys by the Abbé Majolus v. Clugny +(970), Bernard v. Hildesheim (1101), Aribert v. Mailand, Anno v. +Coeln[5], but without a trace of orography. They scarcely refer to +the snow and glacier regions from the side of physical geography, or +even of æsthetic feeling; and do not mention the mountain monarchs so +familiar to-day--Mt. Blanc, the Jungfrau, Ortner, Glockner, +etc.--which were of no value to their life, practical or scientific. +These writers record nothing but names of places and their own +troubles and dangers in travelling, especially in winter. And even at +the end of the fifteenth century, German travels across the Alps were +written in the same strain--for example, the account of the voyage of +the Elector-Palatine Alexander v. Zweibrücken and Count Joh. Ludwig +zu Nassau (1495-96) from Zurich Rapperschwyl and Wesen to Wallensee: +'This is the real Switzerland; has few villages, just a house here +and a house there, but beautiful meadows, much cattle, and very high +mountains, on which snow lies, which falls before Christmas, and is +as hard as any rock.' As an exception to this we have a vivid and +poetic description of the famous Verona Pass in Latin verse by +Guntherus Ligurinus. + +Günther's description of this notorious ravine, between sky-high +Alps, with the torrent rushing at the bottom and a passage so narrow +that men could only move forward one by one, sounds like a personal +experience. This twelfth-century poem comes to us, in fact, like a +belated echo of Fortunatus. + +We must now enquire whether the chief representatives of German +literature at this time shewed any of the national love of Nature, +whether the influence of the Crusades was visible in them, how far +scenery took a place in epic and song, and whether, as moderns have +so often stated, mediæval Germany stood high above antiquity in this +respect. Gervinus, a classic example on the last point, in the +section of his history of German poetry which treats of the +difference between the German fables about animals on the one hand, +and Esop's and the Oriental on the other, said: + + The way in which animals are handled in the fables demanded a far + slighter familiarity between them and men; so exact a knowledge + as we see in the German fables, often involving knowledge of + their natural history, such insight into the 'privacy of the + animal world,' belonged to quite another kind of men. Antiquity + did not delight in Nature, and delight in Nature is the very + foundation of these poems. Remote antiquity neither knew nor + sought to know any natural history; but only wondered at Nature. + The art of hunting and the passion for it, often carried to + excess in the Middle Ages, was unknown to it. It is a bold remark + of Grimm's that he could smell the old smell of the woods in the + German animal poems, but it is one whose truth every one will + feel, who turns to this simple poetry with an open mind, who + cares for Nature and life in the open. + +This is a very tangle of empty phrases and misstatements. No people +stood in more heartfelt and naive relation to Nature, especially to +the animal world, than the Hindoos and Persians. In earlier +enquiries[6] we have reviewed the naive feeling displayed in Homer +and the sentimental in Hellenism, and have seen that the taste for +hunting increased knowledge of Nature in the open in Hellenic days +far more than in the Middle Ages. We shall see now that the level of +feeling reached in those and imperial Roman days was not regained in +European literature until long after the fall of Latin poetry, and +that it was the fertilizing influence of that classic spirit, and +that alone, which enabled the inborn German taste for Nature, and for +hunting, and plant and animal life, to find artistic expression. It +was a too superficial knowledge of classic literature, and an +inclination to synthesis, and clever _a priori_ argument (a style +impressed upon his day by Hegel's method, and fortunately fast +disappearing), which led Gervinus to exalt the Middle Ages at the +expense of antiquity. It sounds like a weak concession when he says +elsewhere: + + Joy in Nature, which is peculiar to modern times, in contrast to + antiquity, which is seen in the earliest mediæval poems, and in + which, moreover, expiring antiquity came to meet the German--this + joy in Nature, in dwelling on plant and animal life, is the very + soul of this (animal) poetry. As in its plastic art, so in all + its poetry, antiquity only concerned itself with gods and heroes; + its glance was always turned upwards. + +But, as a fact, no one has ever stood with feet more firmly planted +on this earth than the Greek, enjoying life and undeterred by much +scruple or concern as to the powers above; and centuries of +development passed before German literature equalled Greek in love of +Nature and expressive representation of her beauty. + +To rank the two national epics of Germany, the _Nibelungenlied_ and +_Gudrun_, side by side with the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ is to +exaggerate their value. And here, as ever, overstraining the +comparison is mischievous. + +The _Nibelungenlied_ is undeniably charming with its laconic and yet +plastic descriptions, its vigorous heroes, and the tragic course of +their fate; so is _Gudrun_, that melodious poem of the North Sea. But +they never, either in composition, method of representation, or +descriptive epithets, reach the perfect art of the Greek epics. What +moral beauty and plastic force there is in Homer's comparisons and in +his descriptions of times and seasons! what a clear eye and warm +heart he has for Nature in all her moods! and what raw and scanty +beginnings of such things we have in the _Nibelungenlied_! It is true +Homer had not attained to the degree of sympathy which finds in +Nature a friend, a sharer of one's joys and sorrows; she is pictured +objectively in the form of epic comparisons; but how faithfully, and +with what range and variety! + +There can scarcely be another epic in the world so poor in +descriptions of time and place as the _Nibelungenlied_; it cannot be +used to prove German feeling for Nature! + +India, Persia, and Greece made natural phenomena the counterparts of +human life, weaving into the tale, by way of comparison or +environment, charming genre pictures of plant and animal life, each +complete in itself; in the _Nibelungenlied_ Nature plays no part at +all, not even as framework. + +Time is indicated as sparsely as possible: + +'Upon the 7th day at Worms on the Rhine shore, the gallant horsemen +arrived.' + +'On a Whitsun morning we saw them all go by'; or 'When it grew +towards even, and near the sun's last ray, seeing the air was +cooler'; or 'He must hang, till light morning threw its glow through +the window.' The last is the most poetic; elsewhere it is 'Day was +over, night fell.' + +Terseness can be both a beauty and a force; but, in comparison with +Greece, how very little feeling for Nature these expressions contain! + +It is no better with descriptions of place: + +'From the Rhine they rode through Hesse, their warriors as well, +towards the Saxon country, where they to fighting fell.' + +'He found a fortress placed upon a mountain.' + +'Into a wide-roomed palace of fashion excellent, for there, beneath +it rushing, one saw the Danube's flood.' + +Even the story of the hunt and the murder of Siegfried is quite +matter-of-fact and sparse as to scenery: 'By a cold spring he soon +lost his life ... then they rode from there into a deep wood ... +there they encamped by the green wood, where they would hunt on the +broad mead ... one heard mountain and tree echo.' + +'The spring of water was pure and cool and good.' ... + +'There fell Chriemhild's husband among the flowers ... all round +about the flowers were wetted with his blood.' + +One thinks instinctively of Indian and Greek poetry, of Adonis and +the death of Baldur in the Northern Saga. But even here, where the +subject almost suggests it, there is no trace of Nature's sympathy +with man. + +References to the animal world too--Chriemhild's dreams of the +falcons seized by two eagles, and the two wild boars which attacked +Siegfried, the game hunted in the forests by the heroes who run like +panthers--all show it to be of no importance. + +Even such phrases as rosy-red, snow-white, etc., are rare--'Her +lovely face became all rosy-red with pleasure'; but there is a +certain tenderness in the comparisons of Chriemhild: + +'Then came the lovely maiden, even as morning red from sombre clouds +outbreaking,' and, 'just as the moon in brightness excels the +brightest stars, and suddenly outshining, athwart the clouds +appears,' so she excelled all other women. + +It has been said that one can hear the sighing of the north wind and +the roar of the North Sea in _Gudrun_, but this is scarcely more than +a pretty phrase. The 'dark tempestuous' sea, 'wild unfathomable' +waves, the shore 'wet from the blood of the slain,' are indeed +mentioned, but that is all. + +Wat of Sturmland says to the young warriors: 'The air is still and +the moon shines clear ... when the red star yonder in the south dips +his head in the brine, I shall blow on my great horn that all the +hosts shall hear'; but it is hope of morning, not delight in the +starry sky, that he is expressing. + +Indications of place too are of the briefest, just 'It was a broad +neck of land, called the Wülpensand,' or, 'In a few hours they saw +the shores where they would land, a little harbour lay in sight +enfolded by low hills clothed with dark fir trees.' + +The first trace of sympathy with Nature occurs in the account of the +effect of Horand's song. + +Like Orpheus, he charms the little birds and other creatures: 'He +sang with such a splendid voice, that the little birds ceased their +song.' + +'And as he began to sing again, all the birds in the copse round +ceased their sweet songs.' + +'The very cattle left their green pastures to hearken, the little +gold beetles stopped running among the grass, the fishes ceased to +shoot about in the brooks. He sang long hours, and it seemed but a +brief moment. The very church bells sounded sweet no longer; the folk +left the choir songs of the priests and ran to hear him. All who +heard his voice were heart-sick after the singer, so grand and sweet +was the strain.' + +Indications of time are rarely found more short and concise than +here: + + When night ended and day began. + On the 12th day they quitted the country. + In Maytime. On a cool morning. + +This is a little richer: + + It was the time when leaves spring up delightfully and birds of + all sorts sing their best in the woods. + +Much more definite and distinct is: + + It was about that time of the year when departing winter sheds + his last terrors upon the earth; a sharp breeze was blowing and + the sea was covered with broken up ice; but there were gleams of + sunshine upon the hills, and the little birds began to tune their + throats tremulously, that they might be ready to sing their lay + when the March weather was past. + + Gudrun trembled with cold; her wet garment clung close to her + white limbs; the wind dashed her golden hair about her face. + +And later, when the morning of Gudrun's deliverance breaks, the +indications of time, though short, are plastic enough: + + After the space of an hour the red star went down upon the edge + of the sea, and Wat of Sturmland, standing upon the hill, blew a + great blast on his horn, which was heard in the land for miles + round.... The sound of Wat's horn ... wakened a young maid, who, + stealing on tiptoe to the window, looked over the bay and beheld + the glimmering of spears and helms upon the sands.... 'Awake, + mistress,' she cried, 'the host of the Hegelings is at hand.' + +Companions are few; + + He sprang like a wild lion. + +The shower of stones flung down upon Wat 'is but an April shower.' + +Images are few too: + + This flower of hope, to find repose here on the shore, Hartmouth + and his friends did not bring to blossom. + +Wilhelm Grimm rightly observes: + + At this epoch the poetry of the Fatherland gave no separate + descriptions of Nature--descriptions, that is, whose only object + was to paint the impression of the landscape in glowing colours + upon the mind. The old German masters certainly did not lack + feeling for Nature, but they have left us no other expression of + it than such as its connection with historical events demanded. + +And further: + + The question, whether contact with Southern Italy, or, through + the Crusades, with Asia Minor, Syria, and Palestine, did not + enrich German poetry with new pictures of Nature, can only, as a + general rule, be answered in the negative. + +In the courtly epics of chivalry, the place of real Nature was taken +by a fabulous wonderworld, full of the most fantastic and romantic +scenery, in which wood, field, plants, and animals were all +distorted. For instance, in the Alexander saga (of Pfaffen Lamprecht) +Alexander the Great describes to his teacher Aristotle the wonders he +has seen, and how one day he came with his army to a dark forest, +where the interlacing boughs of tall trees completely shut out the +sunlight. Clear, cool streams ran through it down to the valley, and +birds' songs echoed in the shade. The ground was covered by an +enormous quantity of flower buds of wondrous size, which looked like +great balls, snow-white and rose-coloured, closely folded up. +Presently, the fragrant goblets opened, and out of all these +wonder-flowers stepped lovely maidens, rosy as dawn and white as day, +and about twelve years old. All these thousands of charming beings +raised their voices together and competed with the birds in song, +swaying up and down in charming lines, singing and laughing in the +cool shade. They were dressed in red and white, like the flowers from +which they were born; but if sun rays fell on them, they would fade +and die. They were only children of the woodland shade and the +summer, and lived no longer than the flowers, which May brings to +life and Autumn kills. In this wood Alexander and his host pitched +their tents, and lived through the summer with the little maids. But +their happiness only lasted three months and twelve days: + + When the time came to an end, our joy passed away too; the + flowers faded, and the pretty girls died; trees lost their + leaves, springs their flow, and the birds their song; all + pleasure passed away. Discomfort began to touch my heart with + many sorrows, as day by day I saw the beautiful maidens die, the + flowers fade: with a heavy heart, I departed with my men. + +This fairy-like tale, with its blending of human and plant life, is +very poetically conceived; but it is only a play of fancy, one of the +early steps towards the modern feeling. + +The battle scenes, as well as other scenes in this poem, are bold and +exaggerated. Armies meet like roaring seas; missiles fly from both +sides as thick as snow; after the dreadful bath of blood, sun and +moon veil their light and turn away from the murder committed there. + +Hartmann von der Aue, too, did not draw real Nature, but only one of +his own invention. + +For example, the wild forest with the magic spring in _Iwein_: + + I turned to the wilds next morning, and found an extensive + clearing, hidden in the forest, solitary and without husbandmen. + There, to my distress, I descried a sad delight of the + eyes--beasts of every kind that I know the names of, attacking + each other.... this spring is cold and very pure; neither rain, + sun, or wind reach it; it is screened by a most beautiful lime + tree. The tree is excessively tall and thick, so that neither sun + nor rain can penetrate its foliage, winter does not injure it, + nor lessen its beauty by one hair; 'tis green and blossoming the + whole year round.... Over the spring there is a wonderfully fine + stone ... the tree was so covered with birds that I could + scarcely see the branches, and even the foliage almost + disappeared. The sweet songs were pleasant and resounded through + the forest, which re-echoed them.... + + As I poured water upon the ruby, the sun, which had just come + out, disappeared, the birds' song round about ceased, a black + storm approached, dark heavy storm-clouds came from all four + quarters of the vault of heaven. It seemed no longer bright day + ... soon a thousand flashes of lightning played round me in the + forest ... there came storm, rain, and hail ... the storm became + so great that the forest broke down. + +He never shews a real love for Nature even in his lyrics, for the +wish for flowers in _Winter Complaint_ can hardly be said to imply +that: + + He who cares for flowers must lament much at this heavy, dismal + time; a wife helps to shorten the long nights. In this way I will + shorten long winter without the birds' song. + +Wolfram von Eschenbach, too, is very sparing of references to Nature: +time is given by such phrases as 'when twilight began,' or 'as the +day broke,' 'at the bright glow of morning' ... 'as day already +turned to evening.' + +His interest in real things was driven into the background by +love-making and adventures--_Arthur's Round Table_ and the _Holy +Grail_; all the romance of knighthood. When he described a forest or +a garden, he always decked it out lavishly. + +For instance, the garden in Orgeluse: + + A garden surrounding a mountain, planted with noble trees where + pomegranates, figs, olives, vines, and other fruits grew richly + ... a spring poured from the rock, and (for all this would have + been nothing to him without a fair lady) there he found what did + not displease him--a lady so beautiful and fair that he was + charmed at the sight, the flower of womanly beauty. + +Comparisons are few and not very poetic. In _Songs of the Heart_-- + + The lady of the land watered herself with her heart's tears. + + Her eyes rained upon the child. + + Her joy was drowned in lamentation. + +Gawan and Orgeluse, + + Spite their outer sweetness, as disagreeable as a shower of rain + in sunshine. + + There were many fair flowers, but their colours could not compare + with that of Orgeluse. + +His heroes are specially fond of birds. Young Parzival + + Felt little care while the little birds sang round him; it made + his heart swell, he ran weeping into the house. + +and Gawan + + Found a door open into a garden; he stept in to look round and + enjoy the air and the singing of the birds. + +So we see that in the _Nibelungenlied_ scarcely a plant grew, and +Hartmann and Wolfram's gardens belonged almost entirely to an unreal +region; there are no traces of a very deep feeling for Nature in all +this. + +But Gottfried von Strassburg, with his vivid, sensuous imagination +and keen eye for beauty, shewed a distinct advance both in taste and +achievement. He, too, notes time briefly: 'And as it drew towards +evening,' 'Now day had broke.' He repeats his comparisons: fair +ladies are 'the wonder rose of May,' 'the longing white rose.' The +two Isolts are sun and dawn. Brangäne is the full moon. The terrified +girl is thus described: + + Her rosy mouth paled; the fair colour, which was her ornament, + died out of her skin; her bright eyes grew dim like night after + day. + +Another comparison is: + + Like the siren's song, drawing a bark to the reef as by a magnet, + so the sweet young queen attracted many hearts. + +Love is a usurious plant, whose sun never goes down; a romance +sweetens the mood as May dew sweetens the blood. + +Constant friendship is one which takes the pleasure with the pain, +the thorn with the rose. The last comparisons shew more thought, and +still more is seen in the beginning of the poem, _Riwalin and +Blancheflur_, which has a charming description of Spring. + + Now the festival was agreed upon and arranged + For the four flowering weeks + When sweet May attracts, till he flies off again. + At Tinkapol upon a green plain + High up on a wonderful meadow with spring colour + Such as no eye has seen before or since. Soft sweet May + Had dressed it with his own charming extravagance. + There were little wood birds, a joy to the ear, + Flowers and grass and green plants and summer meads + That were a delight to eye and heart. + One found there whatever one would, whatever May should bring-- + Shade from the sun, limes by the brook, + A gentle breeze which brought the prattle + Of Mark's court people. May's friend, the green turf, + Had made herself a charming costume of flowers, + In which she shone back at the guests with a festival of her own; + The blossoming trees smiled so sweetly at every one, + That heart and mind smiled back again. + The pure notes of the birds, blessed and beautiful, + Touched heart and senses, filling hill and dale with joy. + The dear nightingale, + Sweet bird, may it ever be blessed! + Sang so lustily upon the bough + That many a heart was filled with joy and good humour. + There the company pitched itself + With great delight on the green grass. + The limes gave enough shade, + And many covered their tent roofs with green boughs. + +There is a heartfelt ring in this. We see that even this early period +of German mediæval poetry was not entirely lacking in clear voices to +sing of Nature with real sympathy. + +The description of the Minne grotto is famous, with its magical +accessories, its limes and other trees, birds, songs, and flowers, so +that 'eye and ear alike found solace'; but the romantic love episode, +interwoven as it is by the poet with the life of Nature, is more +interesting for our purpose. + + They had a court, they had a council which brought them nought + but joy. Their courtiers were the green trees, the shade and the + sunlight, the streamlet and the spring; flowers, grass, leaf, and + blossom, which refreshed their eyes. Their service was the song + of the birds, the little brown nightingales, the throstlets and + the merles and other wood birds. The siskin and the ringdove vied + with each other to do them pleasure, all day long their music + rejoiced ear and soul. Their love was their high feast.... The + man was with the woman, and the woman with the man; they had the + fellowship they most desired, and were where they fain would + be.... + + In the dewy morning they gat them forth to the meadow where grass + and flowers alike had been refreshed. The glade was their + pleasure-ground; they wandered hither and thither hearkening each + other's speech, and waking the song of the birds by their + footsteps. Then they turned them to where the cool clear spring + rippled forth, and sat beside its stream and watched its flow + till the sun grew high in the heaven, and they felt its shade. + Then they betook them to the linden, its branches offered them a + welcome shelter, the breezes were sweet and soft beneath its + shade, and the couch at its feet was decked with the fairest + grass and flowers. + +With these lovers, love of Nature is only second to love of each +other. So in the following: + + That same morning had Tristan and his lady-love stolen forth hand + in hand and come full early, through the morning dew, to the + flowery meadow and the lovely vale. Dove and nightingale saluted + them sweetly, greeting their friends Tristan and Iseult. The wild + wood birds bade them welcome in their own tongue ... it was as if + they had conspired among themselves to give the lovers a morning + greeting. They sang from the leafy branches in changeful wise, + answering each other in song and refrain. The spring that charmed + their eye and ear whispered a welcome, even as did the linden + with its rustling leaves. The blossoming trees, the fair meadow, + the flowers, and the green grass--all that bloomed laughed at + their coming; the dew which cooled their feet and refreshed their + heart offered a silent greeting. + +The amorous passion was the soil in which, in its early narrow +stages, sympathy for Nature grew up. Was it the thirteenth-century +lyrics, the love-songs of the Minnesingers, which unfolded the germ? +For the lyric is the form in which the deepest expression can be +given to feeling for Nature, and in which she either appears as +background, frame, or ornament, or, by borrowing a soul or +symbolizing thought and feeling, blends with the inner life. + +As the German court epics took their material from France, so the +German love-songs were inspired by the Provençal troubadours. The +national differences stand out clear to view: the vivid glowing +Provençal is fresher, more vehement, and mettlesome; the dreamy +German more monotonous, tame, and melancholy. The one is given to +proud daring, wooing, battle, and the triumph of victory; the other +to musing, loving, and brooding enthusiasm. The stamp of the +occasional, of improvisation, is upon all Provençal work; while with +the German Minnesingers, everything--Nature as well as love--tends to +be stereotyped, monotonous. + +The scanty remains of Troubadour songs[7] often shew mind and Nature +very strikingly brought together, either in harmony or contrast. For +example, Bernard von Ventadour (1195): + + It may annoy others to see the foliage fall from the trees, but + it pleases me greatly; one cannot fancy I should long for leaves + and flowers when she, my dear one, is haughty to me. + + Cold and snow become flowers and greenery under her charming + glance. + + As I slumber at night, I am waked by the sweet song of the + nightingale; nothing but love in my mind quite thrilled by + shudders of delight. + + God! could I be a swallow and sweep through the air, I would go + at midnight to her little chamber. + + When I behold the lark up spring + To meet the bright sun joyfully, + How he forgets to poise his wing + In his gay spirit's revelry. + Alas! that mournful thoughts should spring + E'en from that happy songster's glee! + Strange that such gladdening sight should bring + Not joy but pining care to me. + +A very modern thought which calls to mind Theodore Storm's touching +lines after the death of his wife: + + But this I cannot endure, that the sun smiles as before, clocks + strike and bells ring as in thy lifetime, and day and night still + follow each other. + +He connects spring with love: + + When grass grows green and fresh leaves spring + And flowers are budding on the plain, + When nightingales so sweetly sing + And through the greenwood swells the strain, + Then joy I in the song and in the flower, + Joy in myself but in my lady more; + All objects round my spirit turns to joy, + But most from her my rapture rises high. + +Arnold von Mareuil (about 1200) sings in the same way: + + O! how sweet the breeze of April + Breathing soft, as May draws near, + While through nights serene and gentle + Songs of gladness meet the ear. + Every bird his well-known language + Warbling in the morning's pride, + Revelling on in joy and gladness + By his happy partner's side.... + With such sounds of bliss around me, + Who could wear a saddened heart? + +He calls his lady-love + + The fairest creature which Nature has produced here below, fairer + than I can express and faker than a beautiful May day, than + sunshine in March, shade in summer, than May roses, April rain, + the flower of beauty, mirror of love, the key of Fame. + +Bertran de Born too sings: + + The beautiful spring delights me well + When flowers and leaves are growing, + And it pleases my heart to hear the swell + Of the bird's sweet chorus flowing + In the echoing wood, etc. + +The Greek lyrists up to Alexandrian times contented themselves with +implying indirectly that nothing delighted them so much as May and +its delights; but these singers implicitly state it. The German +Minnesingers too[8] are loud in praise of spring, as in that +anonymous song: + + I think nothing so good nor worthy of praise + As a fair rose and my good man's love; + The song of the little birds in the woods is clear to many a heart. + +and summer is greeted with: + + The good are glad that summer comes. See what a benefit it is to + many hearts. + +The Troubadour motive is here too: + + Winter and snow seem as beautiful flowers and clover to me, when + I have embraced her. + +and Kürenberg makes a lady sing: + + When I stand there alone in my shift and think of thee, noble + knight, I blush like a rose on its thorn. + +Delight in summer, complaint of winter--this is the fundamental chord +struck again and again; there is scarcely any trace of blending the +feelings of the lover with those of Nature. It is a monotonous +repetition of a few themes, of flowers and little birds as messengers +of love, and lady-loves who are brighter than the sun, whose presence +brings spring in winter or cheers a grey and snowy day. + +Deitmar von Eist greets spring with: + + Ah! now the time of the little birds' singing is coming for us, + the great lime is greening, the long winter is past, one sees + well-shaped flowers spread their glory over the heath. 'Tis a joy + to many hearts, and a comfort too to mine. + +In another song the birds and roses remind him of a happy past and of +the lady of his heart. + + A little bird sang on the lime o'erhead, + Its song resounded through the wood + And turned my heart back to another place; + And once again I saw the roses blow, + And they brought back the many thoughts + I cherish of a lady. + +A lady says to a falcon: + + You happy falcon you! You fly whither you will! + And choose the tree you like in the wood. + I have done the same. I chose a husband + For myself, whom my eyes chose. + So 'tis fitting for beautiful women. + +In winter he complains: + + Alas for summer delight! The birds' song has disappeared with the + leaves of the lime. Time has changed, the nightingales are dumb. + They have given up their sweet song and the wood has faded from + above. + +Uhland's beautiful motive in _Spring Faith_, that light and hope will +come back to the oppressed heart with the flowers and the green, is +given, though stiffly and dimly, by Heinrich von Veldegge: + + I have some delightful news; the flowers are sprouting on the + heath, the birds singing in the wood. Where snow lay before, + there is now green clover, bedewed in the morning. Who will may + enjoy it. No one forces me to, I am not free from cares. + +and elsewhere: + + At the time when flowers and grass come to us, all that made my + heart sad will be made good again. + +The loss of the beauty of summer makes him sad: + + Since the bright sunlight has changed to cold, and the little + birds have left off singing their song, and cold nights have + faded the foliage of the lime, my heart is sad. + +Ulrich von Guotenberg makes a pretty comparison: + + She is my summer joy, she sows flowers and clover + In my heart's meadow, whence I, whate'er befall, + Must teem with richer bliss: the light of her eyes + Makes me bloom, as the hot sun the dripping trees.... + Her fair salute, her mild command + Softly inclining, make May rain drop down into my heart. + +Heinrich von Rugge laments winter: + + The dear nightingale too has forgotten how beautifully she sang + ... the birds are mourning everywhere. + +and longs for summer: + + I always craved blissful days.... I liked to hear the little + birds' delightful songs. Winter cannot but be hard and + immeasurably long. I should be glad if it would pass away. + +Heinrich von Morungen: + + How did you get into my heart? + It must ever be the same with me. + As the noon receives her light from the sun, + So the glance of your bright eyes, when you leave me, + Sinks into my heart. + +He calls his love his light of May, his Easter Day: + + She is my sweetheart, a sweet May + Bringing delights, a sunshine without cloud. + +and says, in promising fidelity: 'My steady mind is not like the +wind.' + +Reinmar says: + + When winter is over + I saw the heath with the red flowers, delightful there.... + The long winter is past away; when I saw the green leaves + I gave up much of my sorrow. + +In a time of trouble he cried: + + To me it must always be winter. + +So we see that Troubadour references to Nature were drawn from a very +limited area. Individual grasp of scenery was entirely lacking, it +did not occur to them to seek Nature for her own sake. Their +comparisons were monotonous, and their scenes bare, stereotyped +arabesques, not woven into the tissue of lyric feeling. Their ruling +motives were joy in spring and complaint of winter. Wood, flowers, +clover, the bright sun, the moon (once), roses, lilies, and woodland +birds, especially the nightingale, served them as elementary or +landscape figures. + +Wilhelm Grimm says: + + The Minnesingers talk often enough of mild May, the nightingale's + song, the dew shining on the flowers of the heath, but always in + relation only to their own feelings reflected in them. To + indicate sad moods they used faded leaves, silent birds, seed + buried in snow. + +and Humboldt: + + The question, whether contact with Southern Italy, or the + Crusades in Asia Minor, Syria, and Palestine, have enriched the + art of poetry in Germany with new natural pictures, can only + generally be answered by the negative. It is not remarked that + the acquaintance with the East gave any new direction to the + songs of the minstrels. The Crusaders came little into actual + contact with the Saracens; they even lived in a state of great + restraint with other nations who fought in the same cause. One of + the oldest lyric poets was Friedrich of Hausen. He perished in + the army of Barbarossa. His songs contain many views of the + Crusades; but they chiefly express religious sentiments on the + pain of being separated from his dear friends. He found no + occasion to say anything concerning the country or any of those + who took part in the wars, as Reinmar the Elder, Rubin, Neidhart, + and Ulrich of Lichtenstein. Reinmar came a pilgrim to Syria, as + it appears, in the train of Leopold the 6th, Duke of Austria. He + complains that the recollections of his country always haunted + him, and drew away his thoughts from God. The date tree has here + been mentioned sometimes, when they speak of the palm branches + which pious pilgrims bore upon their shoulders. I do not remember + that the splendid scenery in Italy has excited the fancy of the + minstrels who crossed the Alps. Walther, who had wandered about, + had only seen the river Po; but Friedank was at Rome. He merely + remarked that grass grew in the palaces of those who formerly + bore sway there. + +As a fact, even the greatest Minnesinger, Walther, the master lyrist +of the thirteenth century, was not ahead of his contemporaries in +this matter. His _Spring Longing_ begins: + + Winter has wrought us harm everywhere, + Forest and field are dreary and bare + Where the sweet voices of summer once were, + Yet by the road where I see maiden fair + Tossing the ball, the birds' song is there. + +and _Spring and Women_: + + When flowers through the grass begin to spring + As though to greet with smiles the sun's bright rays, + On some May morning, and in joyous measure, + Small songbirds make the dewy forest ring + With a sweet chorus of sweet roundelays, + Hath life in all its store a purer pleasure? + 'Tis half a Paradise on earth. + Yet ask me what I hold of equal worth, + And I will tell what better still + Ofttimes before hath pleased mine eyes, + And, while I see it, ever will. + When a noble maiden, fair and pure, + With raiment rich and tresses deftly braided, + Mingles, for pleasure's sake, in company, + High bred, with eyes that, laughingly demure, + Glance round at times and make all else seem faded, + As, when the sun shines, all the stars must die. + Let May bud forth in all its splendour; + What sight so sweet can he engender + As with this picture to compare? + Unheeded leave we buds and blooms, + And gaze upon the lovely fair! + +The grace in this rendering of a familiar motive, and the +individuality in the following _Complaint of Winter_, were both +unusual at the time: + + Erewhile the world shone red and blue + And green in wood and upland too, + And birdlets sang on the bough. + But now it's grown grey and lost its glow, + And there's only the croak of the winter crow, + Whence--many a ruffled brow! + +Elsewhere he says that his lady's favour turns his winter to spring, +and adds: + + Cold winter 'twas no more for me, + Though others felt it bitterly; + To me it was mid May. + +He has many pictures of Nature and pretty comparisons, but the +stereotyped style predominates--heath, flowers, grass, and +nightingales. The pearl of the collection is the naive song which +touches sensuous feeling, like the _Song of Solomon_, with the magic +light of innocence: + + Under the lime on the heath where I sat with my love, + There you would find + The grass and the flowers all crushed-- + Sweetly the nightingale sang in the vale by the wood. + Tandaradei! + When I came up to the meadow my lover was waiting me there. + Ah! what a greeting I had! Gracious Mary, 'tis bliss to me still! + Tandaradei! Did he kiss me, you ask? Look at the red of my lips! + Of sweet flowers of all sorts he made us a bed, + I wager who passes now smiles at the sight, + The roses would still show just where my head lay. + Tandaradei! + But how he caressed me, that any but one + Should know that, God forbid! I were shamed if they did; + Only he and I know it, + And one little birdie who never will tell. + +So we see that interest in Nature in the literature of the Crusaders +very seldom went beyond the utilitarian bounds of pleasure and +admiration in fertility and pleasantness; and the German national +epics rarely alluded to her traits even by way of comparison. The +court epics shewed some advance, and sympathy was distinctly +traceable in Gottfried, and even attained to artistic expression in +his lyrics, where his own feelings chimed with Nature. + +For the rest, the Minnesingers' descriptions were all alike. The +charm of Nature apart from other considerations, delight in her for +her own sake alone, was unknown to the time. + +Hitherto we have only spoken of literature. + +Feeling for Nature reveals itself in plastic art also, especially in +painting; and since the mind of a people is one united organism, the +relation between poetry and painting is not one of opposition and +mutual exclusion--they rather enlarge and explain, or condition each +other. + +As concerns feeling for Nature, it may be taken as a universal rule +that landscape-painting only develops when Nature is sought for her +own sake, and that so long as scenery merely serves the purpose of +ornament in literature, so long it merely serves as accessory and +background in painting; whereas, when Nature takes a wider space in +prose and poetry, and becomes an end of representation in herself, +the moment for the birth of landscape-painting has come. We will +follow the stages of the development of painting very briefly, from +Woltmann and Woermann's excellent book,[9] which, if it throws no +fresh light upon our subject, illustrates what has just been said in +a striking manner. + +In the first centuries _Anno Domini_, painting was wholly proscribed +by Christendom. Its technique did not differ from that of antiquity; +but Christendom took up an attitude of antagonism. The picture +worship of the old religions was opposed to its very origin and +essence, and was only gradually introduced into the Christian cult +through heathen influences. It is a fact too, easy to explain, +especially through its Jewish origin, that Christianity at first felt +no need of art, and that this one-sidedness only ceased when the +specifically Jewish element in it had died out, and Christendom +passed to cultivated Greeks and Romans. In the cemeteries and +catacombs of the first three centuries, we find purely decorative +work, light vines with Cupids, but also remains of landscapes; for +instance, in the oldest part of the cemetery of Domitilla at Rome, +where the ceiling decoration consists of shepherds, fishers, and +biblical scenes. The ceiling picture in St Lucina (second century) +has apparently the Good Shepherd in the middle, and round it +alternate pictures of Him and of the praying Madonna; whilst in the +middle it has also charming divisions with fields, branches with +leaves and flowers, birds, masks, and floating genii. + +In Byzantine painting too, the influence of antiquity was still +visible, especially in a Psaltery with a Commentary and fourteen +large pictures. David appears here as a shepherd; a beautiful woman's +form, exhibiting the melody, is leaning with her left arm upon his +shoulder; a nymph's head peeps out of the foliage; and in front we +have Bethlehem, and the mountain god resting in a bold position under +a rock; sheep, goats, and water are close by, and a landscape with +classic buildings, streams, and mountains forms the background; it is +very poetically conceived. Elsewhere, too, personifications recur, in +which classic beauty is still visible, mixed with severe Christian +forms. + +At the end of the tenth century began the Romantic period, which +closed in the thirteenth. + +The brilliant progress made by architecture paved the way for the +other arts; minds trained in its laws began to look for law in +organic Nature too, and were no longer content with the old uncertain +and arbitrary shapes. But as no independent feeling for Nature, in +the widest sense of the term, existed, mediæval art treated her, not +according to her own laws, but to those of architecture. With the +development of the Gothic style, from the thirteenth century on, art +became a citizen's craft, a branch of industry. Heretofore it had +possessed but one means of expression--religious festival or +ceremony, severely ecclesiastical. This limit was now removed. The +artist lived a wide life, open to impressions from Nature, his +imagination fed by poetry with new ideas and feelings, and constantly +stimulated by the love of pleasure, which was so vehement among all +classes that it turned every civil and ecclesiastical event to +histrionic purposes, and even made its influence felt upon the +clergy. The strong religious feeling which pervaded the Middle Ages +still ruled, and even rose to greater enthusiasm, in accordance with +the spirit of the day; but it was no longer a matter of blind +submission of the will, but of conscious acceptance. + +It is true that knowledge of the external world was as yet very +limited; the painter had not explored and mastered it, but only used +it as a means to represent a certain realm of feeling, studying it +just so far as this demanded. We have seen the same in the case of +poetry. The beginnings of realistic painting were visible, although, +as, for example, in representing animals, no individuality was +reached. + +From the middle of the fourteenth century a new French school sprang +up. The external world was more keenly and accurately studied, +especially on its graceful side. It was only at the end of that +period that painting felt the need to develop the background, and +indicate actual surroundings by blue sky, hills, Gothic buildings, +and conventional trees. These were given in linear perspective; of +aerial perspective there was none. The earlier taste still ruled in +initialling and border decorations; but little flowers were added by +degrees to the thorn-leaf pattern, and birds, sometimes angels, +introduced. + +The altar-piece at Cologne, at the end of the fourteenth century, is +more subjective in conception, and full of lyric feeling. Poetic +feeling came into favour, especially in Madonna pictures of purely +idyllic character, which were painted with most charming +surroundings. Instead of a throne and worshipping figures, Mary was +placed sitting comfortably with the Child on flowery turf, and saints +around her; and although the background might be golden instead of +landscape, yet all the stems and blossoms in the grass were naturally +and accurately treated. In a little picture in the town museum at +Frankfort, the Madonna is seated in a rose garden under fruit trees +gay with birds, and reading a book; a table with food and drinks +stands close by, and a battlemented wall surrounds the garden. She is +absorbed in contemplation; three female saints are attending to +mundane business close by, one drawing water from a brook, another +picking cherries, the third teaching the child Christ to play the +zither. There is real feeling in the whole picture, and the landscape +is worked in with distinct reference to the chief idea. + +Hence, although there were many isolated attempts to shew that realistic +and individual study of Nature had begun, landscape-painting had not +advanced beyond the position of a background, treated in a way more or +less suited to the main subject of the picture; and trees, rocks, +meadows, flowers, were still only framework, ornament, as in the poetry +of the Minnesingers.[10] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +INDIVIDUALISM AND SENTIMENTAL FEELING +AT THE RENAISSANCE + + +In a certain sense all times are transitional to those who live in +them, since what is old is always in process of being destroyed and +giving way to the new. But there are landmarks in the general +development of culture, which mark off definite periods and divide +what has been from what is beginning. Hellenism was such a landmark +in antiquity, the Renaissance in the Middle Ages. + +Without overlooking the differences between Greek and Italian, +classic and modern, which are relative and not absolute, it is +instructive to note the great likeness between these two epochs. The +limits of their culture will stand out more clearly, if, by the aid +of Helbig's researches and Burckhardt's masterly account of the +Renaissance, we range the chief points of that likeness side by side. + +They were epochs in which an icy crust, which had been lying over +human thought and feeling, melted as if before a spring breeze. It is +true that the theory of life which now began to prevail was not +absolutely new; the stages of growth in a nation's culture are never +isolated; it was the result of the enlargement of various factors +already present, and their fusion with a flood of incoming ones. + +The Ionic-Doric Greek kingdom widened out in Alexander's time to a +Hellenic-Asiatic one, and the barriers of the Romano-Germanic Middle +Ages fell with the Crusades and the great voyages of discovery. +Hellenism and the Renaissance brought about the transition from +antiquity and the mediæval to the specifically modern; the Roman +Empire inherited Hellenism, the Reformation the Renaissance. Both had +their roots in the past, both made new growth which blossomed at a +later time. In Hellenism, Oriental elements were mixed with the +Greek; in the Renaissance, it was a mixture of Germanic with the +native Italian which caused the revival of classic antiquity and new +culture. Burckhardt says[1]: + + Elsewhere in Europe men deliberately and with reflection borrowed + this or the other element of classical civilization; in Italy, + the sympathies both of the learned and of the people were + naturally engaged on the side of antiquity as a whole, which + stood to them as a symbol of past greatness. The Latin language + too was easy to an Italian, and the numerous monuments and + documents in which the country abounded facilitated a return to + the past. With this tendency, other elements--the popular + character which time had now greatly modified, the political + institutions imported by the Lombards from Germany, chivalry and + northern forms of civilization, and the influence of religion and + the Church--combined to produce the modern Italian spirit, which + was destined to serve as the model and ideal for the whole + western world. + +The distance between the works of the Greek artists and +poets--between Homer, Sophocles, and Phidias on the one hand, and the +Alexandrian Theocritus and Kallimachos and the Pergamos sculptures on +the other--is greater than lies between the _Nibelungenlied_ and the +Minnesingers, and Dante and Petrarch. In both cases one finds oneself +in a new world of thought and feeling, where each and all bears the +stamp of change, in matters political and social as well as artistic. +If, for example, by the aid of Von Helbig's researches,[2] we conjure +up a picture of the chief points in the history of Greek culture, we +are astonished to see how almost every point recurred at the +Renaissance, as described by Burckhardt. + +The chief mark of both epochs was individualism, the discovery of the +individual. In Hellenism it was the barriers of race and position +which fell; in the Renaissance, the veil, woven of mysticism and +delusion, which had obscured mediæval faith, thought, and feeling. +Every man recognized himself to be an independent unit of church, +state, people, corporation--of all those bodies in which in the +Middle Ages he had been entirely merged. + +Monarchical institutions arose in Hellenism; but the individual was +no longer content to serve them only as one among many; he must needs +develop his own powers. Private affairs began to preponderate over +public; the very physiognomy of the race shewed an individual stamp. + + After the time of Alexander the Great, portrait shewed most + marked individuality. Those of the previous period had a certain + uniform expression; one would have looked in vain among them for + the diversities in contemporary types shewn by comparing + Alexander's vivid face full of stormy energy, Menander's with its + peculiar look of irony, and the elaborate savant-physiognomy of + Aristotle. (HELBIG.) + +And Burckhardt says: + + At the close of the thirteenth century Italy began to swarm with + individuality; the charm laid upon human personality was + dissolved, and a thousand figures meet us each in its own special + shape and dress.... Despotism, as we have already seen, fostered + in the highest degree the individuality, not only of the tyrant + or Condottiere himself, but also of the men whom he protected or + used as his tools--the secretary, minister, poet, or companion. + +Political indifference brought about a high degree of +cosmopolitanism, especially among those who were banished. 'My +country is the whole world,' said Dante; and Ghiberti: 'Only he who +has learned everything is nowhere a stranger; robbed of his fortune +and without friends, he is yet a citizen of every country, and can +fearlessly despise the changes of fortune.' + +In both Hellenism and the Renaissance, an effort was made in art and +science to see things as they really were. In art, detail was +industriously cultivated; but its naturalism, especially as to +undraped figures, was due to a sensuous refinement of gallantry and +erotic feeling. The sensuous flourished no less in Greek times than +in those of Boccaccio; but the most characteristic peculiarity of +Hellenism was its intentional revelling in feeling--its +sentimentality. There was a trace of melancholy upon many faces of +the time, and unhappy love in endless variations was the poet's main +theme. Petrarch's lyre was tuned to the same key; a melancholy +delight in grief was the constant burden of his song. + +In Greece the sight of foreign lands had furthered the natural +sciences, especially geography, astronomy, zoology, and botany; and +the striving for universality at the Renaissance, which was as much a +part of its individualism as its passion for fame, was aided by the +widening of the physical and mental horizons through the Crusades and +voyages of discovery. Dante was not only the greatest poet of his +time, but an astronomer; Petrarch was geographer and cartographer, +and, at the end of the fifteenth century, with Paolo Toscanelli, +Lucca Baccioli, and Leonardo da Vinci, Italy was beyond all +comparison the first nation in Europe in mathematics and natural +science. + + A significant proof of the wide-spread interest in natural + history is found in the zeal which shewed itself at an early + period for the collection and comparative study of plants and + animals. Italy claims to be the first creator of botanical + gardens.... princes and wealthy men, in laying out their pleasure + gardens, instinctively made a point of collecting the greatest + possible number of different plants in all their species and + varieties. (BURCKHARDT.) + +Leon Battista Alberti, a man of wide theoretical knowledge as well as +technical and artistic facility of all sorts, entered into the whole +life around him with a sympathetic intensity that might almost be +called nervous. + + At the sight of noble trees and waving corn-fields he shed tears + ... more than once, when he was ill, the sight of a beautiful + landscape cured him. (BURCKHARDT.) + +He defined a beautiful landscape as one in which one could see in its +different parts, sea, mountain, lake or spring, dry rocks or plains, +wood and valley. Therefore he cared for variety; and, what is more +striking, in contrast to level country, he admired mountains and +rocks! + +In Hellenism, hunting, to which only the Macedonians had been +addicted before, became a fashion, and was enjoyed with Oriental pomp +in the _paradeisoi_. Writers drew most of their comparisons from it. +In the Renaissance, Petrarch did the same, and animals often served +as emblems of state--their condition ominous of good or evil--and +were fostered with superstitious veneration, as, for example, the +lions at Florence. + +Thus the growth of the natural sciences increased interest in the +external world, and sensitiveness brought about a sentimental +attitude towards Nature in Hellenism and in the Renaissance. + +Both discovered in Nature a source of purest pleasure; the +Renaissance feeling was, in fact, the extension and enhancement of +the Hellenic. Burckhardt overlooked the fact that beautiful scenery +was appreciated and described for its own sake in Hellenism, but he +says very justly; + + The Italians are the first among modern peoples by whom the + outward world was seen and felt as something beautiful.... By the + year 1200, at the height of the Middle Ages, a genuine hearty + enjoyment of the external world was again in existence, and found + lively expression in the minstrelsy of different nations, which + gives evidence of the sympathy felt with all the simple phenomena + of Nature--spring with its flowers, the green fields and the + woods. But these pictures are all foreground without perspective. + +Among the Minnesingers there were traces of feeling for Nature; but +only for certain stereotyped phases. Of the individuality of a +landscape, its characteristic colour, form, and light, not a word was +said. + +Even the Carmina Burana were not much ahead of the Minnesingers in +this respect, although they deserve a closer examination. + +These Latin poems of wandering clerks probably belong to the twelfth +century, and though no doubt a product in which the whole of Europe +had a share, their best pieces must be ascribed to a French hand. +Latin poetry lives again in them, with a freshness the Carlovingian +Renaissance never reached; they are mediæval in form, but full of a +frank enjoyment of life and its pleasures, which hardly any +northerner of that day possessed. Often enough this degenerated into +frivolity; but the stir of national awakening after the long sleep of +the Middle Ages is felt like a spring breeze through them all. + +It is a far cry from the view of Nature we saw in the Carlovingian +monks, to these highly-coloured verses. The dim light of churches and +bare cell walls may have doubled the monks' appreciation of blue +skies and open-air life; but they were fettered by the constant fight +with the senses; Nature to them must needs be less a work of God for +man's delight, than a dangerous means of seduction. 'They wandered +through Nature with timid misgiving, and their anxious fantasy +depicted forms of terror or marvellous rescues.[3] The idyllic +pleasure in the simple charms of Nature, especially in the monastery +garden of the Carlovingian time, contrasts strikingly with the tone +of these very mundane _vagantes clerici_, for whom Nature had not +only long been absorbed and freed from all demoniac influence, but +peopled by the charming forms of the old mythic poems, and made for +the joy and profit of men, in the widest and naivest sense of the +words. + +Spring songs, as with the Minnesingers, take up most of the space; +but the theme is treated with greater variety. Enjoyment of life and +Nature breathes through them all. + +One runs thus: + + Spring cometh, and the earth is decked and studded with vernal + flowers. The harmony of the birds' returning song rouses the + heart to be glad. It is the time of joy. + +Songs 98 to 118 rejoice that winter is gone; for instance: + + Now in the mild springtime Flora opens the lap which the cold + frost had locked in cruel time of winter; the zephyr with gentle + murmur cometh with the spring; the grove is clad in leaves. The + nightingale is singing, the fields are gay with divers hues. It + is sweet to walk in the wooded glens, it is sweeter to pluck the + lily with the rose, it is sweetest of all to sport with a lovely + maiden. + +Another makes a similar confession, for Nature and amorous passion +are the two strings of these lyres: + + Beneath the pleasant foliage of a tree 'tis sweet to rest, while + the nightingale sings her plaintive song; sweeter still, to sport + in the grass with a fair maiden.... O, to what changeful moods is + the heart of the lover prone! As the vessel that wanders o'er the + waves without an anchor, so doth Love's uncertain warfare toss + 'twixt fear and hope. + +The beauties of Nature are drawn upon to describe the fair maiden; +her eyes are compared to stars, her colour to lilies and snow, her +mouth to a rose, her kiss 'doth rend in sunder all the clouds of +care.' + + In the flowery season I sat beneath a shady tree while the birds + sang in the groves ... and listened to my Thisbe's talk, the talk + I love and long for; and we spoke of the sweet interchange of + love, and in the doubtful balance of the mind wanton love and + chastity were wavering. + + I have seen the bright green of flowers, I have seen the flower + of flowers, I have seen the rose of May; I have seen the star + that is brighter than all other, that is glorious and fair above + all other, through whom may I ever spend my life in love. + +On such a theme the poet rings endless changes. The most charming is +the poem _Phyllis and Flora_. Actual landscape is not given, but +details are treated with freshness and care: + + In the flowery season of the year, under a sky serene, while the + earth's lap was painted with many colours, when the messenger of + Aurora had put to flight the stars, sleep left the eyes of + Phyllis and of Flora, two maidens whose beauty answered to the + morning light. The breeze of spring was gently whispering, the + place was green and gay with grass, and in the grass itself there + flowed a living brook that played and babbled as it went. And + that the sun's heat might not harm the maidens, near the stream + there was a spreading pine, decked with leaves and spreading far + its interweaving branches, nor could the heat penetrate from + without. The maidens sat, the grass supplied the seat.... They + intend to go to Love's Paradise: at the entrance of the grove a + rivulet murmurs; the breeze is fragrant with myrrh and balsam; + they hear the music of a hundred timbrels and lutes. All the + notes of the birds resound in all their fulness; they hear the + sweet and pleasant song of the blackbird, the garrulous lark, the + turtle and the nightingale, etc.... He who stayed there would + become immortal; every tree there rejoices in its own fruit; the + ways are scented with myrrh and cinnamon and amomum; the master + could be forced out of his house. + +The first to shew proof of a deepening effect of Nature on the human +spirit was Dante. + +Dante and Petrarch elaborated the Hellenistic feeling for Nature; +hence the further course of the Renaissance displayed all its +elements, but with increased subjectivity and individuality. + +No one, since the days of Hellenism, had climbed mountains for the +sake of the view--Dante was the first to do it. And although, in +ranging heaven, earth, hell, and paradise in the _Divina Commedia_, +he rarely described real Nature, and then mostly in comparisons; yet, +as Humboldt pointed out, how incomparably in a few vigorous lines he +wakens the sense of the morning airs and the light on the distant sea +in the first canto of Purgatorio: + + The dawn was vanquishing the matin hour, + Which fled before it,-so that from afar + I recognized the trembling of the sea. + +And how vivid this is: + + The air + Impregnate changed to water. Fell the rain: + And to the fosses came all that the land + Contain'd not, and, as mightiest streams are wont, + To the great river with such headlong sweep + Rush'd, that naught stayed its course. + + Through that celestial forest, whose thick shade + With lively greenness the new-springing day + Attempered, eager now to roam and search + Its limits round, forthwith I left the bank; + Along the champaign leisurely my way + Pursuing, o'er the ground that on all sides + Delicious odour breathed. A pleasant air, + That intermitted never, never veered, + Smote on my temples gently, as a wind + Of softest influence, at which the sprays, + Obedient all, lean'd trembling to that part + Where first the holy mountain casts his shade; + Yet were not so disordered; but that still + Upon their top the feather'd quiristers + Applied their wonted art, and with full joy + Welcomed those hours of prime, and warbled shrill + Amid the leaves, that to their jocund lays + Kept tenour; even as from branch to branch + Along the piny forests on the shore + Of Chiassi rolls the gathering melody, + When Eolus hath from his cavern loosed + The dripping south. Already had my steps, + Tho' slow, so far into that ancient wood + Transported me, I could not ken the place + Where I had enter'd; when behold! my path + Was bounded by a rill, which to the left + With little rippling waters bent the grass + That issued from its brink. + +and this of the heavenly Paradise: + + I looked, + And, in the likeness of a river, saw + Light flowing, from whose amber-seeming waves + Flash'd up effulgence, as they glided on + 'Twixt banks, on either side, painted with spring, + Incredible how fair; and, from the tide, + There, ever and anon outstarting, flew + Sparkles instinct with life; and in the flowers + Did set them, like to rubies chased in gold; + Then, as if drunk with odours, plunged again + Into the wondrous flood, from which, as one + Re-entered, still another rose. + +His numerous comparisons conjure up whole scenes, perfect in truth to +Nature, and shewing a keen and widely ranging eye. For example: + + Bellowing, there groaned + A noise, as of a sea in tempest torn + By warring winds. + (Inferno.) + + O'er better waves to steer her rapid course + The light bark of my genius lifts the sail, + Well pleased to leave so cruel sea behind. + (Purgatorio.) + + All ye, who in small bark have following sail'd, + Eager to listen on the adventurous track + Of my proud keel, that singing cuts her way. + (Paradiso.) + + As sails full spread and bellying with the wind + Drop suddenly collapsed, if the mast split, + So to the ground down dropp'd the cruel fiend. + (Inferno.) + + As, near upon the hour of dawn, + Through the thick vapours Mars with fiery beam + Glares down in west, over the ocean floor. + (Purgatorio.) + + As 'fore the sun + That weighs our vision down, and veils his form + In light transcendent, thus my virtue fail'd + Unequal. (Purgatorio.) + + As sunshine cheers + Limbs numb'd by nightly cold, e'en thus my look + Unloosed her tongue. + + And now there came o'er the perturbed waves, + Loud crashing, terrible, a sound that made + Either shore tremble, as if of a wind + Impetuous, from conflicting vapours sprung, + That, 'gainst some forest driving all his might, + Plucks off the branches, beats them down, and hurls + Afar; then, onward pressing, proudly sweeps + His whirlwind rage, while beasts and shepherds fly. + (Inferno.) + + As florets, by the frosty air of night + Bent down and closed, when day has blanch'd their leaves + Rise all unfolded on their spiry stems, + So was my fainting vigour new restored. + (Inferno.) + + As fall off the light autumnal leaves, + One still another following, till the bough + Strews all its honours on the earth beneath. + (Inferno.) + +Bees, dolphins, rays of sunlight, snow, starlings, doves, frogs, a +bull, falcons, fishes, larks, and rooks are all used, generally with +characteristic touches of detail. + +Specially tender is this: + + E'en as the bird, who 'mid the leafy bower + Has, in her nest, sat darkling through the night + With her sweet brood; impatient to descry + Their wished looks, and to bring home their food, + In the fond quest, unconscious of her toil; + + She, of the time prevenient, on the spray + That overhangs their couch, with wakeful gaze + Expects the sun, nor, ever, till the dawn + Removeth from the east her eager ken, + So stood the dame erect. + +The most important forward step was made by Petrarch, and it is +strange that this escaped Humboldt in his famous sketch in the second +volume of _Cosmos_, as well as his commentator Schaller, and +Friedlander. + +For when we turn from Hellenism to Petrarch, it does not seem as if +many centuries lay between; but rather as if notes first struck in +the one had just blended into distinct harmony in the other. + +The modern spirit arose from a union of the genius of the Italian +people of the thirteenth century with antiquity, and the feeling for +Nature had a share in the wider culture, both as to sentimentality +and grasp of scenery. Classic and modern joined hands in Petrarch. +Many Hellenic motives handed on by Roman poets reappear in his +poetry, but always with that something in addition of which antiquity +shewed but a trace--the modern subjectivity and individuality. It was +the change from early bud to full blossom. He was one of the first to +deserve the name of modern--modern, that is, in his whole feeling and +mode of thought, in his sentimentality and his melancholy, and in the +fact that 'more than most before and after him, he tried to know +himself and to hand on to others what he knew.' (Geiger.) It is an +appropriate remark of Hettner's, that the phrase, 'he has discovered +his heart,' might serve as a motto for Petrarch's songs and sonnets. +He knew that he had that sentimental disorder which he called +'acedia,' and wished to be rid of it. This word has a history of its +own. To the Greeks, to Apollonius, for instance,[4] it meant +carelessness, indifference; and, joined with the genitive [Greek: +nooio]--that is, of the mind--it meant, according to the scholiasts, +as much as [Greek: lypê] (Betrübnis)--that is, distress or grief. In +the Middle Ages it became 'dislike of intellect so far as that is a +divine gift'--that disease of the cloister which a monkish chronicler +defined as 'a sadness or loathing and an immoderate distress of mind, +caused by mental confusion, through which happiness of mind was +destroyed, and the mind thrown back upon itself as from an abyss of +despair.' + +To Dante it meant the state-- + + Sad + In the sweet air, made gladsome by the sun, + +distaste for the good and beautiful. + +The modern meaning which it took with Petrarch is well defined by +Geiger as being neither ecclesiastic nor secular sin,[5] but + + Entirely human and peculiar to the cleverest--the battle between + reality and seeming, the attempt to people the arid wastes of the + commonplace with philosophic thought--the unhappiness and despair + that arise from comparing the unconcern of the majority with + one's own painful unrest, from the knowledge that the results of + striving do not express the effort made--that human life is but a + ceaseless and unworthy rotation, in which the bad are always to + the fore, and the good fall behind ... as pessimism, melancholy, + world pain (Weltschmerz)--that tormenting feeling which mocks all + attempt at definition, and is too vitally connected with erring + and striving human nature to be curable--that longing at once for + human fellowship and solitude, for active work and a life of + contemplation. + +Petrarch knew too the pleasure of sadness, what Goethe called 'Wonne +der Wehmuth,' the _dolendi voluptas._ + + Lo, what new pleasure human wits devise! + For oftentimes one loves + Whatever new thing moves + The sighs, that will in closest order go; + And I'm of those whom sorrowing behoves; + And that with some success + I labour, you may guess, + When eyes with tears, and heart is brimmed with woe. + +In Sonnet 190: + + My chiefest pleasure now is making moan. + + Oh world, oh fruitless thought, + Oh luck, my luck, who'st led me thus for spite!... + For loving well, with pain I'm rent.... + Nor can I yet repent, + My heart o'erflowed with deadly pleasantness. + Now wait I from no less + A foe than dealt me my first blow, my last. + And were I slain full fast, + 'Twould seem a sort of mercy to my mind.... + My ode, I shall i' the field + Stand firm; to perish flinching were a shame, + In fact, myself I blame + For such laments; my portion is so sweet. + Tears, sighs, and death I greet. + O reader that of death the servant art, + Earth can no weal, to match my woes, impart. + +His poems are full of scenes and comparisons from Nature; for the +sympathy for her which goes with this modern and sentimental tone is +a deep one: + + In that sweet season of my age's prime + Which saw the sprout and, as it were, green blade + Of the wild passion.... + + Changed me + From living man into green laurel whose + Array by winter's cold no leaf can lose. + (Ode 1.) + +Love is that by which + + My darknesses were made as bright + As clearest noonday light. (Ode 4.) + +Elsewhere it is the light of heaven breaking in his heart, and +springtime which brings the flowers. + +In Sonnet 44 he plays with impossibilities, like the Greek and Roman +poets: + + Ah me! the sea will have no waves, the snow + Will warm and darken, fish on Alps will dwell, + And suns droop yonder, where from common cell + + The springs of Tigris and Euphrates flow, + Or ever I shall here have truce or peace + Or love.... + +and uses the same comparisons, Sestina 7: + + So many creatures throng not ocean's wave, + So many, above the circle of the moon, + Of stars were never yet beheld by night; + So many birds reside not in the groves; + So many herbs hath neither field nor shore, + But my heart's thoughts outnumber them each eve. + +Many of his poems witness to the truth that the love-passion is the +best interpreter of Nature, especially in its woes. The woes of love +are his constant theme, and far more eloquently expressed than its +bliss: + + So fair I have not seen the sun arise, + When heaven was clearest of all cloudy stain-- + The welkin-bow I have not after rain + Seen varied with so many shifting dyes, + But that her aspect in more splendid guise + Upon the day when I took up Love's chain + Diversely glowed, for nothing mortal vies + Therewith.... (Sonnet 112.) + + From each fair eyelid's tranquil firmament + So brightly shine my stars untreacherous, + That none, whose love thoughts are magnanimous, + Would from aught else choose warmth or guidance lent. + Oh, 'tis miraculous, when on the grass + She sits, a very flower, or when she lays + Upon its greenness down her bosom white. + (Sonnet 127.) + + Oh blithe and happy flowers, oh favoured sod, + That by my lady in passive mood are pressed, + Lawn, which her sweet words hear'st and treasurest, + Faint traces, where her shapely foot hath trod, + Smooth boughs, green leaves, which now raw juices load, + Pale darling violets, and woods which rest + In shadow, till that sun's beam you attest, + From which hath all your pride and grandeur flowed; + Oh land delightsome, oh thou river pure + Which bathest her fair face and brilliant eyes + And winn'st a virtue from their living light, + I envy you each clear and comely guise + In which she moves. (Sonnet 129.) + +These recall Nais in Theocritus: + + When she crept or trembling footsteps laid, + Green bright and soft she made + Wood, water, earth, and stone; yea, with conceit + The grasses freshened 'neath her palms and feet. + And her fair eyes the fields around her dressed + With flowers, and the winds and storms she stilled + With utterance unskilled + As from a tongue that seeketh yet the breast, + (Sonnet 25.) + + As oft as yon white foot on fresh green sod + Comelily sets the gentle step, a dower + Of grace, that opens and revives each flower, + Seems by the delicate palm to be bestowed. + (Sonnet 132.) + + I seem to hear her, hearing airs and sprays, + And leaves, and plaintive bird notes, and the brook + That steals and murmurs through the sedges green. + Such pleasure in lone silence and the maze + Of eerie shadowy woods I never took, + Though too much tow'r'd my sun they intervene. + (Sonnet 143.) + +and like Goethe's: + + I think of thee when the bright sunlight shimmers + Across the sea; + When the clear fountain in the moonbeam glimmers + I think of thee.... + + I hear thee, when the tossing waves' low rumbling + Creeps up the hill; + I go to the lone wood and listen trembling + When all is still.... + +So Petrarch sings in Ode 15: + + Now therefore, when in youthful guise I see + The world attire itself in soft green hue, + I think that in this age unripe I view + That lovely girl, who's now a lady's mien. + Then, when the sun ariseth all aglow, + I trace the wonted show + Of amorous fire, in some fine heart made queen... + When leaves or boughs or violets on earth + I see, what time the winter's cold decays, + And when the kindly stars are gathering might, + Mine eye that violet and green portrays + (And nothing else) which, at my warfare's birth, + Armed Love so well that yet he worsts me quite. + I see the delicate fine tissue light + In which our little damsel's limbs are dressed.... + Oft on the hills a feeble snow-streak lies, + Which the sun smiteth in sequestered place. + Let sun rule snow! Thou, Love, my ruler art, + When on that fair and more than human face + I muse, which from afar makes soft my eyes.... + I never yet saw after mighty rain + The roving stars in the calm welkin glide + And glitter back between the frost and dew, + But straight those lovely eyes are at my side.... + If ever yet, on roses white and red, + My eyes have fallen, where in bowl of gold + They were set down, fresh culled by virgin hands, + There have I seemed her aspect to behold.... + But when the year has flecked + Some deal with white and yellow flowers the braes, + I forthwith recollect + That day and place in which I first admired + Laura's gold hair outspread, and straight was fired.... + That I could number all the stars anon + And shut the waters in a tiny glass + Belike I thought, when in this narrow sheet + I got a fancy to record, alas, + How many ways this Beauty's paragon + Hath spread her light, while standing self-complete, + So that from her I never could retreat.... + She's closed for me all paths in earth and sky. + +The reflective modern mind is clear in this, despite its loquacity. +He was yet more eloquent and intense, more fertile in comparisons, +when his happiest days were over. + +In Ode 24, standing at a window he watches the strange forms his +imagination conjures up--a wild creature torn in pieces by two dogs, +a ship wrecked by a storm, a laurel shattered by lightning: + + Within this wood, out of a rock did rise + A spring of water, mildly rumbling down, + Whereto approached not in any wise + The homely shepherd nor the ruder clown, + But many muses and the nymphs withal.... + But while herein I took my chief delight, + I saw (alas!) the gaping earth devour + The spring, the place, and all clean out of sight-- + Which yet aggrieves my heart unto this hour.... + At last, so fair a lady did I spy, + That thinking yet on her I burn and quake, + On herbs and flowers she walked pensively.... + A stinging serpent by the heel her caught, + Wherewith she languished as the gathered flower. + + Now Zephyrus the blither days brings on, + With flowers and leaves, his gallant retinue, + And Progne's chiding, Philomela's moan, + And maiden spring all white and pink of hue; + Now laugh the meadows, heaven is radiant grown, + And blithely now doth Love his daughter view; + Air, water, earth, now breathe of love alone, + And every creature plans again to woo. + Ah me! but now return the heaviest sighs, + Which my heart from its last resources yields + To her that bore its keys to heaven away. + And songs of little birds and blooming fields + And gracious acts of ladies, fair and wise, + Are desert land and uncouth beasts of prey. + (Sonnet 269.) + + The nightingale, who maketh moan so sweet + Over his brood belike or nest-mate dear, + So deft and tender are his notes to hear, + That fields and skies are with delight replete; + And all night long he seems with me to treat, + And my hard lot recall unto my ear. + (Sonnet 270.) + + In every dell + The sands of my deep sighs are circumfused. + (Ode 1.) + + Oh banks, oh dales, oh woods, oh streams, oh fields + Ye vouchers of my life's o'erburdened cause, + How often Death you've heard me supplicate. + (Ode 8.) + + Whereso my foot may pass, + A balmy rapture wakes + When I think, here that darling light hath played. + If flower I cull or grass, + I ponder that it takes + Root in that soil, where wontedly she strayed + Betwixt the stream and glade, + And found at times a seat + Green, fresh, and flower-embossed. (Ode 13.) + + Whenever plaintive warblings, or the note + Of leaves by summer breezes gently stirred, + Or baffled murmur of bright waves I've heard + Along the green and flowery shore to float, + Where meditating love I sat and wrote, + Then her whom earth conceals, whom heaven conferred, + I hear and see, and know with living word + She answereth my sighs, though so remote. + 'Ah, why art thou,' she pityingly says, + 'Pining away before thy hour?' + (Sonnet 238.) + + The waters and the branches and the shore, + Birds, fishes, flowers, grasses, talk of love, + And me to love for ever all invite. + (Sonnet 239.) + + Thou'st left the world, oh Death, without a sun.... + Her mourners should be earth and sea and air. + (Sonnet 294.) + +Here we have happiness and misery felt in the modern way, and Nature +in the modern way drawn into the circle of thought and feeling, and +personified. + +Petrarch was the first, since the days of Hellenism, to enjoy the +pleasures of solitude quite consciously. + + How often to my darling place of rest, + Fleeing from all, could I myself but flee, + I walk and wet with tears my path and breast. + (Sonnet 240.) + +He shared Schiller's thought: + + Oh Nature is perfect, wherever we stray, + 'Tis man that deforms it with care. + + As love from thought to thought, from hill to hill, + Directs me, when all ways that people tread + Seem to the quiet of my being, foes, + If some lone shore, or fountain-head, or rill + Or shady glen, between two slopes outspread, + I find--my daunted soul doth there repose.... + On mountain heights, in briary woods, I find + Some rest; but every dwelling place on earth + Appeareth to my eyes a deadly bane.... + Where some tall pine or hillock spreads a shade, + I sometimes halt, and on the nearest brink + Her lovely face I picture from my mind.... + Oft hath her living likeness met my sight, + (Oh who'll believe the word?) in waters clear, + On beechen stems, on some green lawny space, + Or in white cloud.... + Her loveliest portrait there my fancy draws, + And when Truth overawes + That sweet delusion, frozen to the core, + I then sit down, on living rock, dead stone, + And seem to muse, and weep and write thereon.... + Then touch my thoughts and sense + Those widths of air which hence her beauty part, + Which always is so near, yet far away.... + Beyond that Alp, my Ode, + Where heaven above is gladdest and most clear, + Again thou'lt meet me where the streamlet flows + And thrilling airs disclose + The fresh and scented laurel thicket near, + There is my heart and she that stealeth it. + (Ode 17.) + +It is the same idea as Goethe's in _Knowest thou the Land_? Again: + + Alone, engrossed, the least frequented strands + I traverse with my footsteps faint and slow, + And often wary glances round me throw, + To flee, should human trace imprint the sands. + (Sonnet 28.) + + A life of solitude I've ever sought, + This many a field and forest knows, and will. + (Sonnet 221.) + +Love of solitude and feeling for Nature limit or increase each other; +and Petrarch; like Dante, took scientific interest in her, and found +her a stimulant to mental work. + +Burckhardt says: 'The enjoyment of Nature is for him the favourite +accompaniment of intellectual pursuits; it was to combine the two +that he lived in learned retirement at Vaucluse and elsewhere, that +he from time to time fled from the world and from his age.' + +He wrote a book _On a Life of Solitude (De Vita Solitaria)_ by the +little river Sorgue, and said in a letter from Vaucluse: 'O if you +could imagine the delight with which I breathe here, free and far +from the world, with forests and mountains, rivers and springs, and +the books of clever men.' + +Purely objective descriptions, such as his picture of the Gulf of +Spezzia and Porto Venere at the end of the sixth book of the +_Africa_, were rare with him; but, as we have already seen, he +admired mountain scenery. He refers to the hills on the Riviera di +Levante as 'hills distinguished by most pleasant wildness and +wonderful fertility.'[6] + +The scenery of Reggio moved him, as he said,[7] to compose a poem. He +described the storm at Naples in 1343, and the earthquake at Basle. +As we have seen from one of his odes, he delighted in the wide view +from mountain heights, and the freedom from the oppression of the air +lower down. In this respect he was one of Rousseau's forerunners, +though his 'romantic' feeling was restrained within characteristic +limits. In a letter of April 26, 1335, interesting both as to the +period and the personality of the writer, he described to Dionisius +da Borgo San Sepolchro the ascent of Mt. Ventoux near Avignon which +he made when he was thirty-two, and greatly enjoyed, though those who +were with him did not understand his enjoyment. When they had +laboured through the difficulties of the climb, and saw the clouds +below them, he was immensely impressed. It was in accordance with his +love of solitude that lonely mountain tops should attract him, and +the letter shows that he fully appreciated both climb and view. + +'It was a long day, the air fine. We enjoyed the advantages of vigour +of mind, and strength and agility of body, and everything else +essential to those engaged in such an undertaking, and so had no +other difficulties to face than those of the region itself.' ... 'At +first, owing to the unaccustomed quality of the air and the effect of +the great sweep of view spread out before me, I stood like one dazed. +I beheld the clouds under our feet, and what I had read of Athos and +Olympus seemed less incredible as I myself witnessed the same things +from a mountain of less fame. I turned my eyes towards Italy, whither +my heart most inclined. The Alps, rugged and snow-capped, seemed to +rise close by, although they were really at a great distance.... The +Bay of Marseilles, the Rhone itself, lay in sight.' + +It was a very modern effect of the wide view that 'his whole past +life with all its follies rose before his mind; he remembered that +ten years ago, that day, he had quitted Bologna a young man, and +turned a longing gaze towards his native country: he opened a book +which was then his constant companion, _The Confessions of St +Augustine_, and his eye fell on the passage in the tenth chapter: + + And men go about and admire lofty mountains and broad seas, and + roaring torrents and the ocean, and the course of the stars, and + forget their own selves while doing so. + +His brother, to whom he read these words, could not understand why he +closed the book and said no more. His feeling had suddenly changed. + +He knew, when he began the climb, that he was doing something very +unusual, even unheard of among his contemporaries, and justified +himself by the example of Philip V. of Macedon, arguing that a young +man of private station might surely be excused for what was not +thought blamable in a grey-haired king. Then on the mountain top, +lost in the view, the passage in St Augustine suddenly occurred to +him, and he started blaming himself for admiring earthly things so +much. 'I was amazed ... angry with myself for marvelling but now at +earthly things, when I ought to have learnt long ago that nothing +save the soul was marvellous, and that to the greatness of the soul +nought else was great'; and he closed with an explanation flavoured +with theology to the taste of his confessor, to whom he was writing. +The mixture of thoroughly modern delight in Nature[8] with ascetic +dogma in this letter, gives us a glimpse into the divided feelings of +one who stood upon the threshold between two eras, mediæval and +modern, into the reaction of the mediæval mind against the budding +modern feeling. + +This is, at any rate, the first mountain ascent for pleasure since +Hellenic days, of which we have detailed information. From Greece +before Alexander we have nothing; but the Persian King Darius, in his +expedition against the Scythians in the region of Chalcedon, ascended +the mountain on which stood the Urios temple to Zeus, and there +'sitting in the temple, he took a view of the Euxine Sea, which is +worthy of admiration.' (Herodotus.) + +Philip V. of Macedon ascended the Hæmus B.C. 181, and Apollonios +Rhodios describes the panorama spread out before the Argonauts as +they ascended the Dindymon, and elsewhere recalls the view from Mt. +Olympus. These are the oldest descriptions of distant views conceived +as landscape in the classic literature preserved to us. Petrarch's +ascent comes next in order. + +This sentimental and subjective feeling for Nature, half-idyllic, +half-romantic, which seemed to arise suddenly and spontaneously in +Petrarch, is not to be wholly explained by a marked individuality, +nourished by the tendencies of the period; the influence of Roman +literature, the re-birth of the classic, must also be taken into +account. For the Renaissance attitude towards Nature was closely +allied to the Roman, and therefore to the Hellenic; and the fact that +the first modern man arose on Italian soil was due to the revival of +antiquity plus its union with the genius of the Italian people. Many +direct analogies can be traced between Petrarch and the Roman poets; +it was in their school that his eyes opened to the wonders of Nature, +and he learnt to blend the inner with the outer life. + +Boccaccio does not lead us much further. There is idyllic quality in +his description of a wood in the _Ameto_,[9] and especially in +_Fiammetta_, in which he praises country life and describes the +spring games of the Florentine youth. + +This is the description of a valley in the _Decameron_: 'After a walk +of nearly a mile, they came to the Ladies' Valley, which they entered +by a straight path, whence there issued forth a fine crystal current, +and they found it so extremely beautiful and pleasant, especially at +that sultry season, that nothing could exceed it, and, as some of +them told me afterwards, the plain in the valley was so exact a +circle, as if it had been described by a pair of compasses, though it +seemed rather the work of Nature than of art, and was about half a +mile in circumference, surrounded by six hills of moderate height, on +each of which was a palace built in the form of a little castle.... +The part that looks toward the south was planted as thick as they +could stand together with vines, olives, almonds, cherries, figs, and +most other kinds of fruit trees, and on the northern side were fine +plantations of oak, ash, etc., so tall and regular that nothing could +be more beautiful. The vale, which had only that one entrance, was +full of firs, cypress trees, laurels, and pines, all placed in such +order as if it had been done by the direction of some exquisite +artist, and through which little or no sun could penetrate to the +ground, which was covered with a thousand different flowers.... But +what gave no less delight than any of the rest was a rivulet that +came through a valley which divided two of the mountains, and running +through the vein of a rock, made a most agreeable murmur with its +fall, appealing, as it was dashed and sprinkled into drops, like so +much quicksilver.' + +Description of scenery for its own sake is scarcely more than +attempted here, nor do Petrarch's lyrics, with their free thought of +passion and overpowering consciousness of the joys and sorrows of +love, reach the level of Hellenism in this respect. Yet it advanced +with the Renaissance. Pope Pius II. (Æneas Sylvius) was the first to +describe actual landscape (Italian), not merely in a few subjective +lines, but with genuine modern enjoyment. He was one of those figures +in the world's history in whom all the intellectual life and feeling +of a time come to a focus. + +He had a heart for everything, and an all-round enthusiasm for Nature +unique in his day. Antiquity and Nature were his two passions, and +the most beautiful descriptions of Nature before Rousseau and Goethe +are contained in his _Commentaries_. + +Writing of the country round his home, he says: + +'The sweet spring time had begun, and round about Siena the smiling +hills were clothed with leaves and flowers, and the crops were rising +in plenty in the fields. Even the pasture land quite close to the +town affords an unspeakably lovely view; gently sloping hills, either +planted with homely trees or vines, or ploughed for corn, look down +on pleasant valleys in which grow crops, or green fields are to be +seen, and brooks are even flowing. There are, too, many plantations, +either natural or artificial, in which the birds sing with wondrous +sweetness. Nor is there a mound on which the citizens have not built +a magnificent estate; they are thus a little way out of the town. +Through this district the Pope walked with joyous head.' + +Again and again love of Nature drew him away even in old age from +town life and the circle of courtiers and flatterers; he was for ever +finding new reasons to prolong his _villeggiatura_, despite the +grumbling of his court, which had to put up with wretched inns or +monasteries overrun by mice, where the rain came through the roofs +and the necessaries of life were scanty.[10] + +His taste for these beautifully-situated monastic solitudes was a +riddle to those around him. He wrote of his summer residence in +Tibur: + +'On all sides round the town in summer there are most lovely +plantations, to which the Pope with his cardinals often retired for +relaxation, sitting sometimes on some green sward beneath the olives, +sometimes in a green meadow on the bank of the river Aino, whence he +could see the clear waters. There are some meadows in a retired glen, +watered by many streams; Pius often rested in these meadows near the +luxuriant streams and the shady trees. He lived at Tibur with the +Minorites on an elevation whence he could see the town and the course +of the Aino as it flowed into the plain beneath him and through the +quiet gardens, nor did anything else give him pleasure. + +'When the summer was over, he had his bedroom in the house +overlooking the Aino; from there the most beautiful view was to be +seen, and also from a neighbouring mountain on the other side of the +river, still covered with a green and leafy grove ... he completed a +great part of his journey with the greatest enjoyment.' + +In May 1462 he went to the baths at Viterbo, and, old man as he was, +gives this appreciative description of spring beauties by the way: + +'The road by which he made for Sorianum was at that time of the year +delightful; there was a tremendous quantity of genista, so that a +great part of the field seemed a mass of flowering yellow, while the +rest, covered as it was by shrubs and various grasses, brought purple +and white and a thousand different colours before the eyes. It was +the month of May, and everything was green. On one side were the +smiling fields, on the other the smiling woods, in which the birds +made sweet harmony. At early dawn he used to walk into the fields to +catch the exquisite breeze before the day should grow hot, and gaze +at the green crops and the flowering flax, which then, emulating +heaven's own blue, gave the greatest joy to all beholders.... Now the +crows are holding vigil, and the ringdoves; and the owl at times +utters lament with funeral note. The place is most lovely; the view +in the direction of Siena stretches as far as Amiata, and in the west +reaches Mt. Argentarius.' + +In the plains the plague was raging; the sight of the people +appealing to him as to a god, moved him to tears as he thought how +few of the children would survive in the heat. He travelled to a +castle charmingly placed on the lake of Bolsena, where 'there is a +shady circular walk in the vineyard under the big grapes; stone steps +shaded by the vine leaves lead down to the bank, where ilex oaks, +alive with the songs of blackbirds, stand among the crags.' Halfway +up the mountain, in the monastery of San Salvatore, he and his court +took up their quarters. + +'The most lovely scenery met the eye. As you look to the west from +the higher houses, the view reaches beyond Ilcinum and Siena as far +as the Pistorian Alps. To the north a variety of hills and the +pleasant green of woods presents itself, stretching a distance of +five miles; if your sight is good, your eye will travel as far as the +Apennine range and can see Cortona.' + +There he passed the time, shooting birds, fishing, and rowing. + +'In the cool air of the hills, among the old oaks and chestnuts, on +the green meadows where there were no thorns to wound the feet, and +no snakes or insects to hurt or annoy, the Pope passed days of +unclouded happiness.' + +This is thoroughly modern: 'Silvarum amator,' as he calls himself, he +includes both the details of the near and the general effect of the +far-distant landscape. + +And with age his appreciation of it only seemed to increase; for +instance, he says of Todi: + +'A most lovely view meets the eye wherever you turn; you can see +Perusia and all the valley that lies between, full of wide--spreading +forts and fertile fields, and honoured by the river Tiber, which, +drawing its coils along like a snake, divides Tuscia from Umbria, +and, close to the city itself, enters many a mountain, passing +through which it descends to the plain, murmuring as it goes, as +though constrained against its will.' + +This is his description of a lake storm, during an excursion to the +Albanian Mountains: + +As far as Ostia 'he had a delightful voyage; at night the sea began +to be most unwontedly troubled, and a severe storm arose. The east +wind rolled up the waters from their lowest depths, huge waves beat +the shore; you could have heard the sea, as it were, groaning and +wailing. So great was the force of the winds, that nothing seemed +able to resist it; they raged and alternately fled and put one +another to rout, they overturned woods and anything that withstood +them. The air glittered with frequent lightning, the sky thundered, +and terrific thunder-bolts fell from the clouds.... The night was +pitch dark, though the flashes of lightning were continuous.' + +And of a lake at rest he says: + +'The beauty of that lake is remarkable; everywhere it is surrounded +by high rocks, the water is transparently clear. Nature, so far +superior to art, provided a most pleasant journey. The Nemorian lake, +with its crystal-clear waters, reflects the faces of those that look +into it, and fills a deep basin. The descent from the top to the +bottom is wooded. The poetic genius would never be awakened if it +slept here; you would say it was the dwelling-place of the Muses, the +home of the Nymphs, and, if there is any truth in legends, the +hiding-place of Diana.' + +He visited the lakes among the mountains, climbing and resting under +the trees; the view from Monte Cavo was his favourite, from which he +could see Terracina, the lakes of Nemi and Albano, etc. He noted +their extent and formation, and added: + +'The genista, however, was especially delightful, covering, as it did +with its flowers, the greater part of the plains. Then, moreover, +Rome presented itself fully to the eyes, together with Soracte and +the Sabine Land, and the Apennine range white with snow, and Tibur +and Præneste.' + +It is clear that it was a thoroughly modern enthusiasm which +attracted Æneas Sylvius to the country and gave him this ready pen +for everything in Nature--everything, that is, except bare mountain +summits. + +It is difficult to attribute this faculty for enjoying and describing +scenery to the influence of antiquity alone, for, save the younger +Pliny, I know of no Roman under the Empire who possessed it, and, +besides, we do not know how far Pius II. was acquainted with Roman +literature. We know that the re-awakening of classic literature +exerted an influence upon the direction of the feeling for Nature in +general, and, for the rest, very various elements coalesced. Like +times produce like streams of tendency, and Hellenism, the Roman +Empire, and the Renaissance were alike to some extent in the +conditions of their existence and the results that flowed from them; +the causal nexus between them is undeniable, and makes them the chief +stepping-stones on the way to the modern. + +Theocritus, Meleager, Petrarch, and Æneas Sylvius may serve as +representatives of the development of the feeling for Nature from +classic to modern; they are the ancestors of our enthusiasm, the +links in the chain which leads up to Rousseau, Goethe, Byron, and +Shelley. + +From the autobiography of Æneas Sylvius and the lyrics of Petrarch we +gain a far truer picture of the feeling of the period up to the +sixteenth century than from any poetry in other countries. Even the +epic had a more modern tone in Italy; Ariosto's descriptions were far +ahead of any German epic. + +Humboldt pointed out very clearly the difference between the epic of +the people and the epic of art--between Homer and Ariosto. Both, he +said, are true painters of the world and Nature; but Ariosto pleases +more by his brilliance and wealth of colour, Homer by purity of form +and beauty of composition. Ariosto achieves through general effect, +Homer through perfection of form. Nature is more naive in Homer, the +subject is paramount, and the singer disappears; in Ariosto, Nature +is sentimental, and the poet always remains in view upon the stage. +In Homer all is closely knit, while Ariosto's threads are loosely +spun, and he breaks them himself in play. Homer almost never +describes, Ariosto always does. + +Ariosto's scenes and comparisons from Nature, being calculated for +effect, are more subjective, and far more highly-coloured than +Homer's. But they shew a sympathetic grasp. + +The modern bloom, so difficult to define, lies over them--something +at once sensuous, sentimental, and chivalrous. He is given to +describing lonely woodland scenery, fit places for trysts and lovers' +rendezvous. + +In the 1st Canto of _Mad Orlando_: + + With flowery thorns, vermilion roses near + Her, she upon a lovely bush doth meet, + That mirrored doth in the bright waves appear, + Shut out by lofty oaks from the sun's heat. + + Amidst the thickest shades there is a clear + Space in the middle for a cool retreat; + So mixed the leaves and boughs are, through them none + Can see; they are impervious to the sun. + +In the 6th Canto the Hippogriff carries Roger into a country: + + Nor could he, had he searched the whole world through, + Than this a more delightful country see.... + Soft meads, clear streams, and banks affording shade, + Hillocks and plains, by culture fertile made. + Fair thickets of the cedar, palm and no + Less pleasant myrtle, of the laurel sweet, + Of orange trees, where fruit and flow'rs did grow, + And which in various forms, all lovely, meet + With their thick shades against the fervid glow + Of summer days, afforded a retreat; + And nightingales, devoid of fear, among + Those branches fluttered, pouring forth their song. + Amid the lilies white and roses red, + Ever more freshened by the tepid air, + The stag was seen, with his proud lofty head, + And feeling safe, the rabbit and the hare.... + Sapphires and rubies, topazes, pearls, gold, + Hyacinths, chrysolites, and diamonds were + Like the night flow'rs, which did their leaves unfold + There on those glad plains, painted by the air + So green the grass, that if we did behold + It here, no emeralds could therewith compare; + As fair the foliage of the trees was, which + With fruit and flow'r eternally were rich. + Amid the boughs, sing yellow, white, and blue, + And red and green small feathered creatures gay; + The crystals less limpidity of hue + Than the still lakes or murmuring brooks display. + A gentle breeze, that seemeth still to woo + And never change from its accustomed way, + Made all around so tremulous the air + That no annoyance was the day's hot glare. + (Canto 34.) + +Descriptions of time are short: + + From the hard face of earth the sun's bright hue + Not yet its veil obscure and dark did rend; + The Lycaonian offspring scarcely through + The furrows of the sky his plough did send. + (Canto 80.) + +Comparisons, especially about the beauty of women, are very artistic, +recalling Sappho and Catullus: + + The tender maid is like unto the rose + In the fair garden on its native thorn; + Whilst it alone and safely doth repose, + Nor flock nor shepherd crops it; dewy morn, + Water and earth, the breeze that sweetly blows, + Are gracious to it; lovely dames adorn + With it their bosoms and their beautiful + Brows; it enamoured youths delight to cull. + (Canto 1.) + + Only, Alcina fairest was by far + As is the sun more fair than every star.... + Milk is the bosom, of luxuriant size, + And the fair neck is round and snowy white; + Two unripe ivory apples fall and rise + Like waves upon the sea-beach when a slight + Breeze stirs the ocean. (Canto 7.) + + Now in a gulf of bliss up to the eyes + And of fair things, to swim he doth begin. + (Canto 7.) + + So closely doth the ivy not enlace + The tree where firmly rooted it doth stand, + As clasp each other in their warm embrace + These lovers, by each other's sweet breath fanned. + Sweet flower, of which on India's shore no trace + Is, or on the Sabæan odorous sand. + (Canto 7.) + + Her fair face the appearance did maintain + That sometimes shewn is by the sky in spring, + When at the very time that falls the rain, + The sun aside his cloudy veil doth fling. + And as the nightingale its pleasant strain + Then on the boughs of the green trees doth sing, + Thus Love doth bathe his pinions at those bright + But tearful eyes, enjoying the clear light. + (Canto 11.) + + But as more fickle than the leaf was she, + When it in autumn doth more sapless grow, + And the old wind doth strip it from the tree, + And doth before it in its fury grow. + (Canto 21.) + +He uses the sea: + + As when a bark doth the deep ocean plough, + That two winds strike with an alternate blast, + 'Tis now sent forward by the one, and now + Back by the other in its first place cast, + And whirled from prow to poop, from poop to prow, + But urged by the most potent wind at last + Philander thus irresolute between + The two thoughts, did to the least wicked lean. + (Canto 21.) + + As comes the wave upon the salt sea shore + Which the smooth wind at first in thought hath fanned; + Greater the second is than that before + It, and the third more fiercely follows, and + Each time the humour more abounds, and more + Doth it extend its scourge upon the land: + Against Orlando thus from vales below + And hills above, doth the vile rabble grow. + (Canto 24.) + +These comparisons not only shew faithful and personal observation, +but are far more subjective and subtle than, for instance, Dante's. +The same holds good of Tasso. How beautiful in detail, and how +sentimental too, is this from _Jerusalem Delivered_: + + Behold how lovely blooms the vernal rose + When scarce the leaves her early bud disclose, + When, half unwrapt, and half to view revealed, + She gives new pleasure from her charms concealed. + But when she shews her bosom wide displayed, + How soon her sweets exhale, her beauties fade! + No more she seems the flower so lately loved, + By virgins cherished and by youths approved. + So swiftly fleeting with the transient day + Passes the flower of mortal life away. + +Not less subjective is: + + Like a ray of light on water + A smile of soft desire played in her liquid eyes. + (Sonnet 18.) + +The most famous lines in this poem are those which describe a +romantic garden so vividly that Humboldt says 'it reminds one of the +charming scenery of Sorrento.' It certainly proves that even epic +poetry tried to describe Nature for her own sake: + + The garden then unfolds a beauteous scene, + With flowers adorned and ever living green; + There silver lakes reflect the beaming day, + Here crystal streams in gurgling fountains play. + Cool vales descend and sunny hills arise, + And groves and caves and grottos strike the eyes. + Art showed her utmost power; but art concealed + With greater charm the pleased attention held. + It seemed as Nature played a sportive part + And strove to mock the mimic works of art: + By powerful magic breathes the vernal air, + And fragrant trees eternal blossoms bear: + Eternal fruits on every branch endure, + Those swelling from their buds, and these mature: + The joyous birds, concealed in every grove, + With gentle strife prolong the notes of love. + Soft zephyrs breathe on woods and waters round, + The woods and waters yield a murmuring sound; + When cease the tuneful choir, the wind replies, + But, when they sing, in gentle whisper dies; + By turns they sink, by turns their music raise + And blend, with equal skill, harmonious lays. + +But even here the scene is surrounded by an imaginary atmosphere; +flowers, fruit, creatures, and atmosphere all lie under a magic +charm. Tasso's importance for our subject lies far more in his +much-imitated pastorals. + +The _Arcadia_ of Jacopo Sannazaro, which appeared in 1504, a work of +poetic beauty and still greater literary importance,[11] paved the +way for pastoral poetry, which, like the sonnet, was interwoven with +prose. The shepherd's occupations are described with care, though +many of the songs and terms of expression rather fit the man of +culture than the child of Nature, and he had that genuine enthusiasm +for the rural which begets a convincing eloquence. ''Tis you,' he +says at the end, addressing the Muse, 'who first woke the sleeping +woods, and taught the shepherds how to strike up their lost songs.' + +Bembo wrote this inscription for his grave: + + Strew flowers o'er the sacred ashes, here lies Sannazaro; + With thee, gentle Virgil, he shares Muse and grave. + +Virgil too was industriously imitated in the didactic poetry of his +country. + +Giovanni Rucellai (born 1475) wrote a didactic poem, _The Bees_, +which begins: + +'O chaste virgins, winged visitants of flowery banks, whilst I +prepared to sing your praise in lofty verse, at peep of day I was +o'ercome by sleep, and then appeared a chorus of your tiny folk, and +from their rich mellifluous haunts, in a clear voice these words +flowed forth.... And I will sing how liquid and serene the air +distils sweet honey, heavenly gilt, on flowerets and on grass, and +how the bees, chaste and industrious, gather it, and thereof with +care and skill make perfumed wax to grace the altars of our God.' + +And a didactic poem by Luigi Alamanni (born 1495), called +_Husbandry_, has: 'O blessed is he who dwells in peace, the actual +tiller of his joyous fields, to whom, in his remoteness, the most +righteous earth brings food, and secure in well-being, he rejoices in +his heart. If thou art not surrounded by society rich with purple and +gems, nor with houses adorned with costly woods, statues, and +gold;... at least, secure in the humble dwelling of wood from the +copse hard by, and common stones collected close at hand, which thine +own hand has founded and built, whenever thou awakenest at the +approach of dawn, thou dost not find outside those who bring news of +a thousand events contrary to thy desires.... Thou wanderest at will, +now quickly, now slowly, across the green meadow, through the wood, +over the grassy hill, or by the stream. Now here, now there ... thou +handlest the hatchet, axe, scythe, or hoe.... To enjoy in sober +comfort at almost all seasons, with thy dear children, the fruits of +thine own tree, the tree planted by thyself, this brings a sweetness +sweet beyond all others.' + +These didactic writings, inspired by Virgilian Georgics, show a +distinct preference for the idyllic. + +Sannazaro's _Arcadia_ went through sixty editions in the sixteenth +century alone. Tasso reckoned with the prevalent taste of his day in +_Aminta_, which improved the then method of dramatizing a romantic +idyll. The whole poem bears the stamp of an idealizing and romantic +imagination, and embodies in lyric form his sentimental idea of the +Golden Age and an ideal world of Nature. Even down to its details +_Aminta_ recalls the pastorals of Longos; and Daphne's words (Act I. +Scene 1) suggest the most feeling outpourings of Kallimachos and +Nonnos: + + And callest thou sweet spring-time + The time of rage and enmity, + Which breathing now and smiling, + Reminds the whole creation, + The animal, the human, + Of loving! Dost thou see not + How all things are enamoured + Of this enamourer, rich with joy and health? + Observe that turtle-dove, + How, toying with his dulcet murmuring, + He kisses his companion. Hear that nightingale + Who goes from bough to bough + Singing with his loud heart, 'I love!' 'I love!'... + + The very trees + Are loving. See with what affection there, + And in how many a clinging turn and twine, + The vine holds fast its husband. Fir loves fir, + The pine the pine, and ash and willow and beech + Each towards the other yearns, and sighs and trembles. + That oak tree which appears + So rustic and so rough, + Even that has something warm in its sound heart; + And hadst thou but a spirit and sense of love, + Thou hadst found out a meaning for its whispers. + Now tell me, would thou be + Less than the very plants and have no love? + +One seems to hear Sakuntala and her friends talking, or Akontios +complaining. So, too, when the unhappy lover laments (Aminta): + + In my lamentings I have found + A very pity in the pebbly waters, + And I have found the trees + Return them a kind voice: + But never have I found, + Nor ever hope to find, + Compassion in this hard and beautiful + What shall I call her? + +Aminta describes to Tirsis how his love grew from boyhood up: + + There grew by little and little in my heart, + I knew not from what root, + But just as the grass grows that sows itself, + An unknown something which continually + Made me feel anxious to be with her. + +Sylvia kisses him: + + Never did bee from flower + Suck sugar so divine + As was the honey that I gathered then + From those twin roses fresh. + +In Act II. Scene 1, the rejected Satyr, like the rejected Polyphemus +or Amaryllis in Theocritus, complains in antitheses which recall +Longos: + + The woods hide serpents, lions, and bears under their green + shade, and in your bosom hatred, disdain, and cruelty dwell.... + Alas, when I bring the earliest flowers, you refuse them + obstinately, perhaps because lovelier ones bloom on your own + face; if I offer beautiful apples, you reject them angrily, + perhaps because your beautiful bosom swells with lovelier + ones.... and yet I am not to be despised, for I saw myself lately + in the clear water, when winds were still and there were no + waves. + +This is the sentimental pastoral poetry of Hellenism reborn and +intensified. + +So with the elegiac motive so loved by Alexandrian and Roman poets, +praise of a happy past time; the chorus sings in _Aminta_: + + O lovely age of gold, + Not that the rivers rolled + With milk, or that the woods wept honeydew; + Not that the ready ground + Produced without a wound, + Or the mild serpent had no tooth that slew.... + But solely that.... the law of gold, + That glad and golden law, all free, all fitted, + Which Nature's own hand wrote--What pleases is permitted!... + Go! let us love, the daylight dies, is born; + But unto us the light + Dies once for all, and sleep brings on eternal night. + +Over thirty pastoral plays can be ascribed to Italy in the last third +of the sixteenth century. The most successful imitator of Tasso was +Giovanni Battista Guarini (born 1537) in _The True Shepherd (II +Pastor Fido)_. One quotation will shew how he outvied _Aminta_. In +Act I, Scene 1, Linko says: + + Look round thee, Sylvia; behold + All in the world that's amiable and fair + Is love's sweet work: heaven loves, the earth, the sea, + Are full of love and own his mighty sway. + Love through the woods + The fiercest beasts; love through the waves attends + Swift gliding dolphins and the sluggish whales. + That little bird which sings.... + Oh, had he human sense, + 'I burn with love,' he'd cry, 'I burn with love,' + And in his heart he truly burns, + And in his warble speaks + A language, well by his dear mate conceived, + Who answering cries, 'And I too burn with love.' + +He praises woodland solitude: + + Dear happy groves! + And them all silent, solitary gloom, + True residence of peace and of repose! + How willingly, how willingly my steps + To you return, and oh! if but my stars + Benightly had decreed + My life for solitude, and as my wish + Would naturally prompt to pass my days-- + No, not the Elysian fields, + Those happy gardens of the demi-gods, + Would I exchange for yon enchanting shades. + +The love lyrics of the later Renaissance are remarkably rich in vivid +pictures of Nature combined with much personal sentiment. Petrarch's +are the model; he inspired Vittoria Colonna, and she too revelled in +sad feelings and memories, especially about the death of her +husband:[12] + +'When I see the earth adorned and beautiful with a thousand lovely +and sweet flowers, and how in the heavens every star is resplendent +with varied colours; when I see that every solitary and lively +creature is moved by natural instinct to come out of the forests and +ancient caverns to seek its fellow by day and by night; and when I +see the plains adorned again with glorious flowers and new leaves, +and hear every babbling brook with grateful murmurs bathing its +flowery banks, so that Nature, in love with herself, delights to gaze +on the beauty of her works, I say to myself, reflecting: "How brief +is this our miserable mortal life!" Yesterday this plain was covered +with snow, to-day it is green and flowery. And again in a moment the +beauty of the heavens is overclouded by a fierce wind, and the happy +loving creatures remain hidden amidst the mountains and the woods; +nor can the sweet songs of the tender plants and happy birds be +heard, for these cruel storms have dried up the flowers on the +ground; the birds are mute, the most rapid streams and smallest +rivulets are checked by frost, and what was one hour so beautiful and +joyous, is, for a season, miserable and dead.' + +Here the two pictures in the inner and outer life are equally vivid +to the poetess; it is the real 'pleasure of sorrow,' and she lingers +over them with delight. + +Bojardo, too, reminds us of Petrarch; for example, in Sonnet 89:[13] + + Thou shady wood, inured my griefs to hear, + So oft expressed in quick and broken sighs; + Thou glorious sun, unused to set or rise + But as the witness of my daily fear; + + Ye wandering birds, ye flocks and ranging deer, + Exempt from my consuming agonies; + Thou sunny stream to whom my sorrow flies + 'Mid savage rocks and wilds, no human traces near. + + O witnesses eternal, how I live! + My sufferings hear, and win to their relief + That scornful beauty--tell her how I grieve! + + But little 'tis to her to hear my grief. + To her, who sees the pangs which I receive, + And seeing, deigns them not the least relief. + +Lorenzo de Medici's idylls were particularly rich in descriptions of +Nature and full of feeling. 'Here too that delight in pain, in +telling of their unhappiness and renunciation; here too those +wonderful tones which distinguish the sonnets of the fourteenth and +fifteenth centuries so favourably from those of a later time.' +(Geiger.) + +There is a delicate compliment in this sonnet: + + O violets, sweet and fresh and pure indeed, + Culled by that hand beyond all others fair! + What rain or what pure air has striven to bear + Flowers far excelling those 'tis wont to yield? + What pearly dew, what sun, or sooth what earth + Did you with all these subtle charms adorn; + And whence is this sweet scent by Nature drawn, + Or heaven who deigns to grant it to such worth? + O, my dear violets, the hand which chose + You from all others, that has made you fair, + 'Twas that adorned you with such charm and worth; + Sweet hand! which took my heart altho' it knows + Its lowliness, with that you may compare. + To that give thanks, and to none else on earth. + +Thus we see that the Italians of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and +fifteenth centuries were penetrated through and through by the modern +spirit--were, indeed, its pioneers. They recognized their own +individuality, pondered their own inner life, delighted in the charms +of Nature, and described them in prose and poetry, both as +counterparts to feeling and for her own sake. + +Over all the literature we have been considering--whether poetic +comparison and personification, or sentimental descriptions of +pastoral life and a golden age, of blended inner and outer life, or +of the finest details of scenery--there lies that bloom of the +modern, that breath of subjective personality, so hard to define. The +rest of contemporary Europe had no such culture of heart and mind, no +such marked individuality, to shew. + +The further growth of the Renaissance feeling, itself a rebirth of +Hellenic and Roman feeling, was long delayed. + +Let us turn next to Spain and Portugal--the countries chiefly +affected by the great voyages of discovery, not only socially and +economically, but artistically--and see the effect of the new scenery +upon their imagination. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +ENTHUSIASM FOR NATURE AMONG THE DISCOVERERS +AND CATHOLIC MYSTICS + + +The great achievement of the Italian Renaissance was the discovery of +the world within, of the whole deep contents of the human spirit. +Burckhart, praising this achievement, says: + + If we were to collect the pearls from the courtly and knightly + poetry of all the countries of the West during the two preceding + centuries, we should have a mass of wonderful divinations and + single pictures of the inward life, which at first sight would + seem to rival the poetry of the Italians. Leaving lyrical poetry + out of account, Godfrey of Strassburg gives us, in his _Tristram + and Isolt_, a representation of human passion, some features of + which are immortal. But these pearls lie scattered in the ocean + of artificial convention, and they are altogether something very + different from a complete objective picture of the inward man and + his spiritual wealth. + +The discovery of the beauty of scenery followed as a necessary +corollary of this awakening of individualism, this fathoming of the +depths of human personality. For only to fully-developed man does +Nature fully disclose herself. + +This had already been stated by one of the most philosophic minds of +the time, Pico della Mirandola, in his speech on the dignity of man. +God, he tells us, made man at the close of creation to know the laws +of the universe, to love its beauty, to admire its greatness. He +bound him to no fixed place, to no prescribed form of work, and by no +iron necessity; but gave him freedom to will and to move. + +'I have set thee,' said the Creator to Adam, 'in the midst of the +world, that thou mayest the more easily behold and see all that is +therein. I created thee a being neither heavenly nor earthly, neither +mortal nor immortal, only that thou mightest be free to shape and to +overcome thyself. Thou mayest sink into a beast, and be born again to +the Divine likeness. The brutes bring with them from their mothers' +body what they will carry with them as long as they live; the higher +spirits are from the beginning, or soon after, what they will be for +ever. To thee alone is given a growth and a development depending on +thine own free will. Thou bearest in thee the germs of a universal +life.' + +The best men of the Renaissance realized this ideal of an all-round +development, and it was the glory of Italy in the fourteenth and +fifteenth centuries, that she found a new realm in the inner man at +the very time that her discoveries across the seas were enlarging the +boundaries of the external world, and her science was studying it. +Mixed as the motives of the discoverers must have been, like those of +the crusaders before them, and probably, for the most part, +self-interested, it is easy to imagine the surprise they must have +felt at seeing ignorant people, who, to quote Peter Martyr (de rebus +oceanicis):[1] + + Naked, without weights or measures or death-dealing money, live + in a Golden Age without laws, without slanderous judges, without + the scales of the balance. Contented with Nature, they spend + their lives utterly untroubled for the future.... Theirs is a + Golden Age; they do not enclose their farms with trench or wall + or hurdle; their gardens are open. Without laws, without the + scales of the balance, without judges, they guard the right by + Nature's light. + +And their wonder at the novelties in climate and vegetation, the +strange forests, brilliant birds, and splendid stars of the tropics, +must have been no less. + +Yet it is one thing to feel, and another to find words to convey the +feeling to others; and the explorers often expressed regret for their +lack of skill in this respect. + +Also, and this is more important in criticizing what they wrote, +these seamen were mostly simple, unlettered folk, to whom a country's +wealth in natural products and their practical value made the +strongest appeal, and whose admiration of bays, harbours, trees, +fields of grain, etc., was measured by the same standard of utility. +Even such unskilled reporters did not entirely fail to refer to the +beauty of Nature; but had it not been for the original and powerful +mind of Christopher Columbus, we should have had little more in the +way of description than 'pleasant,' 'pretty,' and such words. + +Marco Polo described his journey to the coast of Cormos[2] in very +matter-of-fact fashion, but not without a touch of satisfaction at +the peculiarities of the place: + + You then approach the very beautiful plain of Formosa, watered by + fine rivers, with plantations of the date palms, and having the + air filled with francolins, parrots, and other birds unknown to + our climate. You ride two days to it, and then arrive at the + ocean, on which there is a city and a fort named Cormos. The + ships of India bring thither all kinds of spiceries, precious + stones, and pearls, cloths of silk and gold, elephants' teeth, + and many other articles.... They sow wheat, barley, and other + kinds of grain in the month of November, and reap them in March, + when they become ripe and perfect; but none except the date will + endure till May, being dried up by the extreme heat. + +Elsewhere he wrote of scenery in the same strain: of the Persian +deserts, and the green table-lands and wild gorges of Badachshan, +Japan with its golden roofed palaces, paradisaical Sunda Islands with +their 'abundance of treasure and costly spices,' Java the less with +its eight kingdoms, etc.; but naturally his chief interest was given +to the manners and customs of the various races, and the fertility +and uses of their countries. + +In Bishop Osorio's _History of Emmanuel, King of Portugal_, we see +some pleasure in the beauties of Nature peeping through the +matter-of-fact tone of the day. + +Thus, speaking of the companions of Vasco da Gama, he says that they +admired the far coast of Africa: + + They descried some little islands, which appeared extremely + pleasant; the trees were lofty, the meadows of a beautiful + verdure, and great numbers of cattle frisked about everywhere; + they could see the inhabitants walking upon the shore in vast + numbers.... + +Of Mozambique he says: + + The palm trees are of a great height, covered with long prickly + leaves; broad-spreading boughs afford an agreeable shade, and + bear nuts of a great size, called cocoes. + +Of Melinda: + + The city stands in a beautiful plain, surrounded with a variety + of fine gardens; these are stocked with all sorts of trees, + especially the orange, the flowers of which yield a most graceful + diffusive smell. The country is rich and plentiful, abounding not + only with tame and domestic cattle, but with game of all kinds, + which the natives hunt down or take with nets. + +Of Zanzibar: + + The soil of this place is rich and fertile, and it abounds with + springs of the most excellent water; the whole island is covered + with beautiful woods, which are extremely fragrant from the many + wild citrons growing there, which diffuse the most grateful + scent. + +Of Brazil, which is 'extremely pleasant and the soil fruitful': + + Clothed with a beautiful verdure, covered with tall trees, + abounding with plenty of excellent water ... and so healthy that + the inhabitants make no use of medicines, for almost all who die + here are not cut off by any distemper, but worn out by age. Here + are many large rivers, besides a vast number of delightful + springs. The plains are large and spacious, and afford excellent + pasture.... In short, the whole country affords a most beautiful + prospect, being diversified with hills and valleys, and these + covered with thick shady woods stocked with great variety of + trees, many of which our people were quite strangers to: of these + there was one of a particular nature, the leaves of which, when + cut, sent forth a kind of balsam. The trees used in dyeing + scarlet grow here in great plenty and to a great height. The soil + likewise produces the most useful plants. + +Of Ormuz, near Arabia: + + The name of the island seems to be taken from the ancient city of + Armuza in Caramania ... the place is sandy and barren, and the + soil so very poor that it produces nothing fit for human + sustenance, neither by nature nor by the most laborious + cultivation ... yet here you might see greater plenty of these, + as well as all luxurious superfluities, than in most other + countries of a richer and more fertile soil, for the place, poor + in itself, having become the great mart for the commodities of + India, Persia, and Arabia, was thus abundantly stocked with the + produce of all these countries. + +Peter Martyr's[3] point of view was much the same. He was full of +surprise at the splendour round him, and the advantages such +fertility offered to husbandry: + + Thus after a few days with cheerful hearts they espied the land + long looked for.... + + As they coasted along by the shore of certain of these islands, + they heard nightingales sing in the thick woods in the month of + November. + + They found also great rivers of fresh water and natural havens of + capacity to harbour great navies of ships.... They found there + wild geese, turtle-doves, and ducks, much greater than ours, and + as white as swans, with heads of purple colour. Also popinjays, + of the which some are green, some yellow, and having their + feathers intermingled with green, yellow, and purple, which + varieties delighted the sense not a little.... They entered into + a main large sea, having in it innumerable islands, marvellously + differing one from another; for some of them were very fruitful, + full of herbs and trees, other some very dry, barren, and rough, + with high rocky mountains of stone, whereof some were of bright + blue, or azurine colour, and other glistening white. + +He filled a whole page with descriptions of the wonderful wealth of +flowers, fruit, and vegetables of all kinds, which the ground yields +even in February. The richness of the prairie grass, the charm of the +rivers, the wealth of fruit, the enormous size of the trees (with a +view to native houses), the various kinds of pines, palms, and +chestnuts, and their uses, the immense downfall of water carried to +the sea by the rivers--all this he noted with admiration; but +industrial interest outweighed the æsthetic, even when he called +Spain happier than Italy. There is no trace of any real feeling for +scenery, any grasp of landscape as a whole; he did not advance beyond +scattered details, which attracted his eye chiefly for their material +uses. + +But there is real delight in Nature in the account of a journey to +the Cape Verde Islands, undertaken on the suggestion of Henry the +Navigator by Aloise da Mosto,[4] an intelligent Venetian nobleman: + + Cape de Verde is so called because the Portuguese, who had + discovered it about a year before, found it covered with trees, + which continue green all the year round. This is a high and + beautiful Cape, which runs a good length into the sea, and has + two hills or little mountains at the point thereof. There are + several villages of negroes from Senega, on and about the + promontory, who dwell in thatched houses close to the shore, and + in sight of those who sail by.... The coast is all low and full + of fine large trees, which are constantly green; that is, they + never wither as those in Europe do, for the new leaves grow + before the old ones fall off. These trees are so near the shore + that they seem to drink out of the sea. It is a most beautiful + coast to behold, and the author, who had sailed both in the East + and West, never saw any comparable with it. + +As Ruge says: + + The delight of this solid and prudent citizen of Strasburg in the + beauty of the tropics is lost in translation, but very evident in + the original account.[5] + +After reading it, we cannot quite say with Humboldt that Columbus was +the very first to give fluent expression to Nature's beauty on the +shores of the New World; none the less, and apart from his importance +in other respects, he remains the chief representative of his time in +the matter. Humboldt noted this in his critical examination of the +history of geography in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, in +which he pointed out his deep feeling for Nature, and also, what only +those who know the difficulties of language at the time can +appreciate, the beauty and simplicity of his expression of it.[6] + +Columbus is a striking example of the fact that a man's openness to +Nature increases with his general inner growth. No one doubts that +uneducated sailors, like other unlettered people, are vividly +impressed by fine scenery, especially when it is new to them, if they +possess a spark of mental refinement. They have the feeling, but are +unable to express it in words. But, as Humboldt says, feeling +improves speech; with increased culture, the power of expression +increases. + +We owe a debt of gratitude to Fernandez de Navarrete[7] for the Diary +in which we can trace Columbus' love for Nature increasing to 'a deep +and poetic feeling for the majesty of creation.' + +He wrote, October 8th, 1492, in his diary: + + 'Thanks be to God,' says the Admiral, 'the air is very soft like + the April at Seville, and it is a pleasure to be there, so balmy + are the breezes.' + +And Humboldt says: + + The physiognomy and forms of the vegetation, the impenetrable + thickets of the forests, in which one can scarcely distinguish + the stems to which the several blossoms and leaves belong, the + wild luxuriance of the flowering soil along the humid shores, and + the rose-coloured flamingoes which, fishing at early morning at + the mouth of the rivers, impart animation to the scenery,--all in + turn arrested the attention of the old mariner as he sailed along + the shores of Cuba, between the small Lucayan Islands and the + Jardinillos. + +Each new country seemed to him more beautiful than the last; he +complained that he could not find new words in which to give the +Queen an impression of the beauty of the Cuban coast. + +It will repay us to examine the Diary more closely, since Humboldt +only treated it shortly and in scattered extracts, and it has been +partly falsified, unintentionally, by attempts to modernize the +language instead of adhering to literal translation. What Peschel +says, for instance, is pretty but distinctly exaggerated: + + Columbus was never weary of listening to the nightingales, + comparing the genial Indian climate with the Andalusian spring, + and admiring the luxuriant wilderness on these humid shores, with + their dense vegetation and forests so rich in all kinds of + plants, and alive with swarms of parrots ... with an open eye for + all the beauties of Nature and all the wonders of creation, he + looked at the splendour of the tropics very much as a tender + father looks into the bright eyes of his child.[8] + +The Diary of November 3rd says: + + He could see nothing, owing to the dense foliage of the trees, + which were very fresh and odoriferous; so that he felt no doubt + that there were aromatic herbs among them. He said that all he + saw was so beautiful that his eyes could never tire of gazing + upon such loveliness, nor his ears of listening to the songs of + birds. + +November 14th: + + He saw so many islands that he could not count them all, with + very high land covered with trees of many kinds and an infinite + number of palms. He was much astonished to see so many lofty + islands, and assured the Sovereigns that the mountains and + islands he had seen since yesterday seemed to him to be second to + none in the world, so high and clear of clouds and snow, with the + sea at their bases so deep. + +November 25th: + + He saw a large stream of beautiful water falling from the + mountains above, with a loud noise.... Just then the sailor boys + called out that they had found large pines. The Admiral looked up + the hill and saw that they were so wonderfully large, that he + could not exaggerate their height and straightness, like stout + yet fine spindles. He perceived that here there was material for + great store of planks and masts for the largest ships in Spain + ... the mountains are very high, whence descend many limpid + streams, and all the hills are covered with pines, and an + infinity of diverse and beautiful trees. + +November 27th: + + The freshness and beauty of the trees, the clearness of the water + and the birds, made it all so delightful that he wished never to + leave them. He said to the men who were with him that to give a + true relation to the Sovereigns of the things they had seen, a + thousand tongues would not suffice, nor his hand to write it, for + that it was like a scene of enchantment. + +December 13th: + + The nine men well armed, whom he sent to explore a certain place, + said, with regard to the beauty of the land they saw, that the + best land in Castille could not be compared with it. The Admiral + also said that there was no comparison between them, nor did the + Plain of Cordova come near them, the difference being as great as + between night and day. They said that all these lands were + cultivated, and that a very wide and large river passed through + the centre of the valley and could irrigate all the fields. All + the trees were green and full of fruit, and the plants tall and + covered with flowers. The roads were broad and good. The climate + was like April in Castille; the nightingale and other birds sang + as they do in Spain during that month, and it was the most + pleasant place in the world. Some birds sing sweetly at night, + the crickets and frogs are heard a good deal. + +All this shews a naive and spontaneous delight in Nature, as free +from sentimentality as from any grasp of landscape as a distinct +entity. + +In a letter about Cuba, which Humboldt gives, he says: + + The lands are high, and there are many very lofty mountains ... + all most beautiful, of a thousand different shapes, accessible + and covered with trees of a thousand kinds of such great height + that they seemed to reach the skies. I am told that the trees + never lose their foliage, and I can well believe it, for I + observed that they were as green and luxuriant as in Spain in the + month of May. Some were in bloom, others bearing fruit, and + others otherwise according to their nature. There were palm trees + of six or eight kinds, wonderful in their beautiful variety; but + this is the case with all the other trees; fruits and grasses, + trees, plants and fruits filled us with admiration. It contains + extraordinary pine groves and very extensive plains. + +Humboldt here comments that these often-repeated expressions of +admiration prove a strong feeling for the beauty of Nature, since +they are concerned with foliage and shade, not with precious metals. +The next letter shews the growing power of description: + + Reaching the harbour of Bastimentos, I put in.... The storm and a + rapid current kept me in for fourteen days, when I again set + sail, but not with favourable weather.... I had already made four + leagues when the storm recommenced and wearied me to such a + degree that I absolutely knew not what to do; my wound re-opened, + and for nine days my life was despaired of. Never was the sea + seen so high, so terrific, and so covered with foam; not only did + the wind oppose our proceeding onward, but it also rendered it + highly dangerous to run in for any headland, and kept me in that + sea, which seemed to me a sea of blood, seething like a cauldron + on a mighty fire. Never did the sky look more fearful; during one + day and one night it burned like a furnace, and emitted flashes + in such fashion that each time I looked to see if my masts and my + sails were not destroyed; these flashes came with such alarming + fury that we all thought the ship must have been consumed. All + this time the waters from heaven never ceased, not to say that it + rained, for it was like a repetition of the Deluge. The men were + at this time so crushed in spirit, that they longed for death as + a deliverance from so many martyrdoms. Twice already had the + ships suffered loss in boats, anchors, and rigging, and were now + lying bare without sails. + +These extracts shew how feeling for Nature in unlettered minds could +develop into an enthusiasm which begot to some extent its own power +of expression. Columbus was entirely deficient in all previous +knowledge of natural history; but he was gifted with deep feeling +(the account of the nocturnal visions in the _Lettera Rarissima_ is +proof of this)[9], mental energy, and a capacity for exact +observation which many of the other explorers did not possess, and +these faculties made up for what he lacked in education. + + In Cuba alone, he distinguishes seven or eight + different species of palm more beautiful and taller than + the date tree; he informs his learned friend Anghiera + that he has seen pines and palms wonderfully associated + together in one and the same plain, and he even + so acutely observed the vegetation around him, that he + was the first to notice that there were pines in the + mountains of Cibao, whose fruits are not fir cones but + berries like the olives of the Axarafe de Sevilla. + + (_Cosmos._) + +Most of Vespucci's narratives of travel, especially his letters to +the Medici, only contain adventures and descriptions of manners and +customs. He lacked the originality and enthusiasm which gave the +power of the wing to Columbus. + +That imposing Portuguese poem, the _Lusiad_ of Camoens, is full of +jubilation over the discovery of the New World. Camoens made his +notes of foreign places at first hand; he had served as a soldier, +fought at the foot of Atlas in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, had +doubled the Cape twice, and, inspired by a deep love for Nature, had +spent sixteen years in examining the phenomena of the ocean on the +Indian and Chinese shores. He was a great sea painter. His poetic and +inventive power remind one at times of Dante--for instance, in the +description of the Dream Face; and he pictures foreign lands with the +clearness and detail of the discoverers and later travellers. Here +and there his poetry is like the Diary of Columbus translated into +verse--epic verse. + +He had the same fiery spirit, nerve, and fresh insight, with the +poet's gift added. + +(None the less, the classic apparatus of deities in Thetys' _Apology_ +is no adornment.) + +Comparisons from Nature and animals are few but detailed: + + E'en as the prudent ants which towards their nest + Bearing the apportioned heavy burden go, + Exercise all their forces at their best, + Hostile to hostile winter's frost and snow; + There, all their toils and labours stand confessed, + There, never looked-for energy they show; + So, from the Lusitanians to avert + Their horrid Fate, the nymphs their power exert. + + Thus, as in some sequestered sylvan mere + The frogs (the Lycian people formerly), + If that by chance some person should appear + While out of water they incautious be, + Awake the pool by hopping here and there, + To fly the danger which they deem they see, + And gathering to some safe retreat they know, + Only their heads above the water show--So fly the Moors. + + E'en as when o'er the parching flame there glows + A flame, which may from some chance cause ignite, + (All while the whistling, puffing Boreas blows), + Fanned by the wind sets all the growth alight, + The shepherd's group, lying in their repose + Of quiet sleep, aroused in wild afright + At crackling flames that spread both wide and high, + Gather their goods and to the village fly; + So doth the Moor. + + E'en as the daisy which once brightly smiled, + Plucked by unruly hands before its hour, + And harshly treated by the careless child, + All in her chaplet tied with artless power. + Droops, of its colour and its scent despoiled, + So seems this pale and lifeless damsel flower; + The roses of her lips are dry and dead, + With her sweet life the mingled white and red. + +The following simile reminds us of the far-fetched comparison of +Apollonios Rhodios[11]: + + As the reflected lustre from the bright + Steel mirror, or of beauteous crystal fine, + Which, being stricken by the solar light, + Strikes back and on some other part doth shine; + And when, to please the child's vain curious sight, + Moved o'er the house, as may his hand incline, + Dances on walls and roof and everywhere, + Restless and tremulous, now here now there, + So did the wandering judgment fluctuate. + +He says of Diana: + + And, as confronted on her way she pressed, + So beautiful her form and bearing were, + That everything that saw her love confessed, + The stars, the heaven, and the surrounding air. + +The Indus and Ganges are personified in stanza xiv. 74, the Cape in +v. 50. + +His time references are mostly mixed up with ancient mythology: + + As soon, however, as the enamelled morn + O'er the calm heaven her lovely looks outspread, + Opening to bright Hyperion, new-born, + Her purple portals as he raised his head, + Then the whole fleet their ships with flags adorn. + +and: + + So soon, however, as great Sol has spread + His rays o'er earth, whom instantly to meet, + Her purple brow Aurora rising shews, + And rudely life around the horizon throws. + +He is at his best in writing of the sea. + +He says of the explorers on first setting sail: + + Now were they sailing o'er wide ocean bright, + The restless waves dividing as they flew; + The winds were breathing prosperous and light, + The vessels' hollow sails were filled to view; + The seas were covered o'er with foaming white + Where the advancing prows were cutting through + The consecrated waters of the deep.... + Thus went we forth these unknown seas to explore, + Which by no people yet explored had been; + Seeing new isles and climes which long before + Great Henry, first discoverer, had seen. + + Now did the moon in purest lustre rise + On Neptune's silvery waves her beams to pour, + With stars attendant glittered all the skies, + E'en like a meadow daisy-spangled o'er; + The fury of the winds all peaceful lies + In the dark caverns close along the shore, + But still the night-watch constant vigils keep, + As long had been their custom on the deep. + + To tell thee of the dangers of the sea + At length, which human understanding scare, + Thunder-storms, sudden, dreadful in degree, + Lightnings, which seem to set on fire the air, + Dark floods of rain, nights of obscurity, + Rollings of thunder which the world would tear, + Were not less labour than a great mistake, + E'en if I had an iron voice to speak. + +He describes the electric fires of St Elmo and the gradual +development of the waterspout: + + I saw, and clearly saw, the living light + Which sailors everywhere as sacred hold + In time of storm and crossing winds that fight, + Of tempest dark and desperation cold; + Nor less it was to all a marvel quite, + And matter surely to alarm the bold, + To observe the sea-clouds, with a tube immense, + Suck water up from Ocean's deep expanse.... + A fume or vapour thin and subtle rose, + And by the wind begin revolving there; + Thence to the topmost clouds a tube it throws, + But of a substance so exceeding rare.... + But when it was quite gorged it then withdrew + The foot that on the sea beneath had grown, + And o'er the heavens in fine it raining flew, + The jacent waters watering with its own. + +The storm at sea reminds us of Æschylus in splendour: + + The winds were such, that scarcely could they shew + With greater force or greater rage around, + Than if it were this purpose then to blow + The mighty tower of Babel to the ground.... + Now rising to the clouds they seem to go + O'er the wild waves of Neptune borne on end; + Now to the bowels of the deep below; + It seems to all their senses, they descend; + Notus and Auster, Boreas, Aquila, + The very world's machinery would rend; + While flashings fire the black and ugly night + And shed from pole to pole a dazzling light.... + But now the star of love beamed forth its ray, + Before the sun, upon the horizon clear, + And visited, as messenger of day, + The earth and spreading sea, with brow to cheer.... + +And, as it subsides: + + The mountains that we saw at first appeared, + In the far view, like clouds and nothing more. + +Off the coast of India: + + Now o'er the hills broke forth the morning light + Where Ganges' stream is murmuring heard to flow, + Free from the storm and from the first sea's fight, + Vain terror from their hearts is banished now. + +His magic island, the Ilha of Venus, could only have been imagined by +a poet who had travelled widely. All the delights of the New World +are there, with the vegetation of Southern Europe added. It is a +poet's triumphant rendering of impressions which the discoverers so +often felt their inability to convey: + + From far they saw the island fresh and fair, + Which Venus o'er the waters guiding drove + (E'en as the wind the canvas white doth bear).... + Where the coast forms a bay for resting-place, + Curved and all quiet, and whose shining sand + Is painted with red shells by Venus' hand.... + Three beauteous mounts rise nobly to the view, + Lifting with graceful pride their sweeling head, + O'er which enamelled grass adorning grew. + In this delightful lovely island glad, + Bright limpid streams their rushing waters threw + From heights with rich luxuriant verdure clad, + 'Midst the white rocks above, their source derive, + The streams sonorous, sweet, and fugitive.... + A thousand trees toward heaven their summits raise, + With fruits odoriferous and fair; + The orange in its produce bright displays + The tint that Daphne carried in her hair; + The citron on the ground its branches lays, + Laden with yellow weights it cannot bear; + The beauteous melons, which the whole perfume + The virgin bosom in their form assume. + The forest trees, which on the hills combine + To ennoble them with leafy hair o'ergrown, + Are poplars of Alcides; laurels shine, + The which the shining God loved as his own; + Myrtles of Cytherea with the pine + Of Cybele, by other love o'erthrown; + The spreading cypress tree points out where lies + The seat of the ethereal paradise.... + Pomegranates rubicund break forth and shine, + A tint whereby thou, ruby, losest sheen. + 'Twixt the elm branches hangs the jocund vine, + With branches some of red and some of green.... + Then the refined and splendid tapestry, + Covering the rustic ground beneath the feet, + Makes that of Achemeina dull to be, + But makes the shady valley far more sweet. + Cephisian flowers with head inclined we see + About the calm and lucid lake's retreat.... + 'Twas difficult to fancy which was true, + Seeing on heaven and earth all tints the same, + If fair Aurora gave the flowers their time, + Or from the lovely flowers to her it came; + Flora and Zephyr there in painting drew + The violets tinted, as of lovers' flame, + The iris, and the rose all fair and fresh + E'en as it doth on cheek of maiden blush.... + Along the water sings the snow-white swan, + While from the branch respondeth Philomel.... + Here, in its bill, to the dear nest, with care, + The rapid little bird the food doth bear. + +Subjective feeling for Nature is better displayed in the lyric than +the epic. + +The Spaniard, Fray Luis de Leon, was a typical example of a +sixteenth-century lyrist; full of mild enthusiasm for Nature, the +theosophico-mystical attitude of the Catholic. + +A most fervid feeling for Nature from the religious side breathed in +St Francis of Assisi--the feeling which inspired his hymn to Brother +Sun (_Cantico del Sole_), and led his brother Egidio, intoxicated +with love to his Creator, to kiss trees and rocks and weep over +them[12]: + + Praised by His creatures all, + Praised be the Lord my God + By Messer Sun, my brother above all, + Who by his rays lights us and lights the day-- + Radiant is she, with his great splendour stored, + Thy glory, Lord, confessing. + By Sister Moon and Stars my Lord is praised, + Where clear and fair they in the heavens are raised + By Brother Wind, etc.... + +His follower, Bonaventura, too, in his verses counted-- + + The smallest creatures his brothers and sisters, and called upon + crops, vineyards, trees, flowers, and stars to praise God. + +Bernard von Clairvaux made it a principle 'to learn from the earth, +trees, corn, flowers, and grass'; and he wrote in his letter to +Heinrich Murdach (Letter 106): + + Believe me, I have proved it; you will find more in the woods + than in books; trees and stones will teach you what no other + teacher can. + +He looked upon all natural objects as 'rays of the Godhead,' copies +of a great original. + +His contemporary, Hugo von St Victor, wrote: + + The whole visible world is like a book written by the finger of + God. It is created by divine power, and all human beings are + figures placed in it, not to shew the free-will of man, but as a + revelation and visible sign, by divine will, of God's invisible + wisdom. But as one who only glances at an open book sees marks on + it, but does not read the letters, so the wicked and sensual man, + in whom the spirit of God is not, sees only the outer surface of + visible beings and not their deeper parts. + +German mystics wrote in the same strain; for instance, the popular +Franciscan preacher, Berthold von Regensburg (1272), + + Whose sermons on fields and meadows drew many thousands of + hearers, and moved them partly by the unusual freshness and + vitality of his pious feeling for Nature, + +in spite of many florid symbolical accessories, such as we find again +in Ekkehart and other fifteenth-century mystics, and especially in +Tauler, Suso, and Ruysbroek. + +The northern prophetess and foundress of an Order Birgitta (1373) +held that the breath of the Creator was in all visible things: 'We +feel it pervading us in her visions,' says Hammerich,[13] + + Whether by gurgling brook or snow-covered firs. It is with us + when the prophetess leads us along the ridges of the Swedish + coast with their surging waves or down the shaft of a mine, or to + wander in the quiet of evening through vineyards between roses + and lilies, while the dew is falling and the bells ring out the + Ave Maria. + +Vincentius von Beauvais (1264) in his _Speculum Naturæ_ demonstrates +the value of studying Nature from a religious and moral point of +view; and the Carthusian general, Dionysius von Rickel (1471), in his +paper _On the beauty of the world and the glory of God (De venustate +mundi et de pulchritudine Dei)_ says in Chapter xxii.: 'All the +beauty of the animal world is nothing but the reflection and out-flow +of the original beauty of God,' and gives as special examples: + + Roses, lilies, and other beautiful and fragrant + flowers, shady woods, pine trees, pleasant meadows, + high, mountains, springs, streams and rivers, and the + broad arm of the immeasurable sea ... and above + all shine the stars, completing their course in the + clear sky in wonderful splendour and majestic order. + +Raymundus von Sabieude, a Spaniard, who studied medicine and +philosophy at Toulouse, and wrote his _Theologia Naturalis_ in 1436, +considered Nature, like Thomas Aquinas, from a mystical and +scholastic point of view, as made up of living beings in a graduated +scale from the lowest to the highest; and he lauded her in terms +which even Pope Clement VII. thought exaggerated. Piety in him went +hand in hand with a natural philosophy like Bacon's, and his interest +in Nature was rather a matter of intellect than feeling. + + God has given us two books--the book of all living beings, or + Nature, and the Holy Scriptures. The first was given to man from + the beginning when all things were created, for each living being + is but a letter of the alphabet written by the finger of God, and + the book is composed of them all together as a book is of letters + ... man is the capital letter of this book. This book is not like + the other, falsified and spoilt, but familiar and intelligible; + it makes man joyous and humble and obedient, a hater of evil and + a lover of virtue. + +Among the savants of the Renaissance who applied the inductive method +to Nature before Bacon,[14] we must include the thoughtful and pious +Spaniard Luis Vives (1540), who wrote concerning the useless +speculations of alchemists and astrologers about occult things: 'It +is not arguing that is needed here, but silent observation of +Nature.' Knowledge of Nature, he said, would serve both body and +soul. + +The tender religious lyrics of the mystic, Luis de Leon, followed +next.[15] His life (1521-1591) brings us up to the days of the +Inquisition. He himself, an excellent teacher and man of science, was +imprisoned for years for opinions too openly expressed in his +writings; but with all his varied fortunes he never lost his innate +manliness and tenderness. His biographer tells us, that as soon as +the holidays began, he would hurry away from the gloomy lecture rooms +and the noisy students at Salamanca, to the country, where he had +taken an estate belonging to a monastery at the foot of a hill by a +river, with a little island close by. + +It had a large uncultivated garden, made beautiful by fine old trees, +with paths among the vines and a stream running through it to the +river, and a long avenue of poplars whose rustle blended with the +noise of the mill-wheel. Beyond was a view of fields. Leon would sit +for hours here undisturbed, dipping his feet in the brook under a +poplar--the tree which was reputed to flourish on sand alone and give +shelter to all the birds under heaven--while the rustle of the leaves +sang his melancholy to sleep. His biographer goes on to say that he +had the Spaniard's special delight in Nature, and understood her +language and her secrets; and the veiled splendour of her tones, +colours, and forms could move him to tears. As he sat there gazing at +the clouds, he felt lifted up in heart by the insignificance of all +things in comparison with the spirit of man. + +In the pitching and tossing of his 'ships of thought' he never lost +the consciousness of Nature's beauty, and would pray the clouds to +carry his sighs with them in their tranquil course through heaven. He +loved the sunrise, birds, flowers, bees, fishes; nothing was +meaningless to him; all things were letters in a divine alphabet, +which might bring him a message from above. Nature was symbolic; the +glow of dawn meant the glow of divine love; a wide view, true +freedom; rays of sunshine, rays of divine glory; the setting sun, +eternal light; stars, flowers of light in an everlasting spring. + +His love for the country, especially for its peacefulness, was free +from the folly and excess of the pastoral poetry of his day. He did +not paint Nature entirely for her own sake; man was always her +master[16] in his poems, and he sometimes, very finely, introduced +himself and his affairs at the close, and represented Nature as +addressing himself. + +His descriptions are short, and he often tries to represent sounds +onomato-poetically. + +This is from his ode, _Quiet Life_[17]: + + O happy he who flies + Far from the noisy world away-- + Who with the worthy and the wise + Hath chosen the narrow way. + The silence of the secret road + That leads the soul to virtue and to God!... + O streams, and shades, and hills on high, + Unto the stillness of your breast + My wounded spirit longs to fly-- + To fly and be at rest. + Thus from the world's tempestuous sea, + O gentle Nature, do I turn to thee.... + A garden by the mountain side + Is mine, whose flowery blossoming + Shews, even in spring's luxuriant pride, + What Autumn's suns shall bring: + And from mountain's lofty crown + A clear and sparkling rill comes tumbling down; + Then, pausing in its downward force + The venerable trees among, + It gurgles on its winding course; + And, as it glides along, + Gives freshness to the day and pranks + With ever changing flowers its mossy banks. + The whisper of the balmy breeze + Scatters a thousand sweets around, + And sweeps in music through the trees + With an enchanting sound + That laps the soul in calm delight + Where crowns and kingdoms are forgotten quite. + +The poem, _The Starry Sky_,[18] is full of lofty enthusiasm for +Nature and piety: + + When yonder glorious sky + Lighted with million lamps I contemplate, + And turn my dazzled eye + To this vain mortal state + All mean and visionary, mean and desolate, + A mingled joy and grief + Fills all my soul with dark solicitude.... + List to the concert pure + Of yon harmonious countless worlds of light. + See, in his orbit sure + Each takes his journey bright, + Led by an unseen hand through the vast maze of night. + See how the pale moon rolls + Her silver wheel.... + See Saturn, father of the golden hours, + While round him, bright and blest, + The whole empyrean showers + Its glorious streams of light on this low world of ours. + But who to these can turn + And weigh them 'gainst a weeping world like this, + Nor feel his spirit burn + To grasp so sweet a bliss + And mourn that exile hard which here his portion is? + For there, and there alone, + Are peace and joy and never dying love: + Day that shall never cease, + No night there threatening, + No winter there to chill joy's ever-during spring. + Ye fields of changeless green + Covered with living streams and fadeless flowers; + Thou paradise serene, + Eternal joyful hours + Thy disembodied soul shall welcome in thy towers! + +It was chiefly in Spanish literature at this time that Nature was +used allegorically. Tieck[19] says: 'In Calderon's poetry, and that +of his contemporaries, we often find, in romances and song-like +metres, most charming descriptions of the sea, mountains, gardens, +and woody valleys, but almost always used allegorically, and with an +artistic polish which ends by giving us, not so much a real +impression of Nature, as one of clever description in musical verse, +repeated again and again with slight variations.' This is true of +Leon, but far more of Calderon, since it belongs to the very essence +of drama. But, despite his passion for description and his Catholic +and conventional tone, there is inexhaustible fancy, splendid colour, +and a modern element of individuality in his poems. His heroes are +conscious of their own ego, feel themselves to be 'a miniature +world,' and search out their own feelings 'in the wild waves of +emotion' (as Aurelian, for example, in _Zenobia_). + +Fernando says in _The Constant Prince_: + + These flowers awoke in beauty and delight + At early dawn, when stars began to set; + At eve they leave us but a fond regret, + Locked in the cold embraces of the night. + These shades that shame the rainbow's arch of light. + Where gold and snow in purple pomp are met, + All give a warning man should not forget, + When one brief day can darken things so bright. + 'Tis but to wither that the roses bloom-- + 'Tis to grow old they bear their beauteous flowers, + One crimson bud their cradle and their tomb. + Such are man's fortunes in this world of ours; + They live, they die; one day doth end their doom, + For ages past but seem to us like hours. + +The warning which Zenobia gives her captor in his hour of triumph to +beware of sudden reverses of fortune is finely conceived: + + Morn comes forth with rays to crown her, + While the sun afar is spreading + Golden cloths most finely woven + All to dry her tear-drops purely. + Up to noon he climbs, then straightway + Sinks, and then dark night makes ready + For the burial of the sea + Canopies of black outstretching-- + Tall ships fly on linen pinions, + On with speed the breezes send it, + Small the wide seas seem and straitened, + To its quick flight onward tending. + Yet one moment, yet one instant, + And the tempest roars, uprearing + Waves that might the stars extinguish, + Lifted for that ship's o'erwhelming. + Day, with fear, looks ever nightwards, + Calms must storm await with trembling; + Close behind the back of pleasure + Evermore stalks sadness dreary. + +In _Life's a Dream_ Prince Sigismund, chained in a dark prison, says: + + What sinned I more herein + Than others, who were also born? + Born the bird was, yet with gay + Gala vesture, beauty's dower, + Scarcely 'tis a winged flower + Or a richly plumaged spray, + Ere the aerial halls of day + It divideth rapidly, + And no more will debtor be + To the nest it hates to quit; + But, with more of soul than it, + I am grudged its liberty. + And the beast was born, whose skin + Scarce those beauteous spots and bars, + Like to constellated stars, + Doth from its greater painter win + Ere the instinct doth begin: + Of its fierceness and its pride, + And its lair on every side, + It has measured far and nigh; + While, with better instinct, I + Am its liberty denied. + Born the mute fish was also, + Child of ooze and ocean weed; + Scarce a finny bark of speed + To the surface brought, and lo! + In vast circuits to and fro + Measures it on every side + Its illimitable home; + While, with greater will to roam, + I that freedom am denied. + Born the streamlet was, a snake + Which unwinds the flowers among, + Silver serpent, that not long + May to them sweet music make, + Ere it quits the flowery brake, + Onward hastening to the sea + With majestic course and free, + Which the open plains supply; + While, with more life gifted, I + Am denied its liberty. + +In Act II. Clotardo tells how he has talked to the young prince, +brought up in solitude and confinement: + + There I spoke with him awhile + Of the human arts and letters, + Which the still and silent aspect + Of the mountains and the heavens + Him have taught--that school divine + Where he has been long a learner, + And the voices of the birds + And the beasts has apprehended. + +Descriptions of time and place are very rich in colour. + + One morning on the ocean, + When the half-awakened sun, + Trampling down the lingering shadows + Of the western vapours dun, + Spread its ruby-tinted tresses + Over jessamine and rose, + Dried with cloths of gold Aurora's + Tears of mingled fire and snows + Which to pearl his glance converted. + + Since these gardens cannot steal + Away your oft returning woes, + Though to beauteous spring they build + Snow-white jasmine temples filled + With radiant statues of the rose; + Come into the sea and make + Thy bark the chariot of the sun, + And when the golden splendours run + Athwart the waves, along thy wake + The garden to the sea will say + (By melancholy fears deprest)-- + 'The sun already gilds the west, + How very short has been this day.' + +There is a striking remark about a garden; Menon says: + + A beautiful garden surrounded by wild forest + Is the more beautiful the nearer it approaches its opposite. + +Splendour of colour was everything with Calderon, but it was +splendour of so stiff and formal a kind, that, like the whole of his +intensely severe, even inquisitorial outlook, it leaves us cold. + +We must turn to Shakespeare to learn how strongly the pulse of +sympathy for Nature could beat in contemporary drama. Goethe said: +'In Calderon you have the wine as the last artificial result of the +grape, but expressed into the goblet, highly spiced and sweetened, +and so given you to drink; but in Shakespeare you have the whole +natural process of its ripening besides, and the grapes themselves +one by one, for your enjoyment, if you will.' + +In _Worship at the Cross_ there is pious feeling for Nature and +mystical feeling side by side with an obnoxious fanaticism, +superstition, and other objectionable traits[20]; and mystical +confessions of the same sort may be gathered in numbers from the +works of contemporary monks and nuns. Even of such a fanatic and +self-tormentor as the Spanish Franciscan Petrus von Alcantara (1562), +his biographer says that despite his strict renunciation of the +world, he retained a most warm and deep feeling for Nature. + +'Whatever he saw of the outer world increased his devotion and gave +it wings. The starry sky seen through his little monastery window, +often kept him rapt in deep meditation for hours; often he was as if +beside himself, so strong was his pious feeling when he saw the power +and glory of God reflected in charming flowers and plants.' + +When Gregorio Lopez (1596), a man who had studied many sides of +Nature, was asked if so much knowledge confused him, he answered: 'I +find God in all things, great and small.' Similar remarks are +attributed to many others. + +Next to Leon, as a poet in enthusiasm and mysticism, came St Teresa +von Avila. She was especially notable for the ravishingly pretty +pictures and comparisons she drew from Nature to explain the soul +life of the Christian.[21] + +In all these outpourings of mystic feeling for Nature, there was no +interest in her entirely for her own sake; they were all more or less +dictated by religious feeling. It was in the later German and Italian +mystics--for example, Bruno, Campanella, and Jacob Boehme--that a +more subjective and individual point of view was attained through +Pantheism and Protestantism. + +The Protestant free-speaking Shakespeare shewed a far more intense +feeling for Nature than the Catholic Calderon. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +SHAKESPEARE'S SYMPATHY FOR NATURE + + +The poetry of India may serve as a measure of the part which Nature +can play in drama; it is full of comparisons and personifications, +and eloquent expressions of intimate sympathy with plants and +animals. In Greek tragedy, Nature stepped into the background; +metaphors, comparisons, and personifications are rarer; it was only +by degrees, especially in Sophocles and Euripides, in the choruses +and monologues, that man's interest in her appeared, and he began to +greet the light or the sky, land or sea, to attribute love, pity, or +hate to her, or find comfort in her lonely places. During the Middle +Ages, drama lay fallow, and the blossoming period of French tragedy, +educated to the pathos of Seneca, only produced cold declamation, +frosty rhetoric; of any real sympathy between man and Nature there +was no question. + +Over this mediæval void Calderon was the bridge to Shakespeare. + +Shakespeare reached the Greek standpoint and advanced far beyond it. +He was not only the greatest dramatist of modern times as to human +action, suffering, and character, but also a genius in the +interpretation of Nature.[1] + +In place of the narrow limits of the old dramatists, he had the wider +and maturer modern vision, and, despite his mastery of language, he +was free both from the exaggeration and redundance of Oriental drama, +and from the mere passion for describing, which so often carried +Calderon away. + +In him too, the subjectivity, which the Renaissance brought into +modern art, was still more fully developed. His metaphors and +comparisons shew this, and, most of all, the very perfect art with +which he assigns Nature a part in the play, and makes her not only +form the appropriate background, dark or bright as required, but +exert a distinct influence upon human fate. + +As Carrière points out: + + At a period which had painting for its leading art, and was + turning its attention to music, his mental accord produced + effects in his works to which antiquity was a stranger. + +Herder had already noted that Shakespeare gives colour and atmosphere +where the Greek only gave outline. And although Shakespeare's +outlines are drawn with more regard to fidelity than to actual +beauty, yet, like a great painter, he brings all Nature into sympathy +with man. We feel the ghostly shudder of the November night in +_Hamlet_, breathe the bracing Highland air in _Macbeth_, the air of +the woods in _As You Like It_; the storm on the heath roars through +Lear's mad outburst, the nightingale sings in the pomegranate outside +Julia's window. + +'How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank,' when Love solves all +differences in the _Merchant of Venice_! On the other hand, when +Macbeth is meditating the murder of Duncan, the wolf howls, the owl +hoots, and the cricket cries. And since Shakespeare's characters +often act out of part, so that intelligible motive fails, while it is +important to the poet that each scene be raised to dramatic level and +viewed in a special light, Goethe's words apply: + + Here everything which in a great world event passes secretly + through the air, everything which at the very moment of a + terrible occurrence men hide away in their hearts, is expressed; + that which they carefully shut up and lock away in their minds is + here freely and eloquently brought to light; we recognize the + truth to life, but know not how it is achieved. + +Amorous passion in his hands is an interpreter of Nature; in one of +his sonnets he compares it to an ocean which cannot quench thirst. + +In Sonnet 130 he says: + + My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; + Coral is far more red than her lips' red; + If snow be white, why then her breasts are dim; + If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. + I have seen roses damask'd, red and white, + But no such roses see I in her cheeks; + And in some perfumes is there more delight + Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.... + And yet, by Heaven, I think my love as rare + As any she belied by false compare. + +His lady-love is a mirror in which the whole world is reflected: + + Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind.... + For if it see the rudest or gentlest sight, + The most sweet favour or deformed'st creature, + The mountain or the sea, the day or night, + The crow or dove, it shapes them to your feature. + (Sonnet 113.) + + When she leaves him it seems winter even in spring: + 'For summer and his pleasures wait on thee, + And thou away, the very birds are mute.' + (Sonnet 97.) + +Here, as in the dramas,[2] contrasts in Nature are often used to +point contrasts in life: + + How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame + Which like a canker in the fragrant rose + Doth spot the beauty of thy budding name! + O in what sweets dost thou thy sins enclose! + (Sonnet 95.) + +and + + No more be grieved at that which thou hast done; + Roses have thorns and silver fountains mud; + Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun, + And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud. + (Sonnet 35.) + +In an opposite sense is Sonnet 70: + + The ornament of beauty is suspect + A crow that flies in heaven's sweetest air, + For canker vice the sweetest buds did love, + And thou presentest a pure unstained prime. + +Sonnet 7 has: + + Lo! in the orient when the gracious light + Lifts up his burning head, each under eye + Doth homage to his new-appearing sight, + Serving with looks his sacred majesty. + +Sonnet 18: + + Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? + Thou art more lovely and more temperate, + Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, + And summer's lease hath all too short a date-- + But thy eternal summer shall not fade, + Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; + Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade, + When in eternal lines to time thou growest: + So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, + So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. + +Sonnet 60: + + Like as the waves make toward the pebbled shore, + So do our minutes hasten to their end; + Each changing place with that which goes before, + In sequent toil all forwards do contend. + +Sonnet 73: + + That time of life thou mayst in me behold, + When yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang + Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, + Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang + In me thou see'st the twilight of such day + As after sunset fadeth in the west, + Which by-and-by black night doth take away, + Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. + In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire + That on the ashes of his youth doth lie + As the death-bed whereon it must expire, + Consumed with that which it was nourished by. + This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong + To love that well which thou must leave ere long. + +There are no better similes for the oncoming of age and death, than +the sere leaf trembling in the wind, the twilight of the setting sun, +the expiring flame. + +Almost all the comparisons from Nature in his plays are original, and +rather keen and lightning-like than elaborate, often with the +terseness of proverbs; + + The strawberry grows underneath the nettle. + (_Henry V._) + + Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep. + (_Henry VI._) + + The waters swell before a boisterous storm. + (_Richard III._) + +Sometimes they are heaped up, like Calderon's, 'making it' (true +love) + + Swift as a shadow, short as any dream, + Brief as the lightning in the collied night + That in a spleen unfolds both heaven and earth, + And ere a man hath power to say 'Behold!' + The jaws of darkness do devour it up. + (_Midsummer Night's Dream._) + +Compared with Homer's they are very bold, and shew an astonishing +play of imagination; in place of the naive simplicity and naturalness +of antiquity, this modern genius gives us a dazzling display of wit +and thought. To quote only short examples[3]: + + 'Open as day,' 'deaf as the sea,' 'poor as winter,' + 'chaste as unsunn'd snow.' + +He ranges all Nature. These are characteristic +examples: + + King Richard doth himself appear + As doth the blushing discontented sun + From out the fiery portal of the east, + When he perceives the envious clouds are bent + To dim his glory and to stain the track + Of his bright passage to the occident. + (_Richard II._) + + Since the more fair crystal is the sky, + The uglier seem the clouds that in it fly. + As when the golden sun salutes the morn, + And, having gilt the ocean with his beams, + Gallops the zodiac in his glistering coach + And overlooks the highest peering hills, + So Tamora. (_Titus Andronicus._) + + As all the world is cheered by the sun, + So I by that; it is my day, my life. + (_Richard III._) + + So sweet a kiss the golden sun gives not + To those fresh morning drops upon the rose, + As thy eye-beams, when their fresh rays have smote + The night of dew that on my cheek down flows; + Nor shines the silver moon one half so bright + Through the transparent bosom of the deep. + As doth thy face through tears of mine give light; + Thou shinest on every tear that I do weep. + (_Love's Labour's Lost._) + +This is modern down to its finest detail, and much richer in +individuality than the most famous comparisons of the same kind in +antiquity. + +Sea and stream are used: + + Like an unseasonable stormy day + Which makes the silver rivers drown their shores + As if the world were all dissolved to tears, + So high above his limits swells the rage + Of Bolingbroke. (_Richard II._) + + The current that with gentle murmur glides, + Thou know'st, being stopped, impatiently doth rage; + But when his fair course is not hindered, + He makes sweet music with the enamell'd stones, + Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge + He overtaketh on his pilgrimage; + And so by many winding nooks he strays + With willing sport to the wild ocean. + Then let me go, and hinder not my course. + (_Two Gentlemen of Verona._) + + Faster than spring-time showers comes thought on thought. + You are the fount that makes small brooks to flow. + And what is Edward but a ruthless sea? + (_Henry VI._) + + If there were reason for these miseries, + Then into limits could I bind my woes; + When heaven doth weep, doth not the earth o'er-flow? + If the winds rage, doth not the sea wax mad, + Threatening the welkin with his big-swoln face? + And wilt thou have a reason for this coil? + I am the sea: hark, how her sighs do blow! + She is the weeping welkin, I the earth; + Then must my sea be moved with her sighs; + Then must my earth with her continual tears + Become a deluge, overflow'd and drowned. + (_Titus Andronicus._) + + This battle fares like to the morning's war + When dying clouds contend with growing light, + What time the shepherd blowing of his nails + Can neither call it perfect day nor night. + Now sways it this way, like a mighty sea + Forced by the tide to combat with the wind; + Now sways it that way, like the self-same sea + Forced to retire by fury of the wind. + Sometime the flood prevails and then the wind: + Now one the better, then another best; + Both tugging to be victors, breast to breast, + Yet neither conqueror nor conquered. + So is the equal poise of this fell war. + (_Henry VI._) + +In the last five examples the epic treatment and the personifications +are noteworthy. + +Comparisons from animal life are forcible and striking: + + How like a deer, stricken by many princes, + Dost thou lie here! (_Julius Cæsar._) + +Richard III. is called: + + The wretched bloody and usurping boar + That spoil'd your summer fields and fruitful vines, + Swills your warm blood like wash and makes his trough + In your embowell'd bosoms; this foul swine + Lies now even in the centre of this isle. + The tiger now hath seized the gentle hind. + (_Richard III._) + +The smallest objects are noted: + + As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; + They kill us for their sport. (_King Lear._) + + _Marcus_: Alas! my lord, I have but kill'd a fly. + + _Titus_: But how if that fly had a father and a mother? + How would he hang his slender gilded wings, + And buzz lamenting doings in the air! + Poor harmless fly! + That, with his pretty buzzing melody, + Came here to make us merry! and thou + Hast kill'd him! + (_Titus Andronicus._) + +Shakespeare has abundance of this idyllic miniature painting, for +which all the literature of the day shewed a marked taste. + +Tamora says: + + My lovely Aaron, wherefore look'st thou sad, + When everything doth make a gleeful boast? + The birds chant melody on every bush, + The snake lies rolled in the cheerful sun, + The green leaves quiver with the cooling wind + And make a chequer'd shadow on the ground. + (_Titus Andronicus._) + +And Valentine in _Two Gentlemen of Verona_: + + This shadowy desert, unfrequented woods, + I better brook than flourishing peopled towns; + Here can I sit alone, unseen of any, + And to the nightingale's complaining notes + Tune my distresses and record my woes. + +Like this, in elegiac sentimentality, is Romeo: + + Before the worshipp'd sun + Peer'd forth the golden window of the east.... + Many a morning hath he there been seen + With tears augmenting the fresh morning's dew. + +_Cymbeline, Winter's Tale_, and _As You Like It_ are particularly +rich in idyllic traits; the artificiality of court life is contrasted +with life in the open; there are songs, too, in praise of woodland +joys: + + Under the greenwood tree + Who loves to lie with me, + And tune his merry note + Unto the sweet bird's throat, + Come hither, come hither, come hither! + Here shall he see + No enemy + But winter and rough weather. + (_As You Like It._) + + Blow, blow, thou winter wind, + Thou art not so unkind + As man's ingratitude. + Thy tooth is not so keen, + Because thou art not seen + Altho' thy breath be rude. + Heigh-ho, sing heigh-ho unto the green holly! + Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly![4] + (_As You Like It._) + +Turning again to comparisons, we find birds used abundantly: + + More pity that the eagle should be mewed + While kites and buzzards prey at liberty. + (_Richard III._) + + True hope is swift and flies with swallow's wings. + (_Richard III._) + + As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye, + Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort + Rising and cawing at the gun's report + Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky, + So at his sight away his fellows fly. + (_Midsummer Night's Dream._) + +And plant life is touched with special tenderness: + + All the bystanders had wet their cheeks + Like trees bedashed with rain. + (_Richard III._) + + Why grow the branches when the root is gone? + Why wither not the leaves that want their sap? + (_Richard III._) + + Their lips were four red roses on a stalk, + Which in their summer beauty kiss'd each other. + (_Richard III._) + + Ah! my tender babes! + My unblown flowers, new appearing sweets. + (_Richard III._) + +Romeo is + + To himself so secret and so close ... + As is the bud bit with an envious worm, + Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air + Or dedicate his beauty to the sun. + +It is astonishing to see how Shakespeare noted the smallest and most +fragile things, and found the most poetic expression for them without +any sacrifice of truth to Nature. + +Juliet is 'the sweetest flower of all the field.' Laertes says to +Ophelia: + + For Hamlet and the trifling of his favour + Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood, + A violet in the youth of primy nature, + Forward not permanent, sweet not lasting, + The perfume and suppliance of a moment. + The canker galls the infants of the spring + Too oft before their buttons be disclosed; + And in the morn and liquid dew of youth + Contagious blastments are most imminent. + (_Hamlet._) + +Hamlet soliloquizes: + + How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable + Seems to me all the uses of this world. + Fie on't, O fie! 'tis an unweeded garden + That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature + Possess it merely. + + Indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly + frame the earth seems to me a sterile promontory, this most + excellent canopy the air, look you--this brave o'erhanging + firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it + appears no other thing to me but a foul and pestilent + congregation of vapours. + +But the great advance which he made is seen far more in the +sympathetic way in which he drew Nature into the action of the play. + +He established perfect harmony between human fate and the natural +phenomena around it. + +There are moonlight nights for Romeo and Juliet's brief dream, when +all Nature, moon, stars, garden, seemed steeped in love together. + +He places his melancholy, brooding Hamlet + + In a land of mist and long nights, under a gloomy sky, where day + is only night without sleep, and the tragedy holds us imprisoned + like the North itself, that damp dungeon of Nature. (BOERNE.) + +What a dark shudder lies o'er Nature in _Macbeth_! And in _Lear_, as +Jacobi says: + + What a sight! All Nature, living and lifeless, reasonable and + unreasonable, surges together, like towering storm clouds, hither + and thither; it is black oppressive Nature with only here and + there a lightning flash from God--a flash of Providence, rending + the clouds. + +One must look at the art by which this is achieved in order to +justify such enthusiastic expressions. Personification of Nature lies +at the root of it, and to examine this in the different poets forms +one of the most interesting chapters of comparative poetry, +especially in Shakespeare. + +With him artistic personification reached a pitch never attained +before. We can trace the steps by which Greece passed from mythical +to purely poetic personification, increasing in individuality in the +Hellenic period; but Shakespeare opened up an entirely new region by +dint of that flashlight genius of imagination which combined and +illuminated all and everything. + +Hense says[5]; + + The personification is plastic when Æschylus calls the heights + the neighbours of the stars; individual, when Shakespeare speaks + of hills that kiss the sky. It is plastic that fire and sea are + foes who conspire together and keep faith to destroy the Argive + army; it is individual to call sea and wind old wranglers who + enter into a momentary armistice. Other personifications of + Shakespeare's, as when he speaks of the 'wanton wind,' calls + laughter a fool, and describes time as having a wallet on his + back wherein he puts alms for oblivion, are of a kind which did + not, and could not, exist in antiquity. + +The richer a man's mental endowment, the more individual his +feelings, the more he can see in Nature. + +Shakespeare's fancy revelled in a wealth of images; new metaphors, +new points of resemblance between the inner and outer worlds, were +for ever pouring from his inexhaustible imagination. + +The motive of amorous passion, for instance, was a very divining-rod +in his hands, revealing the most delicate relations between Nature +and the soul. Ibykos had pointed the contrast between the gay spring +time and his own unhappy heart in which Eros raged like 'the Thracian +blast.' Theocritus had painted the pretty shepherdess drawing all +Nature under the spell of her charms; Akontios (Kallimachos) had +declared that if trees felt the pangs and longings of love, they +would lose their leaves; all such ideas, modern in their way, had +been expressed in antiquity. + +This is Shakespeare's treatment of them: + + How like a winter hath my absence been + From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year! + What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen! + What old December's bareness everywhere! + And yet this time removed was summer time, + The teeming autumn, big with rich increase ... + For summer and his pleasures wait on thee. + And thou away the very birds are mute, + Or, if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer + That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near, + (Sonnet 97.) + + From you have I been absent in the spring, + When proud-pied April dress'd in all his trim + Hath put a spirit of youth in everything, + That heavy Saturn laugh'd and leap'd with him. + Yet nor the lays of birds nor the sweet smell + Of different flowers in odour and in hue + Could make me any summer's story tell.... + Yet seem'd it winter still.... (Sonnet 98.) + +Or compare again the cypresses in Theocritus sole witnesses of secret +love; or Walther's + + One little birdie who never will tell, + +with + + These blue-veined violets whereon we lean + Never can blab, nor know not what we mean. + (_Venus and Adonis._) + +Comparisons of ladies' lips to roses, and hands to lilies, are common +with the old poets. How much more modern is: + + The forward violet thus did I chide; + Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells + If not from my love's breath?... + The lily I condemned for thy hand, + And buds of marjoram had stolen thy hair; + The roses fearfully on thorns did stand, + One blushing shame, another white despair.... + More flowers I noted, yet I none could see + But sweet or colour it had stolen from thee. + (Sonnet 99.) + +And how fine the personification in Sonnet 33: + + Full many a glorious morning have I seen + Flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye, + Kissing with golden face the meadows green, + Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy; + Anon permit the basest clouds to ride + With ugly rack on his celestial face, + And from the forlorn world his visage hide, + Stealing unseen to West with this disgrace: + Even so my sun one early morn did shine + With all triumphant splendour on my brow; + But out, alack! he was but one hour mine; + The region cloud hath mask'd him from me now. + Yet him for this my love no whit disdaineth; + Suns of the world may stain when heaven's sun staineth. + +This is night in _Venus and Adonis_: + + Look! the world's comforter with weary gait + His day's hot task hath ended in the West; + The owl, night's herald, shrieks 'tis very late; + The sheep are gone to fold, birds to their nest + And coal-black clouds, that shadow heaven's light, + Do summon us to part and bid good-night. + +And this morning, in _Romeo and Juliet_: + + The grey-ey'd morn smiles on the frowning night, + Checkering the Eastern clouds with streaks of light. + And flecked darkness like a drunkard reels + From forth day's path and Titan's fiery wheels; + Now, ere the sun advance his burning eye, + The day to cheer, and night's dank dew to dry ... + +Such wealth and brilliance of personification was not found again +until Goethe, Byron, and Shelley. + +He is unusually rich in descriptive phrases: + + The weary sun hath made a golden set, + And by the bright track of his golden car + Gives token of a goodly day to-morrow. + + The worshipp'd Sun + Peered forth the golden window of the East. + + The all-cheering sun + Should in the farthest East begin to draw + The shady curtains from Aurora's bed. + +The moon: + + Like to a silver bow + New bent in heaven. + +Titania says: + + I will wind thee in my arms.... + So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle + Gently entwist; the female ivy so + Enrings the barky fingers of the elm. + O how I love thee! + + That same dew, which sometime on the buds + Was wont to swell, like round and orient pearls, + Stood now within the pretty flow'rets' eyes + Like tears. + (_Midsummer Night's Dream._) + + Daffodils + That come before the swallow dares, and take + The winds of March with beauty. + (_Winter's Tale._) + + Pale primroses + That die unmarried, ere they can behold + Bright Phoebus in his strength. + (_Winter's Tale._) + +Goethe calls winds and waves lovers. In _Troilus and Cressida_ we +have: + + The sea being smooth, + How many shallow bauble boats dare sail + Upon her patient breast, making their way + With those of nobler bulk! + But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage + The gentle Thetis, and anon behold + The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut, + Bounding between two moist elements + Like Perseus' horse. + +And further on in the same scene: + + What raging of the sea! shaking of earth! + Commotion in the winds! + ... the bounded waters + Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores. + +The personification of the river in _Henry IV._ is half mythical: + + When on the gentle Severn's sedgy bank + In single opposition, hand to hand, + He did confound the best part of an hour + In changing hardiment with great Glendower; + Three times they breath'd, and three times did they drink, + Upon agreement, of swift Severn's flood; + Who, then affrighted with their bloody looks, + Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds, + And hid his crisp head in the hollow bank, + Blood-stained with these valiant combatants. + +Striking instances of personification from _Antony and Cleopatra_ +are: + + The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne + Burn'd on the water; the poop was beaten gold; + Purple the sails, and so perfumed, that + The winds were lovesick with them; the oars were silver, + Which to the time of flutes kept stroke, and made + The water which they beat to follow faster + As amorous of their strokes. + +And Antony, enthron'd in the market-place, sat alone + + Whistling to the air, which but for vacancy + Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too + And made a gap in nature. + +Instead of accumulating further instances of these very modern and +individual (and sometimes far-fetched) personifications, it is of +more interest to see how Shakespeare used Nature, not only as +background and colouring, but to act a part of her own in the play, +so producing the grandest of all personifications. + +At the beginning of Act III. in _King Lear_, Kent asks: + + Who's there beside foul weather? + + _Gentleman_: One minded like the weather, most unquietly. + + _Kent_: Where's the King? + + _Gent_: Contending with the fretful elements. + Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea, + Or swell the curled waters 'bove the main, + That things might change or cease; tears his white hair, + Which the impetuous blasts with eyeless rage + Catch in their fury and make nothing of; + Strives in his little world of men to outscorn + The to-and-fro conflicting wind and rain. + +In the stormy night on the wild heath the poor old man hears the echo +of his own feelings in the elements; his daughters' ingratitude, +hardness, and cruelty produce a moral disturbance like the +disturbance in Nature; he breaks out: + + Blow, wind, and crack your cheeks. Rage! Blow! + You cataracts and hurricanes, spout + Till you have drench'd our steeples, drowned the cocks! + You sulphurous and thought-executing fires, + Vaunt couriers of oak-cleaving thunder-bolts, + Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder, + Strike flat the thick rotundity o' the world! + Crack nature's moulds, all germens spill at once + That make ungrateful man.... + Rumble thy bellyful! Spit fire, spout rain! + + Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire are my daughters, + I tax you not, you elements, with unkindness; + I never gave you kingdom, call'd you children, + You owe me no subscription; then, let fall + Your horrible pleasure; here I stand, your slave, + A poor, infirm, weak, and despis'd old man: + But yet I call you servile ministers, + That will with two pernicious daughters join + Your high engender'd battles 'gainst a head + So old and white as this. O! O! 'tis foul! + +How closely here animate and inanimate Nature are woven together, the +reasoning with the unreasoning. The poet makes the storm, rain, +thunder, and lightning live, and at the same time endues his human +figures with a strength of feeling and passion which gives them +kinship to the elements. In _Othello_, too, there _is_ uproar in +Nature: + + Do but stand upon the foaming shore, + The chidden billow seems to pelt the clouds.... + I never did like molestation view + On the enchafed flood. + +but even the unruly elements spare Desdemona: + + Tempests themselves, high seas and howling winds, + The gather'd rocks and congregated sands. + Traitors ensteep'd to clog the guiltless keel-- + As having sense of beauty, do omit + Their mortal natures, letting go safely by + The divine Desdemona. + +Cassio lays stress upon 'the great contention of the sea and skies'; +but when Othello meets Desdemona, he cries: + + O my soul's joy! + If after every tempest come such calms, + May the winds blow till they have wakened death! + And let the labouring bark climb hills of seas + Olympus-high, and duck again as low + As hell's from heaven. If it were now to die, + 'Twere now to be most happy. + +Iago calls the elements to witness his truthfulness: + + Witness, you ever-burning lights above, + You elements that clip us round about, + Witness, that here Iago doth give up + The execution of his wit, hands, heart, + To wrong'd Othello's service. + +Nature is disgusted at Othello's jealousy: + + Heaven stops the nose at it, and the moon winks; + The bawdy wind, that kisses all it meets, + Is hush'd within the hollow mine of earth + And will not hear it. + +In terrible mental confusion he cries: + + O insupportable, O heavy hour! + Methinks it should be now a huge eclipse + Of sun and moon, and that the affrighted globe + Should yawn at alteration. + +Unhappy Desdemona sings: + + The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree, + Sing all a green willow; + Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee, + Sing willow, willow, willow; + The fresh streams ran by her and murmur'd her moans, + Sing willow, willow, willow. + +A song in _Cymbeline_ contains a beautiful personification of +flowers: + + Hark! hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings, + And Phoebus 'gins arise, + His steeds to water at those springs + On chalic'd flowers that lies; + And winking Mary-buds begin + To ope their golden eyes; + With everything that pretty is, + My lady sweet, arise; + Arise! Arise! + +The clearest expression of sympathy for Nature is in _Macbeth_. + +Repeatedly we meet the idea that Nature shudders before the crime, +and gives signs of coming disaster. + +Macbeth himself says: + + Stars, hide your fires! + Let not light see my black and deep desires; + The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be + Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. + +and Lady Macbeth: + + ... The raven himself is hoarse + That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan + Under my battlements.... Come, thick night, + And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, + That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, + Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark + To cry 'Hold! hold!'... + +The peaceful castle to which Duncan comes all unsuspectingly, is in +most striking contrast to the fateful tone which pervades the +tragedy. Duncan says: + + This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air + Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself + Unto our gentle senses. + +and Banquo: + + This guest of summer, + The temple-haunting martlet, does approve + By his loved masonry, that the heaven's breath + Smells wooingly here; no jetty, frieze, + Buttress, nor coign of vantage but this bird + Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle; + Where they most breed and haunt I have observ'd + The air is delicate. + +Perhaps the familiar swallow has never been treated with more +discrimination; and at this point of the tale of horror it has the +effect of a ray of sunshine in a sky dark with storm clouds. + +In Act II. Macbeth describes his own horror and Nature's: + + Now o'er the one half world + Nature seems dead.... Thou sure and firm-set earth, + Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear + Thy very stones prate of my whereabouts. + +Lady Macbeth says: + + It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman + Which gives the stern'st good-night. + +Lenox describes this night: + + The night has been unruly: where we lay + Our chimneys were blown down; and, as they say, + Lamentings heard i' the air; strange screams of death + And prophesying, with accents terrible, + Of dire combustion and confus'd events, + New hatch'd to the woeful time: the obscure bird + Clamour'd the live-long night: some say, the earth + Was feverish and did shake. + +and later on, an old man says: + + Three score and ten I can remember well; + Within the volume of which time I have seen + Hours dreadful and things strange; but this sore night + Hath trifled former knowings. + +Rosse answers him: + + Ah, good father, + Thou see'st the heavens, as troubled with man's act, + Threaten his bloody stage; by the clock 'tis day, + And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp. + Is't night's predominance or the day's shame + That darkness does the-face of earth entomb + When living light should kiss it? + +The whole play is a thrilling expression of the sympathy for Nature +which attributes its own feelings to her--a human shudder in presence +of the wicked--a human horror of crime, most thrilling of all in +Macbeth's words: + + Come, seeling night, + Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day, + And with thy bloody and invisible hand + Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond + Which keeps me pale. + +In _Hamlet_, too, Nature is shocked at man's mis-deeds: + + ... Such an act (the queen's) + That blurs the grace and blush of modesty + ... Heaven's face doth glow, + Yea, this solidity and compound mass + With tristful visage, as against the doom, + Is thought-sick at the act. + +But there are other personifications in this most wonderful of all +tragedies, such as the magnificent one: + + But look, the dawn, in russet mantle clad. + Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill. + +The first player declaims: + + But, as we often see, against some storm + A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still, + The bold winds speechless, and the orb below + As hush as death.... + +Ophelia dies: + + When down her weedy trophies and herself + Fell in the weeping brook. + +and Laertes commands: + + Lay her i' the earth, + And from her fair and unpolluted flesh + May violets spring. + +Thus Shakespeare's great imagination gave life and soul to every +detail of Nature, and he obtained the right background for his +dramas, not only through choice of scenery, but by making Nature a +sharer of human impulse, happy with the happy, shuddering in the +presence of wickedness. + +He drew every phase of Nature with the individualizing touch which +stamps her own peculiar character, and also brings her into sympathy +with the inner life, often with that poetic intuition which is so +closely allied to mythology. And this holds good not only in dealing +with the great elementary forces--storms, thunder, lightning, +etc.--but with flowers, streams, the glow of sunlight. Always and +everywhere the grasp of Nature was intenser, more individual, and +subjective, than any we have met hitherto. + +Idyllic feeling for Nature became sympathetic in his hands. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE DISCOVERY OF THE BEAUTY OF LANDSCAPE +IN PAINTING + + +The indispensable condition of landscape-painting--painting, that is, +which raises the representation of Nature to the level of its main +subject and paints her entirely for her own sake--is the power to +compose separate studies into a whole and imbue that with an artistic +idea. It was therefore impossible among people like the Hebrews,[1] +whose eyes were always fixed on distance and only noted what lay +between in a cursory way, and among those who considered detail +without relation to a whole, as we have seen in mediæval poetry until +the Renaissance. But just as study of the laws of aerial and linear +perspective demands a trained and keen eye, and therefore implies +interest in Nature, so the artistic idea, the soul of the picture, +depends directly upon the degree of the artist's feeling for her +Literature and painting are equal witnesses to the feeling for +Nature, and so long as scenery was only background in poetry, it had +no greater importance in painting. Landscape painting could only +arise in the period which produced complete pictures of scenery in +poetry--the sentimental idyllic period. + +We have seen how in the Italian Renaissance the fetters of dogma, +tradition, and mediæval custom were removed, and servility and +visionariness gave place to healthy individuality and realism; how +man and the world were discovered anew; and further, how among the +other Romanic nations a lively feeling for Nature grew up, partly +idyllic, partly mystic; and finally, how this feeling found dramatic +expression in Shakespeare. + +Natural philosophy also, in the course of its search for truth, as it +threw off both one-sided Christian ideas and ancient traditions, came +gradually to feel an interest in Nature; not only her laws, but her +beauty, became an object of enthusiastic study. By a very long +process of development the Hellenic feeling for Nature was reached +again in the Renaissance; but it always remained, despite its +sentimental and pantheistic elements, sensual, superficial, and +naive, in comparison with Christian feeling, which a warmer heart and +a mind trained in scholastic wisdom had rendered more profound and +abstract. Hence Nature was sometimes an object of attention in +detail, sometimes in mass.[2] + +As we come to the first landscape painters and their birthplace in +the Netherlands, we see how steady and orderly is the development of +the human mind, and how factors that seem isolated are really links +in one chain. + +In the Middle Ages, landscape was only background with more or less +fitness to the subject. By the fifteenth century it was richer in +detail, as we see in Pisanello and the Florentines Gozzoli and +Mantegna. The poetry of earth had been discovered; the gold grounds +gave way to field, wood, hill, and dale, and the blue behind the +heads became a dome of sky. In the sixteenth century, Giorgione +shewed the value of effects of light, and Correggio's backgrounds +were in harmony with his tender, cheerful scenes. Titian loved to +paint autumn; the sunny days of October with blue grapes, golden +oranges, and melons; and evening with deep harmonies of colour over +the sleeping earth. He was a great pioneer in the realm of landscape. +With Michael Angelo not a blade of grass grew; his problem was man +alone. Raphael's backgrounds, on the other hand, are life-like in +detail: his little birds could fly out of the picture, the stems of +his plants seem to curve and bend towards us, and we look deep into +the flower they hold out.[3] + +In the German Renaissance too, the great masters limited themselves +to charming framework and ingenious arabesques for their Madonnas and +Holy Families. But, as Lübke says,[4] one soon sees that Dürer +depended on architecture for borders and backgrounds far less than +Holbein; he preferred landscape. + +'The charm of this background is so great, the inwardness of German +feeling for Nature so strongly expressed in it, that it has a special +value of its own, and the master through it has become the father of +landscape painting.'[5] + +This must be taken with a grain of salt; but, at all events, it is +true that Dürer combined 'keen and devoted study of Nature (in the +widest sense of the word) with a penetration which aimed at tracing +her facts up to their source.'[6] It is interesting to see how these +qualities overcame his theoretical views on Nature and art.[7] +Dürer's deep respect for Nature proved him a child of the new era. +Melanchthon relates that he often regretted that he had been too much +attracted in his younger days by variety and the fantastic, and had +only understood Nature's simple truth and beauty later in life. + +His riper judgment preferred her to all other models. Nature, in his +remarks on the theory of art, includes the animate and the inanimate, +living creatures as well as scenery, and it is interesting to observe +that his admiration of her as a divine thing was due to deep +religious feeling. In his work on Proportion[8] he says: + +'Certainly art is hidden in Nature, and he who is able to separate it +by force from Nature, he possesses it. Never imagine that you can or +will surpass Nature's achievements; human effort cannot compare with +the ability which her Creator has given her. Therefore no man can +ever make a picture which excels Nature's; and when, through much +copying, he has seized her spirit, it cannot be called original work, +it is rather something received and learnt, whose seeds grow and bear +fruit of their own kind. Thereby the gathered treasure of the heart, +and the new creature which takes shape and form there, comes to light +in the artist's work.' + +Elsewhere Dürer says 'a good painter's mind is full of figures,' and +he repeatedly remarks upon the superabundant beauty of all living +things which human intelligence rarely succeeds in reproducing. + +The first modern landscapes in which man was only accessory were +produced in the Netherlands. Quiet, absorbed musing on the external +world was characteristic of the nation; they studied the smallest and +most trifling objects with care, and set a high value on minutiæ. + +The still-life work of their prime was only possible to such an +easy-going, life-loving people; the delightful animal pictures of +Paul Potter and Adrian van de Velde could only have been painted in +the land of Reineke Fuchs. Carrière says about these masters of genre +painting[9]: 'Through the emphasis laid upon single objects, they not +only revealed the national characteristics, but penetrated far into +the soul of Nature and mirrored their own feelings there, so +producing works of art of a kind unknown to antiquity. That divine +element, which the Greek saw in the human form, the Germanic race +divined in all the visible forms of Nature, and so felt at one with +them and able to reveal itself through them. + +'Nature was studied more for her own sake than in her relation to +man, and scenery became no longer mere background, but the actual +object of the picture. Animals, and even men, whether bathing in the +river, lying under trees, or hunting in the forest, were nothing but +accessories; inorganic Nature was the essential element. The greatest +Dutch masters did not turn their attention to the extraordinary and +stupendous, the splendour of the high Alps or their horrible +crevasses, or sunny Italian mountains reflected in their lakes or +tropical luxuriance, but to common objects of everyday life. But +these they grasped with a precision and depth of feeling which gave +charm to the most trifling--it was the life of the universe divined +in its minutiæ. In its treatment of landscape their genre painting +displayed the very characteristics which had brought it into +being.'[10] + +The physical characters of the country favoured landscape painting +too. No doubt the moist atmosphere and its silvery sheen, which add +such freshness and brilliance to the colouring, influenced the +development of the colour sense, as much as the absence of sharp +contrasts in contour, the suggestive skies, and abundance of streams, +woods, meadows, and dales. + +But it was in devotional pictures that the Netherlanders first tried +their wings; landscape and scenes from human life did not free +themselves permanently from religion and take independent place for +more than a century later. The fourteenth-century miniatures shew the +first signs of the northern feeling for Nature in illustrations of +the seasons in the calendar pictures of religious manuscripts. +Beginnings of landscape can be clearly seen in that threshold picture +of Netherland art, the altar-piece at Ghent by the brothers Van Eyck, +which was finished in 1432. It shews the most accurate observation: +all the plants, grasses, flowers, rose bushes, vines, and palms, are +correctly drawn; and the luxuriant valley in which the Christian +soldiers and the knights are riding, with its rocky walls covered by +undergrowth jutting stiffly forward, is very like the valley of the +Maas. + +One sees that the charm of landscape has dawned upon the painters. + +Their skies are no longer golden, but blue, and flecked with +cloudlets and alive with birds; wood and meadow shine in sappy green; +fantastic rocks lie about, and the plains are bounded by low hills. +They are drinking deep draughts from a newly-opened spring, and they +can scarcely have enough of it. They would like to paint all the +leaves and fruit on the trees, all the flowers on the grass, even all +the dewdrops. The effect of distance too has been discovered, for +there are blue hill-tops beyond the nearer green ones, and a +foreground scene opens back on a distant plain (in the Ghent +altar-piece, the scene with the pilgrims); but they still possess +very few tones, and their overcrowded detail is almost all, from +foreground to furthest distance, painted in the same luminous strong +dark-green, as if in insatiable delight at the beauty of their own +colour. The progress made by Jan van Eyck in landscape was immense. + +To the old masters Nature had been an unintelligible chaos of detail, +but beauty, through ecclesiastical tradition, an abstract attribute +of the Holy Family and the Saints, and they had used their best +powers of imagination in accordance with this view. Hence they placed +the Madonna upon a background of one colour, generally gilded. But +now the great discovery was made that Nature was a distinct entity, a +revelation and reflection of the divine in herself. And Jan van Eyck +introduced a great variety of landscapes behind his Madonnas. One +looks, for instance, through an open window to a wide stretch of +country with fields and fortresses, and towns with streets full of +people, all backed by mountains. And whether the scene itself, or +only its background, lies in the open, the landscape is of the +widest, enlivened by countless forms and adorned by splendid +buildings. + +Molanus, the savant of Löwen, proclaimed Dierick Bouts, born like his +predecessor Ouwater at Haarlem, to be the inventor of landscape +painting (claruit inventor in describendo rare); but the van Eycks +were certainly before him, though he increased the significance of +landscape painting and shewed knowledge of aerial perspective and +gradations of tone. Landscape was a distinct entity to him, and could +excite the mood that suited his subject, as, for instance, in the +side picture of the Last Supper, where the foreground is drawn with +such exactness that every plant and even the tiny creatures crawling +on the grass can be identified. + +The scenery of Roger van der Weyden of Brabant--river valleys +surrounded by jagged rocks and mountains, isolated trees, and meadows +bright with sappy green--is clearly the result of direct Nature +study; it has a uniform transparent atmosphere, and a clear green +shimmer lies over the foreground and gradually passes into blue haze +further back. + +His pupil, Memling, shews the same fine gradations of tone. The +composition of his richest picture, 'The Marriage of St Catherine,' +did not allow space for an unbroken landscape, but the lines of wood +and field converge to a vista in such a way that the general effect +is one of unity. + +Joachim de Patenir, who appeared in 1515, was called a landscape +painter by his contemporaries, because he reduced his sacred figures +to a modest size, enlarged his landscape, and handled it with extreme +care. He was very far from grasping it as a whole, but his method was +synthetical; his river valleys, with masses of tree and bush and +romantic rocks, fantastic and picturesque, with fortresses on the +river banks, all shew this. + +Kerry de Bles was like him, but less accurate; with all the rest of +the sixteenth-century painters of Brabant and Flanders, he did not +rise to the idea of landscape as a whole. + +The most minute attention was given to the accurate painting of +single objects, especially plants; the Flemings caring more for +perfect truth to life, the Dutch for beauty. The Flemings generally +sought to improve their landscape by embellishing its lines, while +the Dutch gave its spirit, but adhered simply and strictly to Nature. +The landscapes of Peter Brueghel the elder, with their dancing +peasants surrounded by rocks, mills, groups of trees, are painful in +their thoroughness; and Jan Brueghel carried imitation of Nature so +far that his minutise required a magnifying-glass--it was veritable +miniature work. He introduced fruit and flower painting as a new +feature of art. + +Rubens and Brueghel often painted on each other's canvas, Brueghel +supplying landscape backgrounds for Rubens' pictures, and Rubens the +figures for Brueghel's landscapes. Yet Rubens himself was the best +landscapist of the Flemish school. He was more than that. For +Brueghel and his followers, with all their patience and industry, +their blue-green landscape with imaginary trees, boundless distance +and endless detail, were very far from a true grasp of Nature. It was +Rubens and his school who really made landscape a legitimate +independent branch of art. They studied it in all its aspects, quiet +and homely, wild and romantic, some taking one and some the other: +Rubens himself, in his large way, grasping the whole without losing +sight of its parts. They all lifted the veil from Nature and saw her +as she was (Falke). + +Brueghel put off the execution of a picture for which he had a +commission from winter to spring, that he might study the flowers for +it from Nature when they came out, and did not grudge a journey to +Brussels now and then to paint flowers not to be had at Antwerp. +There is a characteristic letter which he sent to the Archbishop of +Milan with a picture: + +'I send your Reverence the picture with the flowers, which are all +painted from Nature. I have painted in as many as possible. I believe +so many rare and different flowers have never been painted before nor +so industriously. It will give a beautiful effect in winter; some of +the colours almost equal Nature. I have painted an ornament under the +flowers with artistic medallions and curiosities from the sea. I +leave it to your reverence to judge whether the flowers do not far +exceed gold and jewels in colour.' + +He also painted landscapes in which people were only accessory, sunny +valleys with leafage, golden cornfields, meadows with rows of dancing +country folk or reapers in the wheat. + +Rubens, though he felt the influence of southern light and sunshine +as much as his fellows who had been in Italy, took his backgrounds +from his native land, from parts round Antwerp, Mechlin, and +Brussels. Foliage, water, and undulating ground were indispensable to +him--were, to a certain extent, the actual bearers of the impression +he wished to convey. + +Brueghel always kept a childlike attitude, delighting in details, and +proud of the clever brush which could carry imitation to the point of +deception. Rubens was the first to treat landscape in a bold +subjective way. He opened the book of Nature, so to speak, not to +spell out the words syllable by syllable, but to master her secret, +to descend into the depths of her soul, and then reflect what he +found there--in short, he fully understood the task of the landscape +painter. The fifty landscapes of his which we possess, contain the +whole scale from a state of idyllic repose to one of dramatic +excitement and tension. Take, for instance, the evening scene with +the rainbow in the Louvre, marvellous in its delicate gradations of +atmospheric tone, and the equally marvellous thunderstorm in the +Belvedere at Vienna, where a rain-cloud bursts under sulphur +lightning, and a mountain stream, swollen to a torrent and lashed by +the hurricane, carries all before it--trees, rocks, animals, and men. + +In France, scarcely a flower had been seen in literature since the +Troubadour days, not even in the classical poetry of Corneille and +Racine. There were idyllic features in Fénelon's _Telemachus_, and +Ronsard borrowed motives from antiquity; but it was pastoral poetry +which blossomed luxuriantly here as in Italy and Spain. + +Honoré d'Urfé's famous _Astrée_ was much translated; but both his +shepherds and his landscape were artificial, and the perfume of +courts and carpet knights was over the whole, with a certain trace of +sadness. + +The case was different with French painting. After the Netherlands, +it was France, by her mediæval illustrated manuscripts, who chiefly +aided in opening the world's eyes to landscape. Both the Poussins +penetrated below the surface of Nature. Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) +painted serious stately subjects, such as a group of trees in the +foreground, a hill with a classic building in the middle, and a chain +of mountains in the distance, and laid more stress on drawing than +colour. There was greater life in the pictures of his brother-in-law, +Caspar Doughet, also called Poussin; his grass is more succulent, his +winds sigh in the trees, his storm bends the boughs and scatters the +clouds. + +It was Claude Lorraine (1600-1682) who brought the ideal style to its +perfection. He inspired the very elements with mind and feeling; his +valleys, woods, and seas were just a veil through which divinity was +visible. All that was ugly, painful, and confused was purified and +transfigured in his hands. There is no sadness or dejection in his +pictures, but a spirit of serene beauty, free from ostentation, +far-fetched contrast, or artificial glitter. Light breezes blow in +his splendid trees, golden light quivers through them, drawing the +eye to a bright misty horizon; we say with Uhland, 'The sky is +solemn, as if it would say "this is the day of the Lord."' + +Artistic feeling for Nature became a worship with Claude Lorraine. + +The Netherlands recorded all Nature's phases in noble emulation with +ever-increasing delight. + +The poetry of air, cloudland, light, the cool freshness of morning, +the hazy sultriness of noon, the warm light of evening, it all lives +and moves in Cuyp's pictures and Wynant's, while Aart van der Meer +painted moonlight and winter snow, and Jan van Goyen the melancholy +of mist shot by sunlight. He, too--Jan van Goyen--was very clever in +producing effect with very small means, with a few trees reflected in +water, or a sand-heap--the art in which Ruysdael excelled all others. +The whole poetry of Nature--that secret magic which lies like a spell +over quiet wood, murmuring sea, still pool, and lonely pasture--took +form and colour under his hands; so little sufficed to enchant, to +rouse thought and feeling, and lead them whither he would. Northern +seriousness and sadness brood over most of his work; the dark trees +are overhung by heavy clouds and rain, mist and dusky shadows move +among his ruins. He had painted, says Carrière, the peace of woodland +solitude long before Tieck found the word for it. + +Beechwoods reflected in a stream, misty cloud masses lighted by the +rising sun; he moves us with such things as with a morning hymn, and +his picture of a swollen torrent forcing its way between graves which +catch the last rays of the sun, while a cloud of rain shrouds the +ruins of a church in the background, is an elegy which has taken +shape and colour. + +Ruysdael marks the culminating point of this period of development, +which had led from mere backgrounds and single traits of Nature--even +a flower stem or a blade of grass, up to elaborate compositions +imbued by a single motive, a single idea. + +To conjure up with slight material a complete little world of its +own, and waken responsive feeling, is not this the secret of the +charm in the pictures of his school--in the wooded hill or peasant's +courtyard by Hobbema, the Norwegian mountain scene of Albert van +Everdingen, the dusky fig-trees, rugged crags, and foaming cataract, +or the half-sullen, half-smiling sea-pieces of Bakhuysen and Van der +Velde? + +All these great Netherlander far outstripped the poetry of their +time; it was a hundred years later before mountain and sea found +their painter in words, and a complete landscape picture was not born +in German poetry until the end of the eighteenth century. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +HUMANISM, ROCOCO, AND PIGTAIL + + +Many decades passed before German feeling for Nature reached the +heights attained by the Italian Renaissance and the Netherland +landscapists. In the Middle Ages, Germany was engrossed with +ecclesiastical dogma--man's relation, not only to God, but to the one +saving Church--and had little interest for Science and Art; and the +great achievement of the fifteenth century, the Reformation, called +for word and deed to reckon with a thousand years of old traditions +and the slavery of intellectual despotism. The new time was born amid +bitter throes. The questions at issue--religious and ecclesiastical +questions concerned with the liberty of the Christian--were of the +most absorbing kind, and though Germany produced minds of individual +stamp such as she had never known before, characters of original and +marked physiognomy, it was no time for the quiet contemplation of +Nature. Mental life was stimulated by the new current of ideas and +new delight in life awakened: yet there is scarcely a trace of the +intense feeling for Nature which we have seen in Petrarch and Æneas +Sylvius. + +Largely as it was influenced by the Italian Renaissance, it is +certainly a mistake to reckon the Humanist movement in Germany, as +Geiger does,[1] as a 'merely imported culture, entirely lacking +independence.' The germ of this great movement towards mental freedom +was contained in the general trend of the time, which was striving to +free itself from the fetters of the Middle Ages in customs and +education as well as dogma. It was chiefly a polemical movement, a +fight between contentious savants. The writings of the Humanists at +this naively sensuous period were full of the joy of life and love of +pleasure; but scarcely any simple feeling for Nature can be found in +them, and there was neither poet nor poem fit to be compared with +Petrarch and his sonnets. + +Natural philosophy, too, was proscribed by scholastic wisdom; the +real Aristotle was only gradually shelled out from under mediæval +accretions. The natural philosopher, Conrad Summenhart[2] (1450-1501) +was quite unable to disbelieve the foolish legend, that the +appearance of a comet foretold four certain events--heat, wind, war, +and the death of princes. At the same time, not being superstitious, +he held aloof from the crazy science of astrology and all the fraud +connected with it. Indeed, as an observer of Nature, and still more +as a follower and furtherer of the scholastic Aristotelian natural +philosophy, he shewed a leaning towards the theory of development, +for, according to him, the more highly organized structures proceed +from those of lower organization, and these again form the inorganic +under the influence of meteors and stars. The poet laureate Conrad +Celtes (_b_. 1459), a singer of love and composer of four books about +it, was a true poet. His incessant wandering, for he was always +moving from place to place, was due in part to love of Nature and of +novelty, but still more to a desire to spread his own fame. He lacked +the naivete and openness to impressions of the true child of Nature; +his songs in praise of spring, etc., scatter a colourless general +praise, which is evidently the result of arduous thought rather than +of direct impressions from without; and his many references to +ancient deities shew that he borrowed more than his phrases. + +Though geography was then closely bound up with the writing of +history, as represented by Beatus Rhenanus (1485-1547) and Johann +Aventinus, and patriotism and the accounts of new lands led men to +wish to describe the beauties and advantages of their own, the +imposing discoveries across the seas did not make so forcible an +impression upon the German humanist as upon savants elsewhere, +especially in Italy and Spain. A mystico-theosophical feeling for +Nature, or rather a magical knowledge of her, flourished in Germany +at this time among the learned, both among Protestants and those who +were partially true to Catholicism. One of the strangest exponents of +such ideas was Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim of Cologne[3] (1535). +His system of the world abounded in such fantastic caprices as these: +everything depends on harmony and sympathy; when one of Nature's +strings is struck, the others sound with it: the analogical +correspondences are at the same time magical: symbolic relations +between natural objects are sympathetic also: a true love-bond exists +between the elm and vine: the sun bestows life on man; the moon, +growth; Mercury, imagination; Venus, love, etc. God is reflected in +the macrocosm, gives light in all directions through all creatures, +is adumbrated in man microcosmically, and so forth. + +Among others, Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus Paracelsus +von Hohenheim (1541), ranked Nature and the Bible, like Agrippa, as +the best books about God and the only ones without falsehood. + +'One must study the elements, follow Nature from land to land, since +each single country is only one leaf in the book of creation. The +eyes that find pleasure in this true experience are the true +professors, and more reliable than all learned writings.' + +He held man to be less God's very image than a microcosmic copy of +Nature--the quintessence of the whole world. Other enthusiasts made +similar statements. Sebastian Frank of Donauwörth (1543) looked upon +the whole world as an open book and living Bible, in which to study +the power and art of God and learn His will: everything was His +image, all creatures are 'a reflection, imprint, and expression of +God, through knowledge of which man may come to know the true Mover +and Cause of all things.' + +He shewed warm feeling for Nature in many similes and descriptions[4]-- +in fact, much of his pithy drastic writing sounds pantheistic. But he +was very far from the standpoint of the great Italian philosophers, +Giordano Bruno and Campanella. Bruno, a poet as well as thinker, +distinguished Nature in her self-development--matter, soul, and +mind--as being stages and phases of the One. + + The material of all things issues from the original womb, + For Nature works with a master hand in her own inner depths; + She is art, alive and gifted with a splendid mind. + Which fashions its own material, not that of others, + And does not falter or doubt, but all by itself + Lightly and surely, as fire burns and sparkles. + Easily and widely, as light spreads everywhere, + Never scattering its forces, but stable, quiet, and at one, + Orders and disposes of everything together. + +Campanella, even in a revolting prison, sang in praise of the wisdom +and love of God, and His image in Nature. He personified everything +in her; nothing was without feeling; the very movements of the stars +depended on sympathy and antipathy; harmony was the central soul of +all things. + +The most extraordinary of all German thinkers was the King of +Mystics, Jacob Böhme. Theist and pantheist at once, his mind was a +ferment of different systems of thought. It is very difficult to +unriddle his _Aurora_, but love of Nature, as well as love of God, is +clear in its mystical utterances: + + God is the heart or source of Nature. + Nature is the body of God. + +'As man's mind rules his whole body in every vein and fills his whole +being, so the Holy Ghost fills all Nature, and is its heart and rules +in the good qualities of all things.' + +'But now heaven is a delightful chamber of pleasure, in which are all +the powers, as in all Nature the sky is the heart of the waters.' + +In another place he calls God the vital power in the tree of life, +the creatures His branches, and Nature the perfection and +self-begotten of God. + +Nature's powers are explained as passion, will, and love, often in +lofty and beautiful comparisons: + +'As earth always bears beautiful flowers, plants, and trees, as well +as metals and animate beings, and these finer, stronger, and more +beautiful at one time than another; and as one springs into being as +another dies, causing constant use and work, so it is in still +greater degree with the begetting of the holy mysteries[5] ... +creation is nothing else than a revelation of the all-pervading +superficial godhead ... and is like the music of many flutes combined +into one great harmony.' + +But the most representative man, both of the fifteenth century and, +in a sense, of the German race, was Luther. That maxim of Goethe's +for teaching and ethics,' Cheerfulness is the mother of all virtues, +might well serve as a motto for Luther; + +The two men had much in common. + +The one, standing half in the Middle Ages, had to free himself from +mental slavery by strength of will and courage of belief. + +The other, as the prophet of the nineteenth century, the incarnation +of the modern man, had to shake off the artificiality and weak +sentimentality of the eighteenth. + +To both alike a healthy joy in existence was the root of being. +Luther was always open to the influence of Nature, and, +characteristically, the Psalter was his favourite book. 'Lord, how +manifold are Thy works, in wisdom hast Thou made them all!' + +True to his German character, he could be profoundly sad; but his +disposition was delightfully cheerful and healthy, and we see from +his letters and table-talk, that after wife and child, it was in +'God's dear world' that he took the greatest pleasure. He could not +have enough of the wonders of creation, great or small. 'By God's +mercy we begin to see the splendour of His works and wonders in the +little flowers, as we consider how kind and almighty He is; therefore +we praise and thank Him. In His creatures we see the power of His +word--how great it is. In a peach stone, too, for hard as the shell +is, the very soft kernel within causes it to open at the right +time.'[6] Again, 'So God is present in all creatures, even the +smallest leaves and poppy seeds.' + +All that he saw of Nature inspired him with confidence in the +fatherly goodness of God. He wrote, August 5th, 1530, to Chancellor +Brneck: + + I have lately seen two wonderful things: the first, looking from + the window at the stars and God's whole beautiful sky dome, I saw + never a pillar to support it, and yet it did not fall, and is + still firm in its place. Now, there are some who search for such + pillars and are very anxious to seize them and feel them, and + because they cannot, fidget and tremble as if the skies would + certainly fall ... the other, I also saw great thick clouds sweep + over our heads, so heavy that they might be compared to a great + sea, and yet I saw no ground on which they rested, and no vats in + which they were contained, yet they did not fall on us, but + greeted us with a frown and flew away. When they had gone, the + rainbow lighted both the ground and the roof which had held them. + +Luther often used very forcible images from Nature. 'It is only for +the sake of winter that we lie and rot in the earth; when our summer +comes, our grain will spring up--rain, sun, and wind prepare us for +it--that is, the Word, the Sacraments, and the Holy Ghost.' + +His Bible was an orchard of all sorts of fruit trees; in the +introduction to the Psalter, he says of the thanksgiving psalms: +'There one looks into the hearts of the saints as into bright and +beautiful gardens--nay, as into heaven itself, where pure and happy +thoughts of God and His goodness are the lovely flowers.' + +His description of heaven for his little son John is full of simple +reverent delight in Nature, quite free from platonic and mystical +speculation as to God's relation to His universe; and Protestant +divines kept this tone up to the following century, until the days of +rationalism and pietism. + +Of such spontaneous hearty joy in Nature as this, the national songs +of a nation are always the medium. They were so now; for, while a +like feeling was nowhere else to be found, the Volkslieder expressed +the simple familiar relationship of the child of Nature to wood, +tree, and flower in touching words and a half-mythical, +half-allegorical tone which often revealed their old Germanic origin. + +There is a fourteenth-century song, probably from the Lower Rhine,[7] +which suggests the poems of the eighth and ninth centuries, about a +great quarrel between Spring, crowned with flowers, and hoary-headed +Winter, in which one praises and the other blames the cuckoo for +announcing Spring. + +In this song, Summer complains to mankind and other friends that a +mighty master is going to drive him away; this mighty master, Winter, +then takes up the word, and menaces Spring with the approach of +frost, who will slight and imprison him, and then kill him; ice and +hail agree with Winter, and storm, rain, snow, and bitter winds are +called his vassals, etc. + +There are naive verses in praise of Spring and Summer: + + When that the breezes blow in May, + And snow melts from the wood away, + Blue violets lift their heads on high, + And when the little wood-birds sing, + And flow'rets from the ground up-spring, + Then everybody's glad. + +Others complaining of Winter, who must have leave of absence, and the +wrongs it has wrought are poured out to Summer. The little birds are +very human; the owlet complains: + + Poor little owlet me! + I have to fly all alone through the wood to-night; + The branch I want to perch on is broken, + The leaves are all faded, + My heart is full of grief. + +The cuckoo is either praised for bringing good news, or made fun of +as the 'Gutzgauch.' + + A cuckoo will fly to his heart's treasure, etc. + +The fable songs[8] of animal weddings are full of humour. The fox +makes arrangements for his wedding: 'Up with you now, little birds! I +am going to take a bride. The starling shall saddle the horses, for +he has a grey mantle; the beaver with the cap of marten fur must be +driver, the hare with his light foot shall be outrider; the +nightingale with his clear voice shall sing the songs, the magpie +with his steady hop must lead the dances,' etc. + +The nightingale, with her rich tones, is beloved and honoured before +all the winged things; she is called 'the very dear nightingale,' and +addressed as a lady. + +'Thou art a little woodbird, and flyest in and out the green wood; +fair Nightingale, thou little woodbird, thou shalt be my messenger.' + +It is she who warns the girl against false love, or is the silent +witness of caresses. + +There were a great many wishing songs: 'Were I a little bird and had +two wings, I would fly to thee,' or 'Were I a wild falcon, I would +take flight and fly down before a rich citizen's house--a little maid +is there,' etc. 'And were my love a brooklet cold, and sprang out of +a stone, little should I grieve if I were but a green wood; green is +the wood, the brooklet is cold, my love is shapely.' The betrayed +maiden cries: 'Would God I were a white swan! I would fly away over +mountain and deep valley o'er the wide sea, so that my father and +mother should not know where I was.' + +Flowers were used symbolically in many ways; roses are always the +flowers of love. 'Pretty girls should be kissed, roses should be +gathered,' was a common saying; and 'Gather roses by night, for then +all the leaves are covered with cooling dew.' 'The roses are ready to +be gathered, so gather them to-day. He who does not gather in summer, +will not gather in winter.' There is tenderness in this: 'I only know +a little blue flower, the colour of the sky; it grows in the green +meadow, 'tis called forget-me-not.' + +These are sadder: + + There is a lime tree in this valley, + O God! what does it there? + It will help me to grieve + That I have no lover. + +'Alas! you mountains and deep valleys, is this the last time I shall +see my beloved? Sun, moon, and the whole sky must grieve with me till +my death.' + +Where lovers embrace, flowers spring out of the grass, roses and +other flowers and grasses laugh, the trees creak and birds sing;[9] +where lovers part, grass and leaves fade.[10] + +Most touching of all is the idea, common to the national songs of all +nations, that out of the grave of two lovers, lilies and roses spring +up, or climbing plants, love thus outliving death. + +We look in vain among the master singers of the fifteenth and +sixteenth centuries for such fresh heartfelt tones as these, although +honest Hans Sachs shews joy in Nature here and there; most charmingly +in the famous comparison of 'the Wittenberg Nightingale, which every +one hears everywhere now,' in praise of Luther: + +'Wake up, the dawn is nigh! I hear a joyous nightingale singing in +the green hedge, it fills the hills and valleys with its voice. The +night is stooping to the west, the day is rising from the east, the +morning red is leaping from the clouds, the sun looks through. The +moon quenches her light; now she is pale and wan, but erewhile with +false glamours she dazzled all the sheep and turned them from their +pasture lands and pastor....' + +Fischart too, in his quaint description of a voyage on the Rhine in +_Glückhaft Schiff_, shews little feeling for Nature; but in +_Simplicissimus_, on the other hand, that monument of literature +which reflected contemporary culture to a unique degree, it is very +marked; the more so since it appeared when Germany lay crushed by the +Thirty Years' War. + +When the hero as a boy was driven from his village home and fled into +the forest, he came upon a hermit who took care of him, and waking at +midnight, he heard the old man sing: + + Come, nightingale, comfort of the night, + Let your voice rise in a song of joy, come praise the Creator, + While other birds are sound asleep and cannot sing!... + The stars are shining in the sky in honour of God.... + My dearest little bird, we will not be the laziest of all + And lie asleep; we will beguile the time with praise + Till dawn refreshes the desolate woods. + +_Simplicissimus_ goes on: 'During this song, methinks, it was as if +nightingale, owl, and echo had combined in song, and if ever I had +been able to hear the morning star, or to try to imitate the melody +on my bagpipe, I should have slipt away out of the hut to join in the +melody, so beautiful it seemed; but I was asleep.' + +What was the general feeling for Nature in other countries during the +latter half of the seventeenth century? In Italy and Spain it had +assumed a form partly bucolic and idyllic, partly theosophically +mystical; Shakespeare's plays had brought sympathy to maturity in +England; the Netherlands had given birth to landscape painting, and +France had the splendid poetic landscapes of Claude Lorraine. But the +idealism thus reached soon degenerated into mannerism and +artificiality, the hatching of empty effect. + +The aberrations of taste which found expression in the periwig style +of Louis XIV., and in the pigtails of the eighteenth century, +affected the feeling for Nature too. The histories of taste in +general, and of feeling for Nature, have this in common, that their +line of progress is not uniformly straightforward, but liable to +zigzags. This is best seen in reviewing the different civilized races +together. Moreover, new ideas, however forcible and original, even +epoch-making, do not win acceptance at once, but rather trickle +slowly through resisting layers; it is long before any new gain in +culture becomes the common property of the educated, and hence +opposite extremes are often found side by side--taste for what is +natural with taste for what is artificial. Garden style is always a +delicate test of feeling for Nature, shewing, as it does, whether we +respect her ways or wish to impose our own. The impulse towards the +modern French gardening came from Italy. Ancient and modern times +both had to do with it. At the Renaissance there was a return to +Pliny's style,[11] which the Cinque cento gardens copied. In this +style laurel and box-hedges were clipt, and marble statues placed +against them, 'to break the uniformity of the dark green with +pleasant silhouettes. One looks almost in vain for flowers and turf; +even trees were exiled to a special wilderness at the edge of the +garden; but the great ornament of the whole was never missing, the +wide view over sunny plains and dome-capt towns, or over the distant +shimmering sea, which had gladdened the eyes of Roman rulers in +classic days.'[12] + +The old French garden as Maître Lenotre laid it out in Louis XIV.'s +time at Versailles, St Germain, and St Cloud, was architectural in +design, and directly connected, like Pliny's, with various parts of +the house, by open halls, pavilions, and colonnades. Every part of +it--from neat turf parterres bordered by box in front of the terrace, +designs worked out in flowers or coloured stones, and double rows of +orange spaliers, to groups of statues and fountains--belonged to one +symmetrical plan, the focus of which was the house, standing free +from trees, and visible from every point. Farther off, radiating +avenues led the eye in the same direction, and every little +intersecting alley, true to the same principle, ran to a definite +object--obelisk, temple, or what not. There was no lack of bowers, +giant shrubberies, and water-courses running canal-wise through the +park, but they all fell into straight lines; every path was ruled by +a ruler, the eye could follow it to its very end. Artifice was the +governing spirit. As Falke says: 'Nature dared not speak but only +supply material; she had to sacrifice her own inventive power to this +taste and this art. Hills and woods were only hindrances; the +straight lines of trees and hedges, with their medley of statues and +"cabinets de verdure," demanded level ground, and the landscape eye +of the period only tolerated woods as a finish to its cut and clipt +artificialities.'[13] + +Trees and branches were not allowed to grow at their own sweet will; +they were cut into cubes, balls, pyramids, even into shapes of +animals, as the gardener's fancy or his principles decreed; cypresses +were made into pillars or hearts with the apex above or below; and +the art of topiary even achieved complete hunting scenes, with +hunters, stags, dogs, and hares in full chase on a hedge. Of such a +garden one could say with honest Claudius, ''Tis but a tailor's joke, +and shews the traces of the scissors; it has nothing of the great +heart of Nature.' + +It was Nature in bondage: 'green architecture,' with all its parts, +walls, windows, roofs, galleries cut out of leafage, and theatres +with stage and wings in which silk and velvet marquises with +full-bottomed wigs and lace jabots, and ladies in hooped petticoats +and hair in towers, played at private theatricals. + +Where water was available, water devices were added. And in the midst +of all this unnaturalness Greek mythology was introduced: the story +of Daphne and Apollo appeared in one alley, Meleager and Atalanta in +another, all Olympus was set in motion to fill up the walls and +niches. And the people were like their gardens both in dress and +manners; imposing style was everything. + +Then came the Rococo period of Louis XV. The great periwig shrivelled +to a pigtail, and petty flourish took the place of Lenotre's +grandezza. + +'The unnatural remained, the imposing disappeared and caprice took +its place,' says Falke. Coquetry too. All the artistic output of the +time bears this stamp, painting included. Watteau's scenery and +people were unnatural and affected--mere inventions to suit the +gallant _fêtes_. But he knew and loved Nature, though he saw her with +the intoxicated eye of a lover who forgets the individual but keeps a +glorified impression of her beauty, whereas Boucher's rosy-blue +landscapes look as if he had never seen their originals. His world +had nothing in common with Nature, and with reality only this, that +its sensuousness, gaiety, falsity, and coquetry were true to the +period. But in both Watteau and Boucher there was a faint glimmer of +the idyllic--witness the dash of melancholy in Watteau's brightest +pictures. Feeling for Nature was seeking its lost path--the path it +was to follow with such increased fervour. + +German literature too, in the seventeenth century, stood under the +sign manual of the Pigtail and Periwig; it was baroque, stilted, +bombastic, affected, feeling and form alike were forced, not +spontaneous. Verses were turned out by machinery and glued together. +Martin Opitz,[14] the recognized leader and king of poets, had +travelled far, but there is no distinct feeling for Nature in his +poetry. His words to a mountain: + +'Nature has so arranged pleasure here, that he who takes the trouble +to climb thee is repaid by delight,' scarcely admit the inference +that he understood the charm of distance in the modern sense. He took +warmer interest in the bucolic side of country life; rhyming about +the delightful places, dwellings of peace, with their myrtles, +mountains, valleys, stones, and flowers, where he longed to be; and +his _Spring Song_, an obvious imitation of the classics (Horace's +_Beatus ille_ was his model for _Zlatna_), has this conventional +contrast between his heart and Nature. + +'The frosty ice must melt; snow cannot last any longer, Favonius; the +gentle breeze is on the, fields again. Seed is growing vigorously, +grass greening in all its splendour, trees are budding, flowers +growing ...thou, too my heart, put off thy grief.' + +There is more nostalgia than feeling for Nature in this: + +'Ye birches and tall limes, waste places, woods and fields, farewell +to you! + +'My comfort and my better dwelling-place is elsewhere!' + +But (and this Winter, strange to say, ignores) his pastorals have all +the sentimental elegiac style of the Pigtail period. + +There had been German adaptations of foreign pastorals, such as +Montreux, _Schãferei von der schönen Juliana_, since 1595; Urfé's +_Astrée_ and Montemayor's _Diana_ appeared in 1619, and Sidney's +_Arcadia_ ten years later. + +Opitz tried to widen the propaganda for this kind of poetry, and +hence wrote, not to mention little pastorals such as _Daphne, +Galatea, Corydon,_ and _Asteria_, his _Schãferei von der 'Nymphen +Hercinie.'_ + +His references to Nature in this are as exaggerated as everything +else in the poem. He tells how he did not wake 'until night, the +mother of the stars, had gone mad, and the beautiful light of dawn +began to shew herself and everything with her.... + +'I sprang up and greeted the sweet rays of the sun, which looked down +from the tops of the mountains and seemed at the same time to comfort +me.' + +He came to a spring 'which fell from a crag with charming murmur and +rustle,' cut a long poem in the fir bark, and conversed with three +shepherds on virtue, love, and travelling, till the nymph Hercynia +appeared and shewed him the source of the Silesian stream. One of the +shepherds, Buchner, was particularly enthusiastic about water: 'Kind +Nature, handmaid of the Highest, has shewn her best handiwork in sea, +river, and spring.' + +Fleming too, who already stood much higher as a lyrist and had +travelled widely, lacked the power of describing scenery, and must +needs call Oreads, Dryads, Castor and Pollux to his aid. He rarely +reached the simple purity of his fine sonnet _An Sich,_ or the +feeling in this: 'Dense wild wood, where even the Titan's brightest +rays give no light, pity my sufferings. In my sick soul 'tis as dark +as in thy black hollow.' + +In this time of decline the hymns of the Evangelical Church (to which +Fleming contributed) were full of feeling, and brought the national +songs to mind as nothing else did. + +A few lines of Paul Gerhardt's seem to me to out-weigh whole volumes +of contemporary rhymes--lines of such beauty as the _Evening Song_: + + Now all the woods are sleeping, + And night and stillness creeping + O'er field and city, man and beast; + The last faint beam is going, + The golden stars are glowing + In yonder dark-blue deep. + +And after him, and more like him than any one else, came Andreas +Gryphius. + +There was much rhyming about Nature in the poet schools of Hamburg, +Königsberg, and Nuremberg; but, for the most part, it was an idle +tinkle of words without feeling, empty artificial stuff with +high-flown titles, as in Philipp von Zesen's _Pleasure of Spring_, +and _Poetic Valley of Roses and Lilies_. + +'Up, my thoughts, be glad of heart, in this joyous pleasant March; +ah! see spring is reviving, earth opens her treasury,' etc. + +His romances were more noteworthy if not more interesting. He +certainly aimed high, striving for simplicity and clearness of +expressions in opposition to the Silesian poets, and hating foreign +words. + +His feeling for Nature was clear; he loved to take his reader into +the garden, and was enthusiastic about cool shady walks, beds of +tulips, birds' songs, and echoes. Idyllic pastoral life was the +fashion--people of distinction gave themselves up to country life and +wore shepherd costume--and he introduced a pastoral episode into his +romance, _Die adriatische Rosemund._[15] + +Rosemund, whose father places arbitrary conditions in the way of her +marriage with Markhold, becomes a shepherdess. + + Not far off was a delightful spot where limes and alders made + shade on hot summer days for the shepherds and shepherdesses who + dwelt around. The shady trees, the meadows, and the streams which + ran round it, and through it, made it look beautiful ... the + celestial Rosemund had taken up her abode in a little shepherd + hut on the slope of a little hill by a water-course, and shaded + by some lime trees, in which the birds paid her homage morning + and evening.... Such a place and such solitude refreshed the more + than human Rosemund, and in such peace she was able to unravel + her confused thoughts. + +She thought continually of Markhold, and spent her time cutting his +name in the trees. The following description of a walk with her +sister Stillmuth and her lover Markhold, gives some idea of the +formal affected style of the time. + + The day was fine, the sky blue, the weather everywhere warm. The + sun shone down on the globe with her pleasant lukewarm beams so + pleasantly, that one scarcely cared to stay indoors. They went + into the garden, where the roses had opened in the warmth of the + sun, and first sat down by the stream, then went to the grottos, + where Markhold particularly admired the shell decorations. When + this charming party had had enough of both, they finally betook + themselves to a leafy walk, where Rosemund introduced pleasant + conversation on many topics. She talked first about the many + colours of tulips, and remarked that even a painter could not + produce a greater variety of tints nor finer pictures than these, + etc. + +In describing physical beauty, he used comparisons from Nature; for +instance, in _Simson_[16]: + + The sun at its brightest never shone so brightly as her two eyes + ... no flower at its best can shew such red as blooms in the + meadow of her cheeks, no civet rose is so milk-white, no lily so + delicate and spotless, no snow fresh-fallen and untrodden is so + white, as the heaven of her brows, the stronghold of her mind. + +H. Anselm von Ziegler und Klipphausen also waxes eloquent in his +famous _Asiatischen Banise_: 'The suns of her eyes played with +lightnings; her curly hair, like waves round her head, was somewhat +darker than white; her cheeks were a pleasant Paradise where rose and +lily bloomed together in beauty--yea, love itself seemed to pasture +there.' Elsewhere too this writer, so highly esteemed by the second +Silesian school of poets, indulged in showy description and inflated +rhetoric. Anton Ulrich von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel tried more +elaborate descriptions of scenery; so that Chovelius says: + + The Duke's German character shews pleasantly in his delight in + Nature. The story often takes one into woods and fields; already + griefs and cares were carried to the running brook and mossy + stone, and happy lovers listened to the nightingale. + +His language is barely intelligible, but there is a pleasant breadth +about his drawing--for example, of the king's meadow and the grotto +in _Aramena_: + + Very cold crystal streams flowed through the fields and ran + softly over the stony ground, making a pleasant murmur. Whilst + the ear was thus contented, a distant landscape delighted the + eye. No more delightful place, possessing all this at once, could + have been found, etc. + + Looking through the numerous air-holes, the eye lost itself in a + deep valley, surrounded by nothing but mountains, where the + shepherds tended their flocks, and one heard their flutes + multiplied by the echo in the most delightful way. + +Mawkish shepherd play is mixed here with such verses as (Rahel): + + Thou, Chabras, thou art the dear stream, where Jacob's mouth gave + me the first kiss. Thou, clear brook, often bearest away the + passionate words of my son of Isaac ... on many a bit of wounded + bark, the writing of my wounds is to be found. + +The most insipid pastoral nonsense of the time was produced by the +Nuremberg poets, the Pegnitz shepherds Klaj and Harsdörfer. Their +strength lay in imitating the sounds of Nature, and they were much +admired. What is still more astonishing, Lohenstein's writings were +the model for thirty years, and it was the fashion for any one who +wrote more simply to apologize for being unable to reach the level of +so great a master! To us the bombast, artificiality, and hidden +sensuality of his poetry and Hoffmannswaldan's, are equally +repulsive. + +What dreary, manufactured stuff this is from Lohenstein's _Praise of +Roses sung by the Sun_[17]: + + This is the queen of flowers and plants, + The bride of heaven, world's treasure, child of stars! + For whom love sighs, and I myself, the sun, do pant, + Because her crown is golden, and her leaves are velvet, + Her foot and stylus emerald, her brilliance shames the ruby. + + Other beings possess only single beauties, + Nature has made the rose beautiful with all at once. + She is ashamed, and blushes + Because she sees all the other flowers stand ashamed before her. + +In _Rose Love_ he finds the reflection of love in everything: + + In whom does not Love's spirit plant his flame? + One sees the oil of love burn in the starry lamps, + That pleasant light can nothing be but love, + For which the dew from Phoebus' veil doth fall. + Heaven loves the beauteous globe of earth, + And gazes down on her by night with thousand eyes; + While earth to please the heaven + Doth clover, lilies, tulips in her green hair twine, + The elm and vine stock intertwine, + The ivy circles round the almond trees, + And weeps salt tears when they are forced apart. + And where the flowers burn with glow of Love, + It is the rose that shews the brightest flame, + For is the rose not of all flowers the queen, + The wondrous beauty child of sun and earth? + +Artificiality and bombast reached its highest pitch in these poets, +and feeling for Nature was entirely absent. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +SYMPTOMS OF A RETURN TO NATURE + + +It is refreshing to find, side by side with these mummified +productions, the traces of a pure national poetry flowing clear as +ever, 'breaking forth from the very heart of the people, ever +renewing its youth, and not misled by the fashion of the day.'[1] + +The traces prove that simple primitive love for Nature was not quite +dead. For instance, this of the Virgin Mary: 'Mary, she went across +the heath, grass and flowers wept for grief, she did not find her +son.' And the lines in which the youth forced into the cloister asks +Nature to lament with him: 'I greet you all, hill and dale, do not +drive me away--grass and foliage and all the green things in the wild +forest. O tree! lose your green ornaments, complain, die with +me--'tis your duty.' + +Then the Spring greetings: + + Now we go into the wide, wide world, + With joy and delight we go; + The woods are dressing, the meadows greening, + The flowers beginning to blow. + Listen here! and look there! We can scarce trust our eyes, + For the singing and soaring, the joy and life everywhere. + +And: + + What is sweeter than to wander in the early days of Spring + From one place to another in sheer delight and glee; + While the sun is shining brightly, and the birds exult around + Fair Nightingale, the foremost of them all? + +This has the pulse of true and naive feeling (the hunter is starting +for the hunt in the early morning): + + When I come into the forest, still and silent everywhere, + There's a look of slumber in it, but the air is fresh and cool. + Now Aurora paints the fir tops at their very tips with gold, + And the little finch sits up there launching forth his song of praise, + Thanking for the night that's over, for the day that's just awake + Gently blows the breeze of morning, rocking in the topmost twigs, + And it bends them down like children, like good children when they pray; + And the dew is an oblation as it drops from their green hair. + O what beauties in the forest he that we may see and know! + One could melt away one's heart before its wonders manifold! + +The sixth line in the original has a melody that reminds one of +Goethe's early work. + +But even amidst the artificial poetry then in vogue, there were a few +side streams which turned away from the main current of the great +poet schools, from the unnaturalness and bombast affected especially +by the Silesians. As Winter says, even the satirists Moscherosch and +Logau were indirectly of use in paving the way for a healthier +condition, through their severe criticisms of the corruption of the +language; and Logau's one epigram on May, 'This month is a kiss which +heaven gives to earth, that she may be a bride now, a mother +by-and-by,' outweighs all Harsdörfer's and Zesen's poetry about +Nature. + +But even by the side of Opitz and Fleming there was at least one poet +of real feeling, Friedrich von Spee.[2] With all his mystic and +pietist Christianity, he kept an open eye for Nature. His poems are +full of disdain of the world and joy in Nature,[3] longings for death +and lamentations over sin; he delighted in personifications of +abstract ideas, childish playing with words and feelings, and +sentimental enthusiasm. But mawkish and canting as he was apt to be, +he often shewed a fine appreciation of detail. He was even--a rare +thing then--fascinated by the sea. + + Now rages and roars the wild, wild sea, + Now in soft curves lies quietly; + Sweetly the light of the sun's bright glow + Mirrors itself in the water below. + + Sad winter's past--the stork is here, + Birds are singing and nests appear; + Bowery homes steal into the day, + Flow'rets present their full array; + Like little snakes and woods about, + The streams go wandering in and out. + +His motives, like his diminutives, are constantly recurring. He uses +many bold and poetic personifications; the sun 'combs her golden +hair,' the moon is a good shepherd who leads his sheep the stars +across the blue heath, blowing upon a soft pipe; the sun adorns +herself in spring with a crown and a girdle of roses, fills her +quiver with arrows, and sends her horses to gallop for miles across +the smooth sky; the wind flies about, stopping for breath from time +to time; shakes its wings and withdraws into its house when it is +tired; the brook of Cedron sits, leaning on a bucket in a hollow, +combing his bulrush hair, his shoulders covered by grass and water; +he sings a cradle song to his little brooks, or drives them before +him, etc. + +But the most gifted poet of the set, and the most doughty opponent of +Lohenstein's bombast, was the unhappy Christian Guenther.[4] + +He vents his feelings in verse because he must. There is a foretaste +of Goethe in his lyrics, poured put to free the soul from a burden, +and melodious as if by accident. As we turn over the leaves of his +book of songs, we find deep feeling for Nature mingled with his love +and sorrows.[5] + + Bethink you, flowers and trees and shades, + Of the sweet evenings here with Flavia! + 'Twas here her head upon my shoulder pressed; + Conceal, ye limes, what else I dare not say. + 'Twas here she clover threw and thyme at me, + And here I filled her lap with freshest flowers. + Ah! that was a good time! + I care more for moon and starlight than the pleasantest of days, + And with eyes and heart uplifted from my chamber often gaze + With an awe that grows apace till it scarcely findeth space. + +To his lady-love he writes: + + Here where I am writing now + 'Tis lonely, shady, cool, and green; + And by the slender fig I hear + The gentle wind blow towards Schweidnitz. + And all the time most ardently + I give it thousand kisses for thee. + +And at Schweidnitz: + + A thousand greetings, bushes, fields, and trees, + You know him well whose many rhymes + And songs you've heard, whose kisses seen; + Remember the joy of those fine summer nights. + +To Eleanora: + + Spring is not far away. Walk in green solitude + Between your alder rows, and think ... + As in the oft-repeated lesson + The young birds' cry shall bear my longing; + And when the west wind plays with cheek and dress be sure + He tells me of thy longing, and kisses thee a thousand times for me. + +In a time of despair, he wrote: + + Storm, rage and tear! winds of misfortune, shew all your tyranny! + Twist and split bark and twig, + And break the tree of hope in two + Stem and leaves are struck by this hail and thunder, + The root remains till storm and rain have laid their wrath. + +Again: + + The woods I'll wander through, + From men I'll flee away, + With lonely doves I'll coo, + And with the wild things stay. + When life's the prey of misery, + And all my powers depart, + A leafy grave will be + Far kinder than thy heart. + +True lyrist, he gave Nature her full right in his feelings, and found +comfort in return; but, as Goethe said of him, gifted but unsteady as +he was, 'He did not know how to restrain himself, and so his life and +poetry melted away.' + +Among those who made use of better material than the Silesian poets, +H. Barthold Brockes stood first. Nature was his one and only subject; +but in this he was not original, he was influenced by England. While +France was dictating a taste like the baroque, and Germany +enthusiastically adopting it (every petty prince in the land copied +the gardens at Versailles, Schwetzingen more closely than the rest), +a revolution which affected all Europe was brought about by England. +The order of the following dates is significant: William Kent, the +famous garden artist, died in 1748, James Thomson in the same year, +Brockes a year earlier; and about the same time the imitations of +Robinson Crusoe sprang up like mushrooms. + +We have considered Shakespeare's plays; English lyrists too of the +fifteenth and sixteenth centuries shewed deep feeling for Nature, and +invested scenery with their own feelings in a very delicate way. + +G. Chaucer (1400) praises the nightingale s song in _From the Floure +and Leafe_: + + So was I with the song + Thorow ravished, that till late and long + Ne wist I in what place I was ne where; ... + And at the last, I gan full well aspie + Where she sat in a fresh grene laurer tree + On the further side, even right by me, + That gave so passing a delicious smell + According to the eglentere full well.... + + On the sote grass + I sat me downe, for, as for mine entent, + The birddes song was more convenient, + And more pleasant to me by many fold + Than meat or drink or any other thing. + +Thomas Wyatt (1542) says of his lady-love: + + The rocks do not so cruelly + Repulse the waves continually, + As she my suit and affection + So that I am past remedy. + +Robert Southwell (1595), in _Love's Servile Lott_, compares love to +April: + + May never was the month for love, + For May is full of floures, + But rather Aprill, wett by kinde, + For love is full of showers.... + Like winter rose and summer yce, + Her joyes are still untymelye; + Before her hope, behind remorse, + Fayre first, in fyne unseemely. + +Edmund Spenser (1598) describes a garden in _The Faerie Queene_: + + There the most daintie Paradise on ground + It selfe did offer to his sober eye, + In which all pleasures plenteously abownd, + And none does others' happinesse envye; + The painted flowres, the trees upshooting hye, + The dales for shade, the hilles for breathing space, + The trembling groves, the christall running by, + And, that which all fair workes doth most aggrace, + The art which all that wrought appeared in no place. + +Mountain scenery was seldom visited or described. + +Michael Drayton (1731) wrote an ode on the Peak, in Derbyshire: + + Though on the utmost Peak + A while we do remain, + Amongst the mountains bleak + Exposed to sleet and rain, + No sport our hours shall break + To exercise our vein. + +It is clear that he preferred his comfort to everything, for he goes +on: + + Yet many rivers clear + Here glide in silver swathes, + And what of all most dear + Buxton's delicious baths, + Strong ale and noble chear + T' assuage breem winter's scathes. + +Thomas Carew (1639) sings: + + Ask me no more where Jove bestows, + When June is past, the fading rose, + For in your beauties' orient deep + These flowers, as in their causes, sleep. + Ask me no more whither do stray + The golden atoms of the day, + For in pure love Heaven did prepare + Those powders to enrich your hair. + Ask me no more whither doth haste + The nightingale, when May is past, + For in your sweet dividing throat + She winters and keeps warm her note. + Ask me no more where these stars shine + That downwards fall in dead of night, + For in your eyes they sit, and there + Fixed become, as in their sphere. + Ask me no more if east or west + The phoenix builds her spicy nest, + For unto you at last she flies + And in your fragrant bosom dies. + +William Drummond (1746) avowed a taste which he knew to be very +unfashionable: + + Thrice happy he, who by some shady grove, + Far from the clamorous world, doth live his own + Though solitary, who is not alone, + But doth converse with that eternal love. + O how more sweet is birds' harmonious moan + Or the soft sobbings of the widow'd dove, + Than those smooth whisp'rings near a prince's throne.... + O how more sweet is zephyr's wholesome breath + And sighs perfum'd, which new-born flowers unfold. + +Another sonnet, to a nightingale, says: + + Sweet bird, that sing'st away the early hours + Of winters past or coming void of care, + Well pleased with delights which present are, + Fair seasons, budding sprays, sweet-smelling flowers; + To rocks, to springs, to rills, from leafy bowers + Thou thy Creator's goodness dost declare, + And what dear gifts on thee He did not spare, + A stain to human sense in sin that lowers, + What soul can be so sick which by thy songs + Attir'd in sweetness, sweetly is not driven + Quite to forget earth's turmoils, spites, and wrongs? + +He greets Spring: + + Sweet Spring, thou turn'st with all thy goodly train + Thy head with flames, thy mantle bright with flowers; + The zephyrs curl the green locks of the plain, + The clouds for joy in pearls weep down their showers. + +Robert Blair (1746) sings in _The Grave_: + + Oh, when my friend and I + In some thick wood have wander'd heedless on, + Hid from the vulgar eye, and sat us down + Upon the sloping cowslip-cover'd bank, + Where the pure limpid stream has slid along + In grateful errors through the underwood, + Sweet murmuring; methought the shrill-tongu'd + thrush + Mended his song of love, the sooty blackbird + Mellowed his pipe and soften'd every note, + The eglantine smell'd sweeter and the rose + Assum'd a dye more deep, whilst ev'ry flower + Vied with its fellow plant in luxury + Of dress. Oh! then the longest summer's day + Seem'd too, too much in haste, still the full heart + Had not imparted half; half was happiness + Too exquisite to last--Of joys departed + Not to return, how painful the remembrance! + +The great painter of Nature among the poets was James Thomson. He was +not original, but followed Pope, who had lighted up the seasons in a +dry, dogmatic way in _Windsor Forest_, and pastoral poems, and after +the publication of his _Winter_ the taste of the day carried him on. +His deep and sentimental affection for Nature was mixed up with piety +and moralizing. He said in a letter to his friend Paterson: + + Retirement and Nature are more and more my passion every day; and + now, even now, the charming time comes on; Heaven is just on the + point, or rather in the very act, of giving earth a green gown. + The voice of the nightingale is heard in our lane. You must know + that I have enlarged my rural domain ... walled, no, no! paled in + about as much as my garden consisted of before, so that the walk + runs round the hedge, where you may figure me walking any time of + day, and sometimes of the night.... May your health continue till + you have scraped together enough to return home and live in some + snug corner, as happy as the Corycius senex in Virgil's fourth + Georgic, whom I recommend both to you and myself as a perfect + model of the truest happy life. + +It is a fact that Solitude and Nature became a passion with him. He +would wander about the country for weeks at a time, noting every +sight and sound, down to the smallest, and finding beauty and divine +goodness in all. His _Seasons_ were the result. + +There is faithful portraiture in these landscapes in verse; some have +charm and delicacy, but, for the most part, they are only catalogues +of the external world, wholly lacking in links with the inner life. + +Scene after scene is described without pause, or only interrupted by +sermonizing; it is as monotonous as a gallery of landscape paintings. + +The human beings introduced are mere accessories, they do not live, +and the undercurrent of all is praise of the Highest. His +predilection is for still life in wood and field, but he does not +neglect grander scenery; his muse + + "Sees Caledonia, in romantic view: + Her airy mountains, from the waving main + Invested with a keen diffusive sky, + Breathing the soul acute; her forests huge, + Incult, robust, and tall, by Nature's hand + Planted of old; her azure lakes between, + Poured out extensive and of watery wealth + Full; winding, deep and green, her fertile vales, + With many a cool translucent brimming flood + Washed lovely...." + +And in _A Hymn_ we read: + + Ye headlong torrents rapid and profound, + Ye softer floods that lead the humid maze + Along the vale; and thou, majestic main, + A secret world of wonders in thyself. + +It is the lack of human life, the didactic tone, and the wearisome +detail which destroys interest in the _Seasons_--the lack of happy +moments of invention. Yet it had great influence on his +contemporaries in rousing love for Nature, and it contains many +beautiful passages. For example: + + Come, gentle Spring, ethereal mildness, come, + And from the bosom of yon dropping cloud, + While music wakes around, veiled in a shower + Of shadowing roses, on our plains descend. + +His most artistic poem is Winter: + + When from the pallid sky the sun descends + With many a spot, that o'er his glaring orb + Uncertain wanders, stained; red fiery streaks + Begin to flush around. The reeling clouds + Stagger with dizzy poise, as doubting yet + Which master to obey; while rising slow, + Blank in the leaden-coloured east, the moon + Wears a wan circle round her blunted horns. + Seen through the turbid fluctuating air, + The stars obtuse emit a shivering ray; + Or frequent seem to shoot, athwart the gloom, + And long behind them trail the whitening blaze. + Snatched in short eddies plays the withered leaf, + And on the flood the dancing feather floats. + With broadened nostrils to the sky upturned, + The conscious heifer snuffs the stormy gale.... + Retiring from the downs, where all day long + They picked their scanty fare, a blackening train + Of clamorous rooks thick urge their weary flight + And seek the closing shelter of the grove, + Assiduous, in his bower, the wailing owl + Plies his sad song. The cormorant on high + Wheels from the deep, and screams along the land. + Loud shrieks the soaring heron, and with wild wing + The circling sea-fowl cleave the flaky skies. + Ocean, unequal pressed, with broken tide + And blind commotion heaves, while from the shore, + Eat into caverns by the restless wave + And forest-rustling mountains, comes a voice + That solemn-sounding bids the world prepare. + +The elaboration of detail in such painting is certain evidence, not +only of a keen, but an enthusiastic eye for Nature. As he says in +Winter: + + Nature, great parent! whose unceasing hand + Rolls round the seasons of the changeful year! + How mighty, how majestic, are thy works! + With what a pleasing dread they swell the soul + That sees astonish'd, and astonish'd sings! + +Brockes was directly influenced by Pope and Thomson, and translated +the _Seasons_, when he had finished his _Irdisches Vergnügen in +Gott_. This unwieldy work, insipid and prosaic as it is, was still a +literary achievement, thanks to the dignity of the subject and the +high seriousness of its aim, at a time when frivolity was the fashion +in poetry. Its long pious descriptions of natural phenomena have none +of the imposing flow of Thomson's strophes. It treats of fire in 138 +verses of eight lines each, of air in 79, water in 78, earth in 74, +while flowers and fruit are dissected and analyzed at great length; +and all this rhymed botany and physics is loosely strung together, +but it shews a warm feeling for Nature of a moralizing and devotional +sort. He says himself[7] that he took up the study of poetry first as +an amusement, but later more seriously, and chose Nature as his +theme, not only because her beauty moved him, but as a means 'whereby +man might enjoy a permissible pleasure and be edified at the same +time.' + + So I resolved to sing the praises of the Creator to the best of + my powers, and felt the more bound to do it, because I held that + such great and almost inexcusable neglect and ingratitude was a + wrong to the Creator, and unbecoming in Christendom. I therefore + composed different pieces, chiefly in Spring, and tried my best + to describe the beauties of Nature, in order, through my own + pleasure, to rekindle the praise of the wise Creator in myself + and others, and this led at last to the first part of my + _Irdisches Vergnügen_. (1721.) + +His evidence from animal and plant life for the teleological argument +is very laughable; take, for example, the often-quoted chamois: + + The fat is good for phthisis, the gall for the face, chamois + flesh is good to eat, and its blood cures vertigo--the skin is no + less useful. Doth not the love as well as the wisdom and + almightiness of the Creator shine forth from this animal? + +For the rest, the following lines from _Irdisches Vergnügen in Gott_ +will serve to give an idea of his style; they certainly do honour to +his laborious attempt to miss none of the charms of the wood: + + Lately as I sat on the green grass + Shaded by a lime tree, and read, + I raised my eyes by chance and saw + Different trees here and there, some far, some near, + Some half, some all in light, and some in shade, + Their boughs bowed down by leaves. + I saw how beautifully both air and flowery mead + Were crowned and adorned. + To describe the green grace + And the landscape it makes so sweet, + And at the same time prolong my pleasure, + I took pencil and paper + And tried to describe the beautiful trees in rhyme, + To the glory of God their Creator. + Of all the beauty the world lays before our eyes, + There certainly is none which does not pale + Beside green boughs, + Nothing to compare for pure beauty with a wood. + The green roofing overhead + Makes me feel young again; + It hangs there, a living tapestry, + To the glory of God and our delight.... + Beyond many trees that lay in shade + I often saw one in full light; + A human eye would scarce believe + How sweetly twilight, light and darkness + Meet side by side in leafy trees. + Peering through the leaves with joy + We notice, as we see the leaves + Lighted from one side only, + That we can almost see the sun + Mixing gold with the tender green, etc. + +and so on for another twenty lines. + +Yet this rich Burgomaster of Hamburg, for all that he dealt chiefly +in rhymed prose, had his moments of rare elevation of thought and +mystical rapture about Nature; for instance, in the introduction to +_Ueber das Firmament_: + + As lately in the sapphire depths, + Not bound by earth nor water, aim nor end, + In the unplumbed aerial sea I gazed, + And my absorbed glance, now here, now there, + But ever deeper sank--horror came over me, + My eye grew dizzy and my soul aghast. + That infinite vast vault, + True picture of Eternity, + Since without birth or end + From God alone it comes.... + It overwhelmed my soul. + The mighty dome of deep dark light, + Bright darkness without birth or bound, + Swallowed the very world--burying thought. + My being dwindled to an atom, to a nought; + I lost myself, + So suddenly it beat me down, + And threatened with despair. + But in that salutary nothingness, that blessed loss, + All present God! in Thee--I found myself again. + +While English poetry and its German imitations were shewing these +signs of reaction from the artificiality of the time, and science and +philosophy often lauded Nature to the skies, as, for instance, +Shaftesbury[8] (1671-1713), a return to Nature became the principle +of English garden-craft in the first half of the eighteenth +century.[9] The line of progress here, as in taste generally, did not +run straightforward, but fluctuated. From the geometric gardens of +Lenotre, England passed to the opposite extreme; in the full tide of +periwig and hoop petticoat, minuets, beauty-patches and rouge, +Addison and Pope were banishing everything that was not strictly +natural from the garden. Addison would even have everything grow wild +in its own way, and Pope wrote: + + To build, to plant, whatever you intend, + To rear the column, or the arch to bend, + To swell the terrace or to sink the grot, + In all let Nature never be forgot. + +William Kent made allowance for this idea; but, as a painter, and +looking at his native scenery with a painter's eye, he noted its +characteristic features--the gentle undulations, the freshness of the +green, the wealth of trees--and based his garden-craft on these. + +The straight line was banished; in its place came wide spaces of lawn +and scattered groups of trees of different sorts--dark fir and alder +here, silver birch and grey poplar there; and flowery fields with +streams running through them stood out in relief against dark +woodland. + +Stiff walls, balustrades, terraces, statues, and so forth, +disappeared; the garden was not to contrast with the surrounding +landscape, but to merge into it--to be not Art, but a bit of Nature. +It was, in fact, to be a number of such bits, each distinct from the +rest--waterfall, sheltered sunny nook, dark wood, light glade. Kent +himself soon began to vary this mosaic of separate scenes by adding +ruins and pavilions; but it was Chambers the architect who developed +the idea of variety by his writings on the dwellings and manners of +the Chinese.[10] + +The fundamental idea that the garden ought to be a sample of the +landscape was common both to Kent and the Chinese; but, as China is +far richer than England in varieties of scenery, her gardens included +mountains, rocks, swamps, and deserts, as well as sunny fields and +plains, while English gardens were comparatively monotonous. When the +fashion for the Chinese style came in, as unluckily it did just when +we were trying to oust the Rococo, so that one pigtail superseded the +other, variety was achieved by groups of buildings in all sorts of +styles. Stables, ice-houses, gardeners' cottages took the form of +pavilions, pagodas, kiosks, and temples. + +Meanwhile, as a reaction against the Rococo, enthusiasm for Nature +increased, and feeling was set free from restraint by the growing +sentimentality. Richardson's novels fed the taste for the pleasures +of weeping sensibility, and garden-craft fell under its sway. In all +periods the insignificant and non-essential is unable to resist the +general stamp, if that only shews a little originality. + +These gardens, with temples to friendship and love, melancholy, +virtue, re-union, and death, and so forth, were suitable backgrounds +for the sentimental scenes described in the English novels, and for +the idyllic poets and moonshine singers of Germany. Here it was the +fashion to wander, tenderly intertwined, shedding floods of tears and +exchanging kisses, and pausing at various places to read the +inscriptions which directed them what to feel. At one spot they were +to laugh, at another to weep, at a third to be fired with devotion. + +Hermitages sprang up everywhere, with hermits, real or dummy. Any +good house near a wood, or in a shady position, was called a +hermitage, and dedicated to arcadian life, free from care and +ceremony. Classic and romantic styles competed for favour in +architecture; at one moment everything must needs be purely classic, +each temple Corinthian, Ionic, or Doric; at another Gothic, with the +ruins and fortresses of mediæval romance. And not only English +gardens, but those of Europe generally, though to a less degree, +passed through these stages of development, for no disease is so +infectious as fashion. + +It was not till the end of the eighteenth century that a healthy +reaction set in in England, when Repton turned back to Kent's +fundamental principle and freed it from its unnatural excrescences, +with the formula: the garden should be an artistic representation of +the landscape, a work of art whose materials are provided by Nature +herself, whether grass, flowers, bushes, trees, water, or whatever it +may be that she has to offer. Thus began our modern landscape +gardening. + +In another region too, a change was brought about from the Rococo to +a more natural style. It is true that Nature plays no direct _rôle_ +in _Robinson Crusoe_, and wins as little notice there as in its +numberless imitations; yet the book roused a longing for healthier, +more natural conditions in thousands of minds. It led the idyllic +tendency of the day back to its source, and by shewing all the +stages, from the raw state of Nature up to the culture of the +community, in the life of one man, it brought out the contrast +between the far-off age of innocence and the perverted present. + +The German _Simplicissimus_ closed with a Robinsonade, in which the +hero, after long wandering, found rest and peace on an island in the +ocean of the world, alone with himself and Nature. The readers of +_Robinson Crusoe_ were in much the same position. Defoe was not only +a true artist, but a man of noble, patient character, and his romance +proved a healing medicine to many sick minds, pointing the way back +to Nature and a natural fife, and creating a longing for the lost +innocence of man. + +Rousseau, who was also a zealous advocate of the English gardens, and +disgusted by the French Pigtail style, was more impressed by +_Robinson Crusoe_ than by any other book. It was the first book his +Emilia gave him, as a gospel of Nature and unspoilt taste. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE SENSITIVENESS AND EXAGGERATION OF +THE ELEGIAC IDYLLIC FEELING + + +This longing to return to the lost paradise of Nature gradually +produced a state of melancholy hyper-sensitiveness, an epidemic of +world pain, quite as unnatural as the Rococo. + +The heart came into its rights again and laid claim to absolute +dominion in its kingdom, and regret that it had lain so long deprived +of its own, gave rise to a tearful pensiveness, which added zest to +restitution. It was convalescence, but followed at once by another +complaint. Feeling swung from one extreme to the other. + +German feeling in the first half of the eighteenth century was +chiefly influenced, on the one hand, by Richardson's novels, which +left no room for Nature, and by the poetry of Young and Thomson; on +the other, by the pastoral idylls interspersed with anacreontic +love-passages, affected by the French. At first description and +moralizing preponderated. + +In 1729 Haller's _Alps_ appeared. It had the merit of drawing the +eyes of Europe to Alpine beauty and the moral worth of the Swiss, but +shewed little eye for romantic scenery. It is full of descriptive +painting, but not of a kind that appeals: scene follows scene with +considerable pathos, especially in dealing with the people; but +landscape is looked at almost entirely from the moralizing or +utilitarian standpoint. + +'Here, where the majestic Mount Gothard elevates its summit above the +clouds, and where the earth itself seems to approach the sun, Nature +has assembled in one spot all the choicest treasure of the globe. The +deserts of Libya, indeed, afford us greater novelties, and its sandy +plains are more fertile in monsters: but thou, favoured region, art +adorned with useful productions only, productions which can satisfy +all the wants of man. Even those heaps of ice, those frowning rocks +in appearance so sterile, contribute largely to the general good, for +they supply inexhaustible fountains to fertilize the land. What a +magnificent picture does Nature spread before the eye, when the sun, +gilding the top of the Alps, scatters the sea of vapours which +undulates below! Through the receding vale the theatre of a whole +world rises to the view! Rocks, valleys, lakes, mountains, and +forests fill the immeasurable space, and are lost in the wide +horizon. We take in at a single glance the confines of divers states, +nations of various characters, languages, and manners, till the eyes, +overcome by such extent of vision, drop their weary lids, and we ask +of the enchanted fancy a continuance of the scene. + +'When the first emotion of astonishment has subsided, how delightful +is it to observe each several part which makes up this sublime whole! +That mass of hills, which presents its graceful declivity covered +with flocks of sheep whose bleatings resound through the meadows; +that large clear lake, which reflects from its level surface sunbeams +gently curved; those valleys, rich in verdure, which compose by their +various outlines points of perspective which contract in the distance +of the landscape! Here rises a bare steep mountain laden with the +accumulated snow of ages; its icy head rests among the clouds, +repelling the genial rays of the moon and the fervid heat of the +dog-star: there a chain of cultivated hills spreads before the +delighted eye; their green pastures are enlivened by flocks, and +their golden corn waves in the wind: yet climates so different as +those are only separated by a cool, narrow valley. Behold that +foaming torrent rushing from a perpendicular height! Its rapid waves +dash among the rocks, and shoot even beyond their limits. Divided by +the rapidity of its course and the depth of the abyss where it falls, +it changes into a grey moving veil; and, at length scattered into +humid atoms, it shines with the tints of the rainbow, and, suspended +over the valley, refreshes it with plenteous dew. The traveller +beholds with astonishment rivers flowing towards the sky, and issuing +from one cloud, hide themselves in the grey veil of another. + +'Those desert places uncheered by the rays of the sun, those frozen +abysses deprived of all verdure, hide beneath their sterile sands +invaluable treasures, which defy the rigour of the seasons and all +the injuries of time! 'Tis in dark and marshy recesses, upon the damp +grottos, that crystal rocks are formed. Thus splendour is diffused +through their melancholy vaults, and their shadowy depths gutter with +the colours of the rainbow. O Nature, how various are thy operations, +how infinite thy fertility!' + +We cannot agree with Frey[1] that 'these few strophes may serve as +sufficient proof that Haller's poetry is still, even among the mass +of Alpine poetry, unsurpassed for intense power of direct vision, and +easily makes one forget its partial lack of flexibility of diction.' + +The truth is, flexibility is entirely lacking; but the lines do +express the taste for open-air life among the great sublimities and +with simple people. The poem is not romantic but idyllic, with a +touch of the elegiac. It is the same with the poem _On the Origin of +Evil_ (Book I.): + + On those still heights whence constant springs flow down, + I paused within a copse, lured by the evening breeze; + Wide country lay spread out beneath my feet, + Bounded by its own size alone.... + Green woods covered the hills, through which the pale tints of the fields + Shone pleasantly. + Abundance and repose held sway far as the eye could reach.... + And yonder wood, what left it to desire + With the red tints upon the half-bare beeches + And the rich pine's green shade o'er whitened moss? + While many a sun-ray through the interstices + A quivering light upon the darkness shed, + Blending in varying hues green night with golden day + How pleasant is the quiet of the copse! ... + Yea, all I see is given by Providence, + The world itself is for its burgher's joy; + Nature's inspired with the general weal, + The highest goodness shews its trace in all. + +Friedrich von Hagedorn, too, praises country pleasures in _The +Feeling of Spring_: + + Enamelled meadows! freshly decked in green, + I sing your praises constantly; + Nature and Spring have decked you out.... + Delightful quiet, stimulant of joy, + How enviable thou art! + +This idyllic taste for country life was common at the time, +especially among the so-called 'anacreontists.' Gleim, for instance, +in his _Praise of Country Life_: 'Thank God that I have fled from the +bustle of the world and am myself again under the open sky.' + +And in _The Countryman_: + + How happy is he who, free from cares, ploughs his father's + fields; every morning the sun shines on the grass in which he + lies. + +And Joh. Friedrich von Cronegk: + + Fly from sordid cares and the proud tumult of cities ... here in + the peaceful valley shy wisdom sports at ease, where the smiling + Muse crowns herself with dewy roses. + +With this idyllic tone it is not surprising to find the religious +feeling of many hymn writers; for instance, Gleim in _The Goodness of +God_: + + For whom did Thy goodness create the world so beautiful, O God? + For whom are the flowers on hill and dale? ... Thou gavest us + power to perceive the beauty. + +And above all, honest Gellert: + + The skies, the globe, the seas, praise the eternal glory. O my + Creator, when I consider Thy might and the wisdom of Thy ways.... + Sunshine and storm preach Thee, and the sands of the sea. + +Ewald von Kleist excelled Haller as much as Haller had excelled +Brockes. + +Julian Schmidt says[3]: 'Later on, descriptive poetry, like didactic, +fell into disgrace; but at that time this dwelling upon the minutiæ +of Nature served to enrich the imagination; Kleist's descriptions are +thoughtful and interesting.' It is easy to see that his longer poems +cost him much labour; they were not the pure songs of feeling that +gush out spontaneously like a spring from the rock. But in eloquence +and keenness of observation he excelled his contemporaries, although +he, too, followed the fashion of eighteenth-century literature, and +coquetted with Greek nymphs and deities, and the names of winds and +maidens. + +The tendency to depression, increased by his failure to adapt himself +to military life, made him incline more and more to solitude. + +_To Doris_ begins: + + Now spring doth warm the flakeless air, + And in the brook the sky reflects her blue, + Shepherds in fragrant flowers find delight ... + The corn lifts high its golden head, + And Zephyr moves in waves across the grain, + Her robe the field embroiders; the young rush + Adorns the border of each silver stream, + Love seeks the green night of the forest shade, + And air and sea and earth and heaven smile. + +_Sighs for Rest_: + + O silver brook, my leisure's early soother, + When wilt thou murmur lullabies again? + When shall I trace thy sliding smooth and smoother, + While kingfishers along thy reeds complain; + Afar from thee with care and toil opprest, + Thy image still can calm my troubled breast. + + O ye fair groves and odorous violet valleys, + Girt with a garland blue of hills around, + Thou quiet lake, where, when Aurora sallies, + Her golden tresses seem to sweep the ground: + Soft mossy turf, on which I wont to stray, + For me no longer bloom thy flow'rets gay. + As when the chilly nights of March arise + And whirl the howling dust in eddies swift, + The sunbeams wither in the dimmer skies, + O'er the young ears the sand and pebbles drift: + So the war rages, and the furious forces + The air with smoke bespread, the field with corses. + + The vineyard bleeds, and trampled is the com, + Orchards but heat the kettles of the camp.... + + As when a lake which gushing rains invade + Breaks down its dams, and fields are overflowed. + So floods of fire across the region spread, + And standing corn by crackling flames is mowed: + Bellowing the cattle fly; the forests burn, + And their own ashes the old stems in-urn. + + He too, who fain would live in purity, + Feels nature treacherous, hears examples urge, + As one who, falling overboard at sea, + Beats with his arms and feet the buoyant surge, + And climbs at length against some rocky brink, + Only beneath exhausted strength to sink. + + My cheek bedewed with holy tears in vain, + To love and heaven I vowed a spotless truth: + Too soon the noble tear exhaled again, + Example conquered, and the glow of youth + To live as live one's comrades seems allowed; + He who would be a man, must quit the crowd. + +He, too, wrote with hymn-like swing in praise of the Creator: 'Great +is the Lord! the unnumbered heavens are the chambers of his fortress, +storm and thunder-clouds his chariot.' + +The most famous of his poems, and the one most admired in his own +day, was _Spring_. This is full of love for Nature. It describes a +country walk after the muggy air of town, and conveys a vivid +impression of fresh germinating spring, though it is overlaid by +monotonous detail: + + Receive me, hallowed shades! Ye dwellings of sweet buss! + Umbrageous arches full of sleeping dark delights ... + Receive me! Fill my soul with longing and with rest ... + And you, ye laughing fields, + Valleys of roses, labyrinths of streams, + I will inhale an ecstasy with your balsamic breath, + And, lying in the shade, on strings of gold + Sing your indwelling joys.... + On rosy clouds, with rose and tulip crowned, + Spring has come down from heaven.... + The air grew softer, fields took varied hues, + The shades were leafy, and soft notes awoke + And flew and warbled round the wood in twilight greenery. + Brooks took a silver tint, sweet odours filled the air, + The early shepherd's pipe was heard by Echo in the dale.... + Most dear abode! Ah, were I but allowed + Down in the shade by yon loquacious brook + Henceforth to live! O sky! thou sea of love, + Eternal spring of health, will not thy waters succour me? + Must, my life's blossom wither, stifled by the weeds? + +Johann Peter Uz, who was undervalued because of his sickly style, +wrote many little songs full of feeling for Nature, though within +narrow limits. Their titles shew the pastoral taste[4]:--_Spring_, +_Morning, Shepherd's Morning Song, The Muse with the Shepherds, The +Meadow in the Country, Vintage, Evening, May, The Rose, Summer and +Wine, Winter Night, Longing for Spring_, etc. + +Many are fresh and full of warm feeling, especially the Spring Songs: + + See the blossoming of Spring! + Will't not taste the joys it showers? + Dost not feel its impulse thrill? + Friends! away our cares we'll fling! + In the joyous time of flowers, + Love and Bacchus have their will. + +and + + O forest, O green shady paths, + Dear place of spring's display! + My good luck from the thronging town + Has brought me here away. + + O what a fresh breeze flows + Down from the wooded hill, + How pleasantly the west wind flies + With rustling dewy wing + Across the vale, + Where all is green and blossoming. + +The personification is more marked in this: + + Thou hast sent us the Spring in his gleaming robe + With roses round his head. Smiling he comes, O God! + The hours conduct him to his flowery throne + Into the groves he enters and they bloom; fresh green is on the plain, + The forest shade returns, the west wind lovingly unfurls + Its dewy plumes, and happy birds begin to sing. + The face of Nature Thou hast deckt with beauty that enchants, + O Thou rich source of all the beautiful ... + My heart is lifted up to Thee in purest love. + +His feeling for Nature was warm enough, although most of his writing +was so artificial and tedious from much repetition of a few ideas, +that Kleist could write to Gleim[5]: 'The odes please me more the +more I read them. With a few exceptions, they have only one fault, +too many laurel woods; cut them down a little. Take away the marjoram +too, it is better in a good sausage than in a beautiful poem.' + +Joh. Georg Jacobi also belonged to the circle of poets gathered round +Gleim; but in many respects he was above it. He imitated the French +style[6] far less than the others--than Hagedorn, for example; and +though the Anacreontic element was strong in him, he overcame it, and +aimed at pure lyrical feeling. From his Life, written by a devoted +friend, we see that he had all the sentimentality of the day,[7] but +with much that was healthy and amiable in addition, and he touched +Nature with peculiar freshness and genuineness. + +In a poem to his brother, about the Saale valley near Halle, he +wrote: + + Lie down in early spring on yon green moss, + By yon still brook where heart with heart we spoke, + My brother.... + Will't see the little garden and the pleasant heights above, + So quiet and unspoilt? O friend, 'tis Nature speaks + In distant wood, near plain and careless glade, + Here on my little hill and in the clover.... + Dost hear the rustle of the streamlet through the wood? + +Jacobi was one whose heart, as he said of Gleim, took a warm interest +in all that breathed, even a violet, and sought sympathy and +companionship in the whole range of creation. + +This is from his _Morning Song_: + + See how the wood awakes, how from the lighted heights + With the soft waving breeze + The morning glory smiles in the fresh green.... + Here by the rippling brook and quivering flower, + We catch Love's rustle as she gently sweeps + Like Spring's own breath athwart the plains. + +Another song is; + + Tell me, where's the violet fled. + Late so gayly blowing. + Springing 'neath fair Flora's tread, + Choicest sweets bestowing? + Swain, the vernal scene is o'er, + And the violet blooms no more. + + Say, where hides the blushing rose, + Pride of fragrant morning, + Garland meet for beauty's brows, + Hill and dale adorning? + Gentle maid, the summer's fled, + And the hapless rose is dead. + + Bear me then to yonder rill, + Late so freely flowing, + Watering many a daffodil + On its margin glowing. + Sun and wind exhaust its store, + Yonder rivulet glides no more. + + Lead me to the bowery shade, + Late with roses flaunting, + Loved resort of youth and maid, + Amorous ditties chanting. + Hail and wind with fury shower, + Leafless mourns the rifled bower! + + Say, where bides the village maid, + Late yon cot adorning? + Oft I've met her in the glade + Fair and fresh as morning. + Swain, how short is beauty's bloom, + Seek her in her grassy tomb. + + Whither roves the tuneful swain + Who, of rural pleasures, + Rose and violet, rill and plain, + Sang in deftest measures? + Maiden, swift life's vision flies, + Death has closed the poet's eyes. + +_To Nature_ runs thus: + + Leaves are falling, mists are twining, and to winter sleep inclining + Are the trees upon the plain, + In the hush of stillness ere the snowflakes hide them, + Friendly Nature, speak to me again! + Thou art echo and reflection of our striving, + Thou art painter of our hopes and of our fears, + Thou art singer of our joys and of our sorrows, + Of our consolations and our groans.... + +While feeling for Nature was all of this character, idyllic, +sensitive, sympathetic, but within very narrow bounds, and the poets +generally were wandering among Greek and Latin bucolics and playing +with Damon, Myrtil, Chloe, and Daphnis, Salomon Gessner made a +speciality of elegiac pastoral poetry. He was a better landscapist +than poet, and his drawings to illustrate his idylls were better than +the poems themselves. The forest, for instance, and the felling of +the tree, are well drawn; whereas the sickly sweet Rococo verse in +imitation of the French, and reminding one more of Longos than +Theocritus, is lifeless. His rhapsody about Nature is uncongenial to +modern readers, but his love was real. + +The introduction 'to the Reader'[8] is characteristic: + + These Idylls are the fruits of some of my happiest hours; of + those hours when imagination and tranquillity shed their sweetest + influence over me, and, excluding all which belongs to the period + in which we live, recalled all the charms and delights of the + Golden Age. A noble and well-regulated mind dwells with pleasure + on these images of calm tranquillity and uninterrupted happiness, + and the scenes in which the poet delineates the simple beauties + of uncorrupted nature are endeared to us by the resemblance we + fancy we perceive in them to the most blissful moments that we + nave ourselves enjoyed. Often do I fly from the city and seek the + deepest solitudes; there, the beauties of the landscape soothe + and console my heart, and gradually disperse those impressions of + solicitude and disgust which accompanied me from the town; + enraptured, I give up my whole soul to the contemplation of + Nature, and feel, at such moments, richer than an Utopian + monarch, and happier than a shepherd of the Golden Age. + +This is a true picture of the time! Man knew that he was sick, and +fled from town and his fellows into solitude, there to dream himself +back to a happier past, and revel in the purity and innocence, the +healing breath, of forest and field. + +The magic of moonlight began to be felt. Mirtilla + + perceived his old father slumbering in the moonbeams.... Mirtilla + stood long contemplating him, and his eyes rested fondly on the + old man except when he raised them toward heaven through the + glistening leaves of the vine, and tears of filial love and joy + bedewed his cheeks.... How beautiful! how beautiful is the + landscape! How bright, how clear appears the deep blue of heaven + through the broken clouds! They fly, they pass away, these + towering clouds; but strew a shadow as they pass over the sunny + landscape.... Oh, what joy overwhelms my soul! how beautiful, how + excellent is all around, what an inexhaustible source of rapture! + From the enlivening sun down to the little plant that his mild + influence nourishes, all is wonderful! What rapture overpowers me + when I stand on the high hill and look down on the wide-spread + landscape beneath me, when I lay stretched along the grass and + examine the various flowers and herbs and their little + inhabitants; when at the midnight hour I contemplate the starry + heavens!... Wrapt in each other's arms, let us contemplate the + approach of morning, the bright glow of sunset, or the soft beams + of moonlight; and as I press thee to my trembling heart, let us + breathe out in broken accents our praises and thanksgivings. Ah! + what inexpressible joy, when with such raptures are blended the + transports of the tenderest love. + +Many prosaic writings of a different kind shew how universally +feeling, in the middle of the eighteenth century, turned towards +Nature. + +The æsthetic writer Sulzer (1750) wrote _On the Beauty of Nature_. +Crugot's widely-read work of edification, _Christ in Solitude_ +(1761), shewed the same point of view among the mystical and pietist +clergy; and Spalding's _Human Vocation_[9] (written with a warmth +that reminds one of Gessner) among the rationalists, whom he headed. +He says: + + Nature contains numberless pleasures, which, through my great + sensitiveness, nourish my mind... I open eye and ear, and through + these openings pleasures flow into my soul from a thousand sides: + flowers painted by the hand of Nature, the rich music of the + forest, the bright daylight which pours life and light all round + me.... How indifferent, tasteless, and dead is all the fantastic + glamour of artificial splendour and luxuriance in comparison with + the living radiance of the real beautiful world of Nature, with + the joyousness, repose, and admiration I feel before a meadow in + blossom, a rustling stream, the pleasant awesomeness of night, or + of the majesty of innumerable worlds. Even the commonest and most + familiar things in Nature give me endless delight, when I feel + them with a heart attuned to joy and admiration.... I lose + myself, absorbed in delight, in the consideration of all this + general beauty, of which I hold myself to be a not disfigured + part. + +Klopstock, the torch-bearer of Germany's greatest poets, owed much of +his power of the wing to religion. He introduced that new epoch in +the literature of his country which culminated in Goethe. As so often +happens in mental development, the reaction against prevailing +conditions and the advance to higher ones, in the middle of the +eighteenth century, led first of all to the opposite extreme--balance +was only reached by degrees. What chiefly made Klopstock a literary +reformer was the glowing enthusiasm and powerful imagination which +compelled the stiff poetic forms, clumsy as they were, to new rhythm +and melodious cadence. And although his style degenerated into +mannerism in the _Messias_, for the youthful impetus which had +carried his Pegasus over the clouds to the stars could not keep it +there without artificial aid, the immense value of his influence +remained. He is one of the most interesting representatives, not only +of his own, but of all similar periods of exaggerated feelings and +ideals. Despite his loftiness of thought and speech, and his seraphic +raptures, he was not without a full share of sensuous development, +and women's eyes, or a girl's rosy lips, would draw him away from the +finest view in the world. + +A mind so intent upon the noble and beautiful was sure to be +enthusiastic about Nature; his correspondence is the best witness to +this, and at the same time throws side-lights upon the period. + +It is difficult to-day to understand the influence which the +_Messias_ had upon its readers; even Friedenkende spent happy hours +reading it with pious tears of delight, and young and old were of the +same opinion. + +There is a pretty letter from Gustchen Stolberg[10] to Klopstock, +which runs thus: + + UETERSEN, + 25 _April_ 1776. + + In the garden. Yes, in the garden, dearest Klopstock! I have just + been walking about, it was so beautiful: the little birds were + singing, violets and other flowers wafted their fragrance to me, + and I began thinking very warmly of all whom I dearly, dearly + love, and so very soon came to my dear Klopstock, who certainly + has no truer friend than I am, though perhaps others express it + better ... Thanks, thanks, for your very delightful little + letter--how dear to me I don't tell you--can't tell you. + +C. F. Cramer was his enthusiastic panegyrist. It is not only what he +says of the private life and special taste of his adored friend which +is noteworthy, but the way in which he does it--the tone in which, as +a cultivated man of the day, he judged him. 'He will paint and paint +Nature. For this he must be acquainted with her. This is why he loves +her so well. This is why he strays by the brook and weeps. This is +why in spring he goes out into the fields of blossoms, and his eyes +run over with tears. All creation fills him with yearning and +delight. He goes from mountain to valley like a man in a dream. When +he sees a stream, he follows its course; when a hill, he must climb +it; when a river--oh! if only he could rush with it to the sea! A +rock--oh! to look down from its crags to the land below! A hawk +hovers over him--oh! to have its wings and fly so much nearer to the +stars! He stands for hours looking at a flower or moss, throws +himself down on the grass and decks his hat with ivy and cornflowers. +He goes by moonlight to visit the graves and think of death, +immortality, and eternal life. Nothing hinders his meditations. He +sees everything in relation to something else. Every visible object +has an invisible companion, so ardently, so entirely, so closely does +he feel it all.' + +This, coming straight from life, tells us more than a volume of odes; +it contains the real feeling of the time, sensitive, dreamy, elegiac. + +His friend goes on: 'He walks often and likes it, but generally looks +for sunny places; he goes very slowly, which is fatal for me, for I +run when I walk ... Often he stands still and silent, as if there +were knots which he could not untie (in his thoughts). And truly +there are unknown depths of feeling as well as thought.' + +In another place: 'He went out and gloated over the great scene of +immeasurable Nature. Orion and the Pleiades moved over his head, the +dear moon was opposite. Looking intently into her friendly face, he +greeted her repeatedly: "Moon, Moon, friend of my thoughts; hurry not +away, dear Moon, but stay. What is thy name? Laura, Cynthia, Cyllene? +Or shall I call thee beautiful Betty of the Sky?" ... He loved +country walks; we made for lonely places, dark fearsome thickets, +lonely unfrequented paths, scrambled up all the hills, spied out +every bit of Nature, came to rest at last under a shady rock ... +Klopstock's life is one constant enjoyment. He gives himself up to +feeling, and revels in Nature's feast ... Winter is his favourite +time of year....[11] He preaches skating with the unction of a +missionary to the heathen, and not without working miracles, ... the +ice by moonlight is a feast of the Gods to him ... only one rule, we +do not leave the river till the moon has gone.' Klopstock described +this in his _Skating_: + + O youth, whose skill the ice-cothurn + Drives glowing now, and now restrains, + On city hearths let faggots burn, + But come with me to crystal plains. + The scene is filled with vapouring light, + As when the winter morning's prime + Looks on the lake. Above it night + Scatters, like stars, the glittering rime. + How still and white is all around! + How rings the track with new sparr'd frost! + Far off the metal's cymbal sound + Betrays thee, for a moment lost ... + +Cramer tells how Klopstock paid a long-remembered visit to Count +Bernstoff at Schloss Stintenburg: + + It has a most romantic situation in a bewitching part of + Mecklenburg; 'tis surrounded by forest full of delightful gloom, + and a large lake, with a charming little island in the centre, + which wakes echoes. Klopstock is very fond of echoes, and is + always trying to find them in his walks. + +This illustrates the lines in _Stintenburg_: + + Isle of pious solitude, + Loved playmate of the echo and the lake, etc. + +but in this ode, as in so many of his, simple personal feeling gives +way to the stilted mannerism of the bard poetry. + +He wrote of Soroe,[12] one of the loveliest places in the Island of +Zealand, as 'an uncommonly pleasant place'; where 'By a sacred tree, +on a raised grass plot two hundred paces from the great alley, and +from a view over the Friedensburg Lake towards a little wooded island +... Fanny appeared to him in the silver evening clouds over the +tree-tops.' + +The day on which he composed _The Lake of Zurich_ was one of the +pleasantest in his life. Cramer says: 'He has often told me and still +tells, with youthful fervour, about those delightful days and this +excursion: the boat full of people, mostly young, all in good +spirits; charming girls, his wife Herzel, a lovely May morning.' + +But, unlike St Preux, he 'seemed less impressed by our scenery than +by the beauty of our girls,[13] and his letters bear out the +remark.[14] Yet delight in Nature was always with him: Klopstock's +lofty morality pours forth all through it. Nature, love, fame, wine, +everything is looked at from an ennobling point of view.' + + Fair is the majesty of all thy works + On the green earth, O Mother Nature fair! + But fairer the glad face + Enraptured with their view. + Come from the vine banks of the glittering lake, + Or--hast thou climbed the smiling skies anew-- + Come on the roseate tip + Of evening's breezy wing, + And teach my song with glee of youth to glow, + Sweet joy, like thee--with glee of shouting youths, + Or feeling Fanny's laugh. + + Behind us far already Uto lay. + At whose feet Zurich in the quiet vale + Feeds her free sons: behind-- + Receding vine-clad hills. + Uncloud'd beamed the top of silver Alps, + And warmer beat the heart of gazing youths, + And warmer to their fair + Companions spoke its glow. + And Haller's Doris sang, the pride of song; + And Hirzel's Daphne, dear to Kleist and Gleim; + And we youths sang and felt + As each were--Hagedorn. + + Soon the green meadow took us to the cool + And shadowy forest, which becrowns the isle. + Then cam'st thou, Joy; thou cam'st + Down in full tide to us; + Yes, goddess Joy, thyself; we felt, we clasp'd, + Best sister of humanity, thyself, + With thy dear innocence + Accompanied, thyself. + + Sweet thy inspiring breath, O cheerful Spring; + When the meads cradle thee, and their soft airs + Into the hearts of youths + And hearts of virgins glide, + Thou makest feeling conqueror. Ah! through thee + Fuller, more tremulous, heaves each blooming breast; + With lips spell-freed by thee + Young love unfaltering pleads. + Fair gleams the wine, when to the social change + Of thought, or heart-felt pleasure, it invites, + And the 'Socratic' cup + With dewy roses bound, + Sheds through the bosom bliss, and wakes resolves, + Such as the drunkard knows not--proud resolves + Emboldening to despair + Whate'er the sage disowns. + + Delightful thrills against the panting heart + Fame's silver voice--and immortality + Is a great thought.... + But sweeter, fairer, more delightful, 'tis + On a friend's arm to know oneself a friend.... + O were ye here, who love me though afar ... + How would we build us huts of friendship, here + Together dwell for ever. + +This is of Fredensborg on an August day: + + Here, too, did Nature tarry, when her hand + Pour'd living beauty over dale and hill, + And to adorn this pleasant land + Long time she lingered and stood still.... + The lake how tranquil! From its level brim + The shore swells gently, wooded o'er with green, + And buries in its verdure dim + The lustre of the summer e'en.... + +The inner and outer life are closely blended in _The Early Grave_: + + Welcome, O silver moon, + Fair still companion of the night! + Friend of the pensive, flee not soon; + Thou stayest, and the clouds pass light. + + Young waking May alone + Is fair as summer's night so still, + When from his locks the dews drop down, + And, rosy, he ascends the hill. + + Ye noble souls and true, + Whose graves with sacred moss are strawn. + Blest were I, might I see with you + The glimmering night, the rosy dawn. + +This is true lyric feeling, spontaneous, not forced. Many of his +odes, and parts of the _Messias_, shew great love for Nature. There +is a fine flight of imagination in _The Festival of Spring_: + + Not into the ocean of all the worlds would I plunge--not hover + where the first created, the glad choirs of the sons of light, + adore, deeply adore and sunk in ecstasy. Only around the drop on + the bucket, only around the earth, would I hover and adore. + Hallelujah! hallelujah! the drop on the bucket flowed also out of + the hand of the Almighty. + + When out of the hand of the Almighty the greater earth flowed, + when the streams of light rushed, and the seven stars began to + be--then flowedst thou, drop, out of the hand of the Almighty. + + When a stream of light rushed, and our sun began to be, a + cataract of waves of light poured, as adown the rock a + storm-cloud, and girded Orion, then flowedst thou, drop, out of + the hand of the Almighty. Who are the thousandfold thousands, who + all the myriads that inhabit the drop?... + + But thou, worm of Spring, which, greenly golden, art fluttering + beside me, thou livest and art, perhaps, ah! not immortal.... + + The storm winds that carry the thunder, how they roar, how with + loud waves they stream athwart the forest! Now they hush, slow + wanders the black cloud.... + + Ah! already rushes heaven and earth with the gracious rain; now + is the earth refreshed.... + + Behold Jehovah comes no longer in storm; in gentle pleasant + murmurs comes Jehovah, and under him bends the bow of peace. + +In another ode, _The Worlds_, he calls the stars 'drops of the +ocean.' + +Again, in _Death_ he shews the sense of his own nothingness, in +presence of the overpowering greatness of the Creator: + + Ye starry hosts that glitter in the sky, + How ye exalt me! Trancing is the sight + Of all Thy glorious works, Most High. + How lofty art Thou in Thy wondrous might; + What joy to gaze upon these hosts, to one + Who feels himself so little, God so great, + Himself but dust, and the great God his own! + Oh, when I die, such rapture on me wait! + +As regards our subject, Klopstock performed this function--he tuned +the strings of feeling for Nature to a higher pitch, thereby +excelling all his contemporaries. His poetry always tended to +extravagance; but in thought, feeling, and language alike, he was +ahead of his time. + +The idyllic was now cultivated with increased fervour, especially by +the Göttingen Brotherhood of Poets. The artificial and conventional +began to wane, and Nature's own voice was heard again. The songs of +Claudius were like a breath of spring.[15] His peasant songs have the +genuine ring; they are hail-fellow-well-met with Nature. Hebel is the +only modern poet like him. + + EVENING SONG + + The lovely day-star's run its course.... + Come, mop my face, dear wife, + And then dish up.... + The silvery moon will look down from his place + And preside at our meal over dishes and grace. + +He hated artificiality: + + Simple joy in Nature, free from artifice, gives as great a + pleasure as an honest lover's kiss. + +His _Cradle Song to be sung by Moonlight_ is delightful in its naive +humour (the moon was his special favourite): + + Sleep then, little one. Why dost thou weep? + Moonlight so tender and quiet so deep, + Quickly and easily cometh thy sleep. + Fond of all little ones is the good moon; + Girls most of all, but he even loves boys. + Down from up there he sends beautiful toys.... + He's old as a raven, he goes everywhere; + Even when father was young, he was there. + +The pearl of his poems is the exquisite _Evening Song_: + + The moon hath risen on high, + And in the clear dark sky + The golden stars all brightly glow; + And black and hushed the woods, + While o'er the fields and floods + The white mists hover to and fro. + + How still the earth, how calm! + What dear and home-like charm + From gentle twilight doth she borrow! + Like to some quiet room, + Where, wrapt in still soft gloom, + We sleep away the daylight's sorrow. + +Boie's _Evening Song_ is in the same key. None of the moonshine poets +of his day expressed night-fall like this: + + How still it is! How soft + The breezes blow! + The lime leaves lisp in whisper and echo answers low; + Scarce audibly the rivulet running amid the flower + With murmuring ripple laps the edge of yonder mystic bower. + And ever darker grows the veil thou weavest o'er the land, + And ever quieter the hush--a hush as of the grave.... + Listen! 'tis Night! she comes, unlighted by a star, + And with the slow sweep of her heavy wing + Awes and revives the timid earth. + +Bürger sings in praise of idyllic comfort in _The Village_, and +Hoelty's mild enthusiasm, touched with melancholy, turned in the same +direction. + + My predilection is for rural poetry and melancholy enthusiasm; + all I ask is a hut, a forest, a meadow with a spring in it, and a + wife in my hut. + +The beginning of his _Country Life_ shews that moralizing was still +in the air: + + Happy the man who has the town escaped! + To him the whistling trees, the murmuring brooks, + The shining pebbles preach + Virtue's and wisdom's lore.... + The nightingale on him sings slumber down; + The nightingale rewakes him, fluting sweet, + When shines the lovely red + Of morning through the trees. + Then he admires Thee in the plain, O God! + In the ascending pomp of dawning day, + Thee in Thy glorious sun. + The worm--the budding branch-- + Where coolness gushes in the waving branch + Or o'er the flowers streams the fountain, rests, + Inhales the breadth of prime + The gentle airs of eve. + His straw-decked thatch, where doves bask in the sun, + And play, and hop, invites to sweeter rest + Than golden halls of state + Or beds of down afford. + To him the plumy people + Chatter and whistle on his + And from his quiet hand + Peck crumbs or peas or grains + +His _Winter Song_ runs: + + Summer joys are o'er, + Flow'rets bloom no more; + Wintry joys are sweeping, + Through the snow-drifts peeping; + Cheerful evergreen + Rarely now is seen. + + No more plumèd throng + Charms the woods with song; + Ice-bound trees are glittering, + Merry snow-birds twittering, + Fondly strive to cheer + Scenes so cold and drear. + + Winter, still I see + Many charms in thee, + Love thy chilly greeting, + Snow-storms fiercely beating, + And the dear delights + Of the long, long nights. + +Hoeltz was the most sentimental of this group; Joh. Heinrich Voss was +more robust and cheerful. He put his strength into his longer poems; +the lyrics contain a great deal of nonsense. An extract from _Luise_ +will shew his idyllic taste: + + Wandering thus through blue fields of flax and acres of barley, + both paused on the hill-top, which commands such a view of the + whole lake, crisped with the soft breath of the zephyr and + sparkling in sunshine; fair were the forests of white barked + birch beyond, and the fir-trees, lovely the village at the foot + half hid by the wood. Lovely Luise had welcomed her parents and + shewn them a green mound under an old beech tree, where the + prospect was very inviting. 'There we propose,' said she, to + unpack and to spread the breakfast. Then we'll adjourn to the + boat and be rowed for a time on the water,' etc. + +We find the same taste, often expressed in a very original way, in +both the brothers Stolberg. In Christian Stolberg's _Elegy to +Hangwitz_, for instance, another poem has these lines: + + Thither, where 'mong the trees of life, + Where in celestial bowers + Under your fig-tree, bowed with fruit + And warranting repose, + Under your pine, inviting shady joy, + Unchanging blooms + Eternal Spring! + +Friedrich Stolberg was a very prophet of Nature; in his ode _Nature_ +he says: + + He who does not love Nature cannot be my friend. + +His prayer may serve as the motto of his day: + + Holy Nature, heavenly fair, + Lead me with thy parent care; + In thy footsteps let me tread + As a willing child is led. + When with care and grief opprest, + Soft I sink me on thy breast; + On thy peaceful bosom laid, + Grief shall cease, nor care invade. + O congenial power divine, + All my votive soul is thine. + Lead me with thy parent care, + Holy Nature, heavenly fair! + +He, too, sang the moon; but Klopstock's influence seems to have +carried him to higher flights than his contemporaries. He wrote in +fine language of wild scenery, even sea and mountains, which had +played no part in German poetry before. + + TO THE SEA + + Thou boundless, shining, glorious sea, + With ecstasy I gaze on thee; + Joy, joy to him whose early beam + Kisses thy lip, bright ocean stream. + Thanks for the thousand hours, old sea, + Of sweet communion held with thee; + Oft as I gazed, thy billowy roll + Woke the deep feelings of my soul. + +There are beautiful notes, reminding one of Goethe, in his +_Unsterbliche Jüngling, Ode to a Mountain Torrent_. + + Immortal youth! + Thou streamest forth from rocky caves; + No mortal saw + The cradle of thy might, + No ear has heard + Thy infant stammering in the gushing Spring. + How lovely art thou in thy silver locks! + How dreadful thundering from the echoing crags! + At thy approach + The firwood quakes; + Thou easiest down, with root and branch, the fir + Thou seizest on the rock, + And roll'st it scornful like a pebble on. + Thee the sun clothes in dazzling beams of glory, + And paints with colours of the heavenly bow + The clouds that o'er thy dusky cataracts climb. + Why hasten so to the cerulean sea? + Is not the neighbourhood of heaven good? + Not grand thy temple of encircling rocks? + Not fair the forest hanging o'er thy bed? + Hasten not so to the cerulean sea; + Youth, thou art here, + Strong as a god, + Free as a god, + Though yonder beckon treacherous calms below, + The wavering lustre of the silent sea, + Now softly silvered by the swimming moon, + Now rosy golden in the western beam; + Youth, what is silken rest, + And what the smiling of the friendly moon, + Or gold or purple of the evening sun, + To him who feels himself in thraldom's bonds? + Here thou canst wildly stream + As bids thy heart; + Below are masters, ever-changeful minds, + Or the dead stillness of the servile main. + Hasten not so to the cerulean sea; + Youth, thou art here, + Strong as a god, + Free as a god. + +Here we have, with all Klopstock's pathos, a love for the wild and +grandiose in Nature, almost unique in Germany, in this time of +idyllic sentimentality. But the discovery of the beauty of romantic +mountain scenery had been made by Rousseau some time before, for +Rousseau, too, was a typical forerunner, and his romances fell like a +bomb-shell among all the idyllic pastoral fiction of the day. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE AWAKENING OF FEELING FOR THE ROMANTIC + + +Rousseau was one of those rare men who bring about a complete change +in the culture of their time by their revolutionary originality. In +such beings the world's history, so to speak, begins again. Out of +touch with their own day, and opposed to its ruling taste and mode of +thought, they are a law unto themselves, and naturally tend to +measure all things by themselves, while their too great subjectivity +is apt to be increased by a morbid sophistry of passion and the +conviction of the prophet. + +Of this type, unchecked by a broad sense of humanity, full of +subversive wilfulness, and not only untrained in moderation, but +degenerating into crass exaggeration, Rousseau was the first example. + +Hellenism, the Roman Empire, the Renaissance, had only produced +forerunners. What in Petrarch was a tendency, became an established +condition in Rousseau: the acedia reached its climax. All that went +on in his mind was so much grit for his own mill, subject-matter for +his observation, and therefore of the greatest value to him. He lived +in introspection, a spectator of his own struggles, his own waverings +between an ideal of simple duty and the imperious demands of a +selfish and sensuous ego. His passion for Nature partially atoned for +his unamiable and doubtful character; he was false in many ways; but +that feeling rang true--it was the best part of him, and of that +'idealism of the heart' whose right of rule he asserted in an age of +artificiality and petty formalism. Those were no empty words in his +third letter to Malesherbes: + +'Which time of my life do you suppose I recall most often and most +willingly in my dreams? Not the pleasures of youth; they were too +few, too much mixed with bitterness, and they are too far away now. +It is the time of my retreat, of my solitary walks--those fast-flying +delicious days that I passed all alone by myself, with my good and +simple Thérèse, my beloved dog, my old cat, with the wild birds and +the roes of the forest, with all Nature and her inconceivable Maker. + +'When I got up early to go and watch the sunrise from my garden, when +I saw a fine day begin, my first wish was that neither letters nor +visitors might come to break its charm.... + +'Then I would seek out some wild place in the forest, some desert +spot where there was nothing to shew the hand of man, and so tell of +servitude and rule--some refuge which I could fancy I was the first +to discover, and where no importunate third party came between Nature +and me.... + +'The gold broom and the purple heather touched my heart; the majestic +trees that shaded me, the delicate shrubs around, the astonishing +variety of plants and flowers that I trod under foot, kept me +alternately admiring and observing.' + +His writings shew that with him return to Nature was no mere theory, +but real earnest; they condemned the popular garden-craft and carpet +fashions, and set up in their place the rights of the heart, and free +enjoyment of Nature in her wild state, undisturbed by the hand of +man. + +It was Rousseau who first discovered that the Alps were beautiful. +But to see this fact in its true light, we must glance back at the +opinions of preceding periods.[1] + +Though the Alpine countries were the arena of all sorts of +enterprise, warlike and peaceful, in the fifteenth century, most of +the interest excited by foreign parts was absorbed by the great +voyages of discovery; the Alps themselves were almost entirely +omitted from the maps. + +To be just to the time, it must be conceded that security and comfort +in travelling are necessary preliminaries to our modern mountain +rapture, and in the Middle Ages these were non-existent. Roads and +inns were few; there was danger from robbers as well as weather, so +that the prevailing feelings on such journeys were misery and +anxiety, not pleasure. Knowledge of science, too, was only just +beginning; botany, geology, and geognosy were very slightly diffused; +glacier theories were undreamt of. The sight of a familiar scene near +the great snow-peaks roused men's admiration, because they were +surprised to find it there; this told especially in favour of the +idyllic mountain valleys. + +Felix Fabri, the preacher monk of Ulm, visited the East in 1480 and +1483, and gave a lifelike description of his journeys through the +Alps in his second account. He said[2]: + +'Although the Alps themselves seem dreadful and rigid from the cold +of the snow or the heat of the sun, and reach up to the clouds, the +valleys below them are pleasant, and as rich and fruitful in all +earthly delights as Paradise itself. Many people and animals inhabit +them, and almost every metal is dug out of the Alps, especially +silver. 'Mid such charms as these men live among the mountains, and +Nature blooms as if Venus, Bacchus, and Ceres reigned there. No one +who saw the Alps from afar would believe what a delicious Paradise is +to be found amid the eternal snow and mountains of perpetual winter +and never-melting ice.' + +Very limited praise only extended to the valleys! + +In the sixteenth century we have the records of those who crossed the +Alps with an army, such as Adam Reissner, the biographer of the +Frundsberg, and mention their 'awe' at sight of the valleys, and of +those who had travelled to Italy and the East, and congratulated +themselves that their troublesome wanderings through the Alps were +over. Savants were either very sparing of words about their travels, +or else made rugged verses which shewed no trace of mountain +inspiration. There were no outbursts of admiration at sight of the +great snow-peaks; 'horrible' and 'dreadful' were the current +epithets. The æsthetic sense was not sufficiently developed, and +discount as we will for the dangers and discomforts of the road, and, +as with the earlier travellers to the East, for some lack of power of +expression, the fact remains that mountains were not appreciated. The +prevalent notion of beautiful scenery was very narrow, and even among +cultured people only meant broad, level country. + +B. Kiechel[3] (1585) was enthusiastic about 'the beautiful level +scenery' of Lichfeld, and found it difficult to breathe among the +Alps. Schickhart wrote: 'We were delighted to get away from the +horrible tedious mountains,' and has nothing to say of the Brenner +Pass except this poor joke: 'It did not burn us much, for what with +the ice and very deep snow and horribly cold wind, we found no heat.' +The most enthusiastic description is of the Lake of Como, by Paulus +Jovius (1552), praising Bellagio,'[4] In the seventeenth century +there was some admiration for the colossal proportions of the Alps, +but only as a foil to the much admired valleys. + +J.J. Grasser wrote of Rhoetia[5]: 'There are marble masses +projecting, looking like walls and towers in imitation of all sorts +of wonderful architecture. The villages lie scattered in the valleys, +here and there the ground is most fruitful. There is luxuriance close +to barrenness, gracefulness close to dreadfulness, life close to +loneliness. The delight of the painter's eye is here, yet Nature +excels all the skill of art. The very ravines, tortuous foot-paths, +torrents, alternately raging and meagre, the arched bridges, waves on +the lakes, varied dress of the fields, the mighty trees, in short, +whatever heaven and earth grant to the sight, is an astonishment and +a pastime to the enraptured eye of the wanderer.' + +But this pastime depended upon the contrast between the charming +valleys and the dreadful mountains. + +Joseph Furttenbach (1591) writing about the same district of Thusis, +described 'the little bridges, under which one hears the Rhine +flowing with a great roar, and sees what a horrible cruel wilderness +the place is.' In Conrad Gessner's _De admiratione Montium_ (1541)[6] +a passage occurs which shews that even in Switzerland itself in the +sixteenth century one voice was found to praise Alpine scenery in a +very different way, anticipating Rousseau. 'I have resolved that so +long as God grants me life I will climb some mountains every year, or +at least one mountain, partly to learn the mountain flora, partly to +strengthen my body and refresh my soul. What a pleasure it is to see +the monstrous mountain masses, and lift one's head among the clouds. +How it stimulates worship, to be surrounded by the snowy domes, which +the Great Architect of the world built up in one long day of +creation! How empty is the life, how mean the striving of those who +only crawl about on the earth for gain and home-baked pleasures! The +earthly paradise is closed to them.' + +Yet, just as after Rousseau, and even in the nineteenth century, +travellers were to be found who thought the Alps 'dreadful' (I refer +to Chateaubriand's 'hideux'), so such praise as this found no echo in +its own day. + +But with the eighteenth century came a change. Travelling no longer +subserved the one practical end of making acquaintance with the +occupations, the morals, the affairs generally, of other peoples; a +new scientific interest arose, geologists and physicists ventured to +explore the glaciers and regions of perpetual snow, and first +admiration, and then love, supplanted the old feeling of horror. + +Modern methods began with Scheuchzer's (1672-1733) _Itinera Alpina_. +Every corner of the Alps was explored--the Splugen, Julier, Furka, +Gotthard, etc.--and glaciers, avalanches, ores, fossils, plants +examined. Haller, as his verses shew, was botanist as well as +theologian, historian, and poet; but he did not appreciate mountain +beauty. + +Brockes to some extent did. He described the Harz Mountains in the +Fourth Book of his _Earthly Pleasure in God (Irdisches Vergüngen in +Gott)_; and in his _Observations on the Blankenburg Marble_ he said: +'In many parts the rough mountain heights were monstrously beautiful, +their size delights and appals us'; and wound up a discussion of wild +scenery in contrast to cultivated with: 'Ponder this with joy and +reverence, my soul. The mountain heights wild and beautiful shew us a +picture of earthly disorder.'[7] It was very long before expressions +of horror and fear entirely disappeared from descriptions of the +Alps. In Richardson's _Sir Charles Grandison_ we read: 'We bid adieu +to France and found ourselves in Savoy, equally noted for its poverty +and rocky mountains. We had left behind us a blooming Spring, which +enlivened with its verdure the trees and hedges on the road we +passed, and the meadows already smiled with flowers.... Every object +which here presents itself is excessively miserable.' Savoy is 'one +of the worst countries under Heaven.' + +Addison,[8] on the other hand, wrote of the Alps from Ripaille: 'It +was the pleasantest voyage in the world to follow the windings of +this river Inn through such a variety of pleasing scenes as the +course of it naturally led us. We had sometimes on each side of us a +vast extent of naked rocks and mountains, broken into a thousand +irregular steps and precipices ... but, as the materials of a fine +landscape are not always the most profitable to the owner of them, we +met with but little corn or pasturage,' etc. Lady Mary Wortley[9] +Montagu wrote from Lyons, Sept. 25, 1718: 'The prodigious aspect of +mountains covered with eternal snow, clouds hanging far below our +feet, and the vast cascades tumbling down the rocks with a confused +roaring, would have been solemnly entertaining to me, if I had +suffered less from the extreme cold that reigns here.' + +On the whole, Switzerland was little known at the beginning of the +eighteenth century. Many travellers still measured the value of +scenery entirely by fertility, like Keyssler,[10] who praised +garden-like level country such as that round Mantua, in contrast to +the useless wild Tyrolese mountains and the woods of Westphalia; and +Lüneburg or Moser,[11] who observed ironically to Abbt (1763), after +reading _Emilia_ and _La Nouvelle Héloise_: 'The far-famed Alps, +about which so much fuss has been made.' + +Rousseau was the real exponent of rapture for the high Alps and +romantic scenery in general. Isolated voices had expressed some +feeling before him, but it was he who deliberately proclaimed it, and +gave romantic scenery the first place among the beauties of Nature. +He did not, as so many would have it--Du Bois Reymond, for +example--discover our modern feeling for Nature; the great men of the +Renaissance, even the Hellenic poets, fore-ran him; but he directed +it, with feeling itself in general, into new channels.[12] + +In French literature he stood alone; the descriptions of landscape +before him were either borrowed blossoms of antiquity or sentimental +and erotic pastorals. He opened up again for his country the taste +for wood and field, sunshine and moonlight, for the idyllic, and, +above all, for the sublime, which had been lost under artificiality +and false taste. + +The primitive freshness, the genuine ring of his enthusiasm for +country life, was worth all the laboured pastorals and fables of +previous periods of literature. + +His _Confessions_ opened not only the eyes of France, but the heart. + +A Swiss by birth, and living in one of the most beautiful parts of +Europe, Rousseau was devotedly fond of his home on the Lake of +Geneva. As a boy he loved to leave the city and rove in the country. + +He describes how once on a Sunday in 1728 he wandered about, +forgetting the time. 'Before me were fields, trees, flowers; the +beautiful lake, the hill country, and high mountains unfolded +themselves majestically before my eyes. I gloated over the beautiful +spectacle while the sun was setting. At last, too late, I saw that +the city gates were shut.' + +From that time on he felt more drawn to Nature than to men. In the +Fourth Book of the _Confessions_ he says, speaking of 1732: + +'A view of the Lake of Geneva and its beautiful banks has had even in +my idea a particular attraction that I cannot describe, not arising +merely from the beauty of the prospect, but something, I know not +what, more interesting which affects and softens me. 'Every time I +have approached the Vaudois country, I have experienced an impression +composed of the remembrance of Mademoiselle de Warens, who was born +there; of my father, who lived there; of Mademoiselle de Wulson, who +had been my first love; and of several pleasant journeys I had made +there in my childhood, mingled with some nameless charm, more +powerfully attractive than all the rest. When that ardent desire for +a life of happiness and tranquillity (which ever follows me, and for +which I was born) inflames my mind, 'tis ever to the country of Vaud, +near the lake, on those charming plains, that imagination leads me. +An orchard on the banks of that lake, and no other, is absolutely +necessary; a firm friend, an amiable woman, a cow, and a little boat; +nor could I enjoy perfect happiness on earth without these +concomitants.... On my way to Vevey I gave myself up to the soft +melancholy ... I sighed and wept like a child.' + +He clung to Nature, and most of all when surrounded by human beings; +a morbid impulse to flee from them was always present as a negative +element in the background of his love for her. His Fifth Reverie, the +most beautiful one, shews this. + +He had gone to the Peter Island on the Lake of Bienne. So far as he +knew, no other traveller had paid any attention to the place; but +that did not disturb his confidence in his own taste. + +'The shores of the Lake of Bienne are wilder and more romantic than +those of the Lake of Geneva, because the rocks and woods come nearer +to the water; but they are not less radiant. With less cultivation +and fewer vineyards, towns, and houses, there are more green fields +and shady sheltered spots, more contrasts and irregularities. As +there are no good carriage roads on these happy shores, the district +is little frequented by travellers; but it is interesting for the +solitary contemplation of those who like to intoxicate themselves at +their leisure with Nature's charms, and to retire into a silence +unbroken by any sound but the eagle's cry, the intermittent warbling +of birds, and the roar of torrents falling from the mountains,' + +Here he had a delightful Robinson Crusoe existence. The only other +human beings were the Bernese manager with his family and labourers. +He counted his two months among the happiest of his life, and would +have liked to stay for ever. True to his character, he proceeded to +analyze the charm of the episode, and decided that it was made up of +the _dolce far niente_, solitude, absence of books and writing +materials, dealing with simple folk, healthy movement in the open +air, field labour, and, above all, intercourse with Nature, both in +admiring and studying her. He was seized with a passion for +botanizing, and planned a comprehensive Flora Petrinsularis, dividing +the whole island into quarters, so that no part might escape notice. + +'There is nothing more strange than the ravishment, the ecstasy, I +felt at each observation I made upon vegetable structure and +organization. + +'I would go by myself, throw myself into a boat when the water was +calm, and row to the middle of the lake, and then, lying full-length +in the boat with my eyes to the sky, I would let myself drift, +sometimes for hours, lost in a thousand confused but delicious +reveries.... Often when the sunset reminded me that it was time to +return, I found myself so far from the island that I was forced to +pull with all my strength to get back before night-fall. At other +times, instead of wandering about the lake, I amused myself by +skirting the green shores of the island where the limpid water and +cool shade often invited to a bathe.... When the lake was too rough +for rowing, I would spend the afternoon scouring the island, +botanizing right and left. I often sat down to dream at leisure in +sunny, lonely nooks, or on the terraces and hillocks, to gaze at the +superb ravishing panorama of the lake and its shores--one side +crowned by near mountains, the other spread out in rich and fertile +plains, across which the eye looked to the more distant boundary of +blue mountains.... When evening fell, I came down from the higher +parts of the mountains and sat by the shore in some hidden spot, and +there the sound of the waves and the movements of the water, making +me oblivious of all other distraction, would plunge me into delicious +reverie. The ebb and flow of the water, and the sound of it, +restrained and yet swelling at intervals, by striking eye and ear +without ceasing, came to the aid of those inner movements of the mind +which reverie destroys, and sufficed to make me pleasantly conscious +of existence without the trouble of thinking.... There is nothing +actual in all this to which the heart can attach itself; even in our +most intense enjoyment there is scarcely a moment of which the heart +can truly say "I should like it to stay for ever."' + +One thinks of Faust: 'O moment! tarry awhile, thou art so fair!' + +However, at the close of the Reverie he admits that he has often had +such moments--moments free from all earthly passion--on the lake and +on the island. His feeling was increased by botanical knowledge, and +later on in life the world of trees and plants became his one safe +refuge when pursued by delusions of persecution. + +The Seventh Reverie has a touching account of his pleasure in botany, +of the effect of 'earth in her wedding-dress, the only scene in the +world of which eyes and heart never weary,' the intoxicating sense +that he was part of a great system in which individual detail +disappears, and he only sees and hears the whole. + +'Shunning men, seeking solitude, no longer dreaming, still less +thinking, I began to concern myself with all my surroundings, giving +the preference to my favourites...brilliant flowers, emerald meadows, +fresh shade, streams, thickets, green turf, these purified my +imagination.... Attracted by the pleasant objects around, I note +them, study them, and finally learn to classify them, and so become +at one stroke as much of a botanist as one need be when one only +studies Nature to find ever new reasons for loving her. + +'The plants seem sown in profusion over the earth like the stars in +the sky, to invite man, through pleasure and curiosity, to study +them; but the stars are far off; they require preliminary knowledge +... while plants grow under our very feet--lie, so to speak, in our +very hands.' + +He had a peaceful sense of being free from his enemies when +he was pursuing his botany in the woods. He described one +never-to-be-forgotten ramble when he lost himself in a dense thicket +close to a dizzy precipice, where, save for some rare birds, he was +quite alone. He was just feeling the pride of a Columbus in the +discovery of new ground, when his eye fell upon a manufactory not far +off. His first feeling was a flash of delight at finding himself +again among men; but this gave way to the more lasting and painful +one, that even among the Alps there was no escape from his +tormentors. + +Years later, when he knew that he would never revisit the spot, the +leaves in his herbarium would carry him back to it in memory. + +So strong a personal attachment to Nature, solitude, and retirement +had not been known before; but it was thrown into this high relief by +the morbid dread of man and hatred of culture, which formed a +constant dark background to his mind. It was a state of mind which +naturally led to intense dislike of formal French gardens and open +admiration of the English park. He rejected all the garnish of +garden-craft, even grafted roses and fruit trees, and only admitted +indigenous plants which grew outdoors.[13] It is greatly due to his +feeling for English Park style that a healthier garden-craft gained +ground in Germany as well as France. The foremost maxim of his +philosophy and teaching, that everything is good as it comes from the +bosom of mother Nature, or rather from the hand of God, and that man +and his culture are responsible for all the evil, worked out in his +attitude towards Nature. + +He placed her upon a pedestal, worshipping her, and the Creator +through her, and this made him the first to recognize the fact that +study of Nature, especially of botany, should be an important factor +in the education of children. + +His _Confessions_, the truest photographs of a human character in +existence, shew at once the keenest introspection and intense love +for Nature. No one before Rousseau had been so aware of his own +individuality--that is, of himself, as a being--who in this +particular state only exists once, and has therefore not only +relative but absolute value. He gave this peculiarity its full value, +studying it as a thing outside himself, of which every detail was +important, watching with great interest his own change of moods, the +fluctuations of that double self which now lifted him to the ideal, +now cast him down to the lowest and commonest. His relation to Nature +was the best thing about him, and when he was happy, as he was for +the first time in the society of Mademoiselle de Warens, Nature +seemed lovelier than ever. + +The scattered passages about Nature in the _Confessions_ have a +youthful freshness: + +'The appearance of Aurora seemed so delightful one morning, that, +putting on my clothes, I hastened into the country to see the rising +of the sun. I enjoyed that pleasure to its utmost extent. It was one +week after midsummer: the earth was covered with verdure and flowers; +the nightingales, whose soft warblings were almost over, seemed to +vie with each other, and, in concert with birds of various kinds, to +bid adieu to spring and hail the approach of a beautiful summer's +day.' + +He loved rambling over hill and dale, even by night; thus, when he +was at Lyons: + +'It had been a very hot day, the evening was delightful, the dew +moistened the parched grass, no wind was stirring; the air was fresh +without chilliness, the setting sun had tinged the clouds with a +beautiful crimson, which was again reflected by the water, and the +trees bordering the terrace were filled with nightingales that were +constantly answering each other's songs. I walked along in a kind of +ecstasy, surrendering my heart and senses to the enjoyment of so many +delights, and sighing only from regret at enjoying them alone. +Absorbed in this pleasing reverie, I lengthened my walk till it grew +very late, without perceiving I was tired. At length I threw myself +on the steps of a kind of niche in a terrace wall. How charming was +that couch! The trees formed a stately canopy, a nightingale sat +directly over me, and with his soft notes lulled me to rest. How +delicious my repose! my awakening more so. It was broad day; on +opening my eyes, I saw the water, the verdure, and an adorable +landscape before me.' + +At the end of the Fourth Book he states his idea of beautiful +scenery: + +'I love to walk at my ease and stop at leisure ... travelling on foot +in a fine country with fine weather ... and having an agreeable +object to terminate my journey. It is already understood what I mean +by a fine country; never can a flat one, though ever so beautiful, +appear such to my eyes. I must have torrents, fir trees, black woods, +mountains to climb or descend, and rugged roads with precipices on +either side to alarm me. I experienced this pleasure to its utmost +extent as I approached Chambéry, not far from a mountain road called +the Pas d'Échelle. Above the main road, hewn through the solid rock, +a small river runs and rushes into fearful chasms, which it appears +to have been millions of ages in forming. The road has been hedged by +a parapet to prevent accidents, and I was thus enabled to contemplate +the whole descent and gain vertigoes at pleasure, for a great part of +my amusement in these steep rocks lies in their causing a giddiness +and swimming in my head, which I am particularly fond of, provided I +am in safety. Leaning therefore on the parapet, I remained whole +hours, catching from time to time a glance of the froth and blue +water whose rushing caught my ear, mingled with the cries of ravens +and other birds of prey that flew from rock to rock and bush to bush +at 600 feet below me.' + +His preference was for the wild and sublime, and he was glad that +this was not a popular taste; but he could write glowing descriptions +of more idyllic scenery and of village life. + +He said of a day at the Charmettes, a property near Chambéry, with +his beloved friend Madame de Warens, at the end of 1736: + +'I arose with the sun and was happy; I walked and was happy; I saw +Madame de Warens and was happy; I quitted her and still was happy. +Whether I rambled through the woods, over the hills, or strolled +along the valley; read, was idle, worked in the garden, or gathered +fruits, happiness continually accompanied me.' + +He offered his morning prayer from a hill-top, and in the evening, +before he left, stooped to kiss the ground and the trees, gazing till +they were out of sight at the places where he had been so happy. + +At the Hermitage with Thérèse there was a similar idyll. + +The most epoch--making event in European feeling for Nature was the +appearance of _La Nouvelle Héloise_ (1761). The book overflows with +Rousseau's raptures about the Lake of Geneva. St Preux says: + +'The nearer I drew to Switzerland, the greater were my emotions. That +instant in which I discovered the Lake of Geneva from the heights of +Jura, was a moment of ecstasy and rapture. The sight of my country, +my beloved country, where a deluge of pleasure had overflowed my +heart; the pure and wholesome air of the Alps, the gentle breeze of +the country, more sweet than the perfumes of the East; that rich and +fertile spot, that unrivalled landscape, the most beautiful that ever +struck the eye of man, that delightful abode, to which I found +nothing comparable in the vast tour of the globe; the mildness of the +season, the serenity of the climate, a thousand pleasing +recollections which recalled to my mind the pleasures I had +enjoyed;--all these circumstances together threw me into a kind of +transport which I cannot describe, and seemed to collect the +enjoyment of my whole life into one happy moment.' + +_La Nouvelle Héloise_ shewed the world three things in quite a new +light: the inner consciousness which was determined to give feeling +its rights again, though well aware that 'a feeling heart is an +unhappy gift from heaven'; the taste for solitude, 'all noble +passions are formed in solitude'; and closely bound up with these, +the love of romantic scenery, which it described for the first time +in glowing language. + +Such expressions as these of St Preux were unheard of at that time: +'I shall do my best to be free quickly, and able to wander at my ease +in the wild places that to my mind make the charm of this country.' +'I am of opinion that this unfrequented country deserves the +attention of speculative curiosity, and that it wants nothing to +excite admiration but a skilful spectator'; and 'Nature seems +desirous of hiding her real charms from the sight of men, because +they are too little sensible of them, and disfigure them when within +their reach; she flies from public places; it is on the tops of +mountains, in the midst of forests, on desert islands, that she +displays her most affecting charms.' + +Rousseau certainly announced his views with all the fervour of a +prophet proclaiming a newly-discovered truth. The sketch St Preux +gives of the country that 'deserved a year's study,' in the +twenty-third letter to Julia, is very poetic. He is ascending a rocky +path when a new view breaks upon him: + + One moment I beheld stupendous rocks hanging ruinous over my + head; the next, I was enveloped in a drizzling cloud, which arose + from a vast cascade that, dashing, thundered against the rocks + below my feet. On one side a perpetual torrent opened to my view + a yawning abyss, which my eyes could hardly fathom with safety; + sometimes I was lost in the obscurity of a hanging wood, and then + was greatly astonished with the sudden opening of a flowery + plain. + +He was always charmed by 'a surprising mixture of wild and cultivated +Nature': + + Here Nature seems to have a singular pleasure in acting + contradictory to herself, so different does she appear in the + same place in different aspects. Towards the east, the flowers of + spring; to the south, the flowers of autumn; and northwards, the + ice of winter. Add to that the illusions of vision, the tops of + the mountains variously illumined, the harmonious mixture of + light and shade.... + +After climbing, he reflects: + + Upon the top of mountains, the air being subtle and pure, we + respire with greater freedom, our bodies are more active, our + minds more serene, our pleasures less ardent, and our passions + much more moderate. Our meditations acquire a degree of sublimity + from the grandeur of the objects around us. It seems as if, being + lifted above all human society, we had left every low terrestrial + sentiment behind. + +He can find no words to express 'the amazing variety, magnitude, and +beauty of a thousand stupendous objects, the pleasure of gazing at an +entire new scene ... and beholding, as it were, another Nature and a +new world.' + +Earlier in the year he wrote his letters to Julia upon a block of +stone in his favourite wild spot, and the wintry landscape harmonized +with his feelings: + + I run to and fro, climb the rocks and explore my whole district, + and find everything as horrible without as I experienced it + within. There is no longer any verdure to be seen, the grass is + yellow and withered, the trees are stripped of their foliage, and + the north-east blast heaps snow and ice around me. In short, the + whole face of Nature appears as decayed to my outward senses as I + myself from within am dead to hope and joy. + +Julia, too, is enthusiastic about places, where 'no vestiges are seen +of human toil, no appearance of studied and laborious art; every +object presents only a view of the tender care of Nature, our common +mother.' + +When St Preux knows that she returns his love, his sympathy for +Nature overflows: + + I find the country more delightful, the verdure fresher and + livelier, the air more temperate, and the sky more serene than + ever I did before; even the feathered songsters seem to tune + their tender throats with more harmony and pleasure; the + murmuring rills invite to love-inspiring dalliance, while the + blossoms of the vine regale me from afar with the choicest + perfumes ... let us animate all Nature, which is absolutely dead + without the genial warmth of love. + +St Preux escorts his old love to the Meillerie, and it was with his +description of this that Rousseau unrolled the full charm of mountain +scenery, and opened the eyes of his readers to see it. + +They were climbing a mountain top on the Savoy side of the lake: + + This solitary spot formed a wild and desert nook, but full of + those sorts of beauties which are only agreeable to susceptible + minds, and appear horrible to others. A torrent, occasioned by + the melting of the snow, rolled in a muddy stream within twenty + paces of us, and carried dust, sand, and stones along with it, + not without considerable noise. Behind us, a chain of + inaccessible rocks divided the place where we stood from that + part of the Alps which they call the Ice house.... Forests of + gloomy fir trees afforded us a melancholy shade on the right, + while on the left was a large wood of oak, beyond which the + torrent issued; and beneath, that vast body of water which the + lake forms in the bay of the Alps, parted us from the rich coast + of the Pays de Vaud, crowning the whole landscape with the top of + the majestic Jura. + +Rousseau's influence upon feeling in general, and feeling for Nature +in particular, was an extraordinary one, widening and deepening at +once. + +By his strong personal impulse he impelled it into more natural +paths, and at the same time he discovered the power of the mountains. + +He brought to flower the germ which had lain dormant in Hellenism and +the Renaissance; and although his readers imbibed a sickly strain of +morbid sentimentality with this passion for the new region of +feeling, the total effect of his individuality and his idealism was +to intensify their love for Nature. His feelings woke the liveliest +echo, and it was not France alone who profited by the lessons he +taught. + +He was no mountaineer himself, but he pointed out the way, and others +soon followed it. Saussure began his climbing in 1760, exploring the +Alps with the indomitable spirit of the discoverer and the +scientist's craving for truth. He ascended Mont Blanc in 1787, and +only too soon the valleys of Chamounix filled with tourists and +speculators. One of the first results of Rousseau's imposing +descriptions of scenery was to rouse the most ardent of French +romance writers, Bernardin de St Pierre; and his writings, especially +his beautiful pictures of the Ile de France, followed hard in the +wake of _La Nouvelle Héloise_. + +In _Paul and Virginia_ vivid descriptions of Nature were interwoven +with an idyllic Robinson Crusoe romance: + + Within this enclosure reigns the most profound silence. The + waters, the air, all the elements are at peace. Scarcely does the + echo repeat the whispers of the palm trees spreading their broad + leaves, the long points of which are gently agitated by the + winds. A soft light illumines the bottom of this deep valley, on + which the sun shines only at noon. But even at break of day the + rays of light are thrown on the surrounding rocks, and their + sharp peaks, rising above the shadows of the mountain, appear + like tints of gold and purple gleaming upon the azure sky. + +Like Rousseau, St Pierre held that 'to take refuge in the wildest and +most desert places is an instinct common to all feeling and suffering +beings, as if rocks were ramparts against misfortune, and Nature's +calm could appease the sorrows of the soul'[14]; but he differed in +caring for Nature far more for her own sake, and not in opposition to +culture and a detested world. He wrote too, not as a philosopher +proclaiming a new gospel, but as a poet[15]; the poetry of Nature had +been revealed to French literature. + +St Pierre drew the beauty of the tropics in a poem, and George +Forster's _Voyage round the World_[16] shewed how quickly Rousseau's +influence told upon travels. It was a far cry from the Crusaders and +discoverers to the highly-cultured Forster, alive to everything that +was good and beautiful, and able to express it. He was the first to +describe countries and peoples from both the scientific and artistic +standpoint--a style of writing which Humboldt perfected, and some +later writers, Haeckel, for example, in _Indischen Briefen_, have +carried on with success. + +To quote Forster: + + The town of Santa Cruz in Madeira was abreast of us at six in the + afternoon. The mountains are here intersected by numerous deep + glens and valleys. On the sloping ground we observed several + country houses pleasantly situated amidst surrounding vineyards + and lofty cypresses, which gave the country altogether a romantic + appearance. Early on the 29th we were agreeably surprised with + the picturesque appearance of the city of Funchal.... + +In October 1772, off South Africa: + + The night was scarcely begun when the water all round us afforded + the most grand and astonishing sight that can be imagined. As far + as we could see, the whole ocean seemed to be in a blaze. Every + breaking wave had its summit illuminated by a light similar to + that of phosphorus, and the sides of the vessel, coming in + contact with the sea, were strongly marked by a luminous line.... + There was a singularity and a grandeur in the display of this + phenomenon which could not fail of giving occupation to the mind, + and striking it with a reverential awe, due to omnipotence. + + The ocean was covered to a great extent with myriads of + animalcules; these little beings, organized, alive, endowed with + locomotive power, a quality of shining whenever they please, of + illuminating every body with which they come in contact ... all + these ideas crowded upon us, and bade us admire the Creator, even + in His minutest works.... I hope I shall not have formed too + favourable an opinion of my readers, if I expect that the + generality will sympathize with me in these feelings. + +In Dusky Bay: + + We glided along by insensible degrees, wafted by light airs past + numerous rocky islands, each of which was covered with wood and + shrubberies, where numerous evergreens were sweetly contrasted + and mingled with the various shades of autumnal yellow. Flocks of + aquatic birds enlivened the rocky shores, and the whole country + resounded with the wild notes of the feathered tribe.... The view + of rude sceneries in the style of Rosa, of antediluvian forests + which clothed the rock, and of numerous rills of water which + everywhere rolled down the steep declivity, altogether conspired + to complete our joy. + +Cascade Cove in New Zealand: + + This waterfall at a distance of a mile and a half seems to be but + inconsiderable on account of its great elevation; but, after + climbing about 200 yards upwards, we ... found a view of great + beauty and grandeur before us. The first object which strikes the + beholder is a clear column of water eight or ten yards in + circumference, which is projected with great impetuosity from the + perpendicular rock at the height of 100 yards. Nearly at the + fourth part of the whole height this column meeting a part of the + same rock, which now acquires a little inclination, spreads on + its broad back into a limpid sheet of about twenty-five yards in + width. Here its surface is curled, and dashes upon every little + eminence in its rapid descent, till it is all collected in a fine + basin about sixty yards in circuit, included on three sides by + the natural walls of the rocky chasm, and in front by huge masses + of stone irregularly piled above each other. Between them the + stream finds its way, and runs foaming with the greatest rapidity + along the slope of the hill to the sea. The whole neighbourhood + of the cascade ... is filled with a steam or watery vapour.... We + ... were struck with the sight of a most beautiful rainbow of a + perfectly circular form, produced by the meridian rays of the sun + refracted in the vapour of the cascade. + + The scenery on the left consists of steep brown rocks fringed on + the summits with overhanging shrubs and trees; the enchanting + melody of various birds resounded on all sides, and completed the + beauty of this wild and romantic spot. + +He described: 'A waterspout, a phenomenon which carried so much +terrific majesty in it, and connected, as it were, the sea with the +clouds, made our oldest mariners uneasy and at a loss how to behave.' + +He begins his diary of August 1773 with O'Taheite: + + It was one of those beautiful mornings which the poets of all + nations have attempted to describe, when we saw the isle of + O'Taheite within two miles before us. The east wind, which had + carried us so far, was entirely vanished, and a faint breeze only + wafted a delicious perfume from the land, and curled the surface + of the sea. The mountains, clothed with forests, rose majestic in + various spiry forms, on which we already perceived the light of + the rising sun ... everything seemed as yet asleep; the morning + scarce dawned, and a peaceful shade still rested on the + landscape.... + + This spot was one of the most beautiful I had ever seen, and + could not fail of bringing to remembrance the most fanciful + descriptions of poets, which it eclipsed in beauty; we had a + prospect of the plain below us, and of the sea beyond it. In the + shade of trees, whose branches hung over the water, we enjoyed a + pleasant gale, which softened the heat of the day; and, amidst + the solemn uniform noise of the waterfall, which was but seldom + interrupted by the whistling of birds, we sat down.... + + We could have been well pleased to have passed the whole day in + this retirement ... however, feasting our eyes once more with the + romantic scenery, we returned to the plain. + +It was such descriptions as these which stimulated Humboldt. There is +a breath of poetry in his writings; his _Views of Nature_ and +_Cosmos_ give ample proof that love of Nature and knowledge of Nature +can condition and deepen each other. + +It is not surprising that in the flood of scientific 'Travels' which +followed, especially in imitation of Forster, there were some that +laid claim to a wonderful grade of feeling. For example, the +description of a day at the Equator by von Spix and v. Martius in +their Travels in Brazil in 1817 to 1820: + + In these seas the sun rises from the ocean with great splendour, + and gilds the clouds accumulated in the horizon, which in grand + and various groups seem to present to the eye of the spectator + continents with high mountains and valleys, with volcanoes and + seas, mythological and other strange creations of fancy. + + The lamp of day gradually rises in the transparent blue sky; the + damp grey fogs subside; the sea is calm or gently rises and + falls, with a surface smooth as a mirror, in a regular motion. At + noon a pale, faintly shining cloud rises, the herald of a sudden + tempest, which at once disturbs the tranquillity of the sea. + Thunder and lightning seem as if they would split our planet; but + a heavy rain of a salt taste, pouring down in the midst of + roaring whirlwinds, puts an end to the raging of the elements, + and several semi-circular rainbows, extended over the ocean like + gay triumphal arches, announce the peaceful termination of the + great natural phenomenon. As soon as the air and sea have + recovered their equilibrium, the sky again shews its transparent + azure.... As the sun gradually sinks in the clouded horizon, the + sea and sky assume a new dress, which is beyond description + sublime and magnificent. The most brilliant red, yellow, violet, + in infinite shades and contrasts, are poured out in profusion + over the azure of the firmament, and are reflected in still gayer + variety from the surface of the water. The day departs amid + continued lightning on the dusky horizon, while the moon in + silent majesty rises from the unbounded ocean into the cloudless + upper regions. Variable winds cool the atmosphere; numerous + falling stars, coming particularly from the south, shed a magic + light; the dark-blue firmament, reflected with the constellations + on the untroubled bosom of the water, represents the image of the + wholly starry hemisphere; and the ocean, agitated even by the + faintest breeze of the night, is changed into a sea of waving + fire.... The variety of the light and foliage of the trees, which + is seen in the forests, on the slopes of the mountains: the + blending of the most diverse colours, and the dark azure and + transparency of the sky, impart to the landscapes of the tropical + countries a charm to which even the pencil of a Salvator Rosa and + a Claude cannot do justice.... + + Except at noon, when all living creatures in the torrid zone seek + shade and repose, and when a solemn silence is diffused over the + scene, illumined by the dazzling beams of the sun, every hour of + the day calls into action another race of animals.... When the + sun goes down, most of the animals retire to rest ... myriads of + luminous beetles now begin to fly about like _ignes fatui_, and + the blood-sucking bats hover like phantoms in the profound + darkness of the night.... The traveller does not here meet with + the impressions of those sublime and rugged high Alps of Europe, + nor, on the other hand, those of a meaner nature; but the + character of these landscapes combines grandeur with simplicity + and softness.... + + He who has not personally experienced the enchantment of tranquil + moonlight nights in these happy latitudes can never be inspired, + even by the most faithful description, with those feelings which + scenes of such wondrous beauty excite in the mind of the + beholder. + + A delicate transparent mist hangs over the country, the moon + shines brightly amid heavy and singularly grouped clouds, the + outlines of the objects illuminated by it are clear and well + defined, while a magic twilight seems to remove from the eye + those which are in shade. Scarce a breath of air is stirring, and + the neighbouring mimosas, that have folded up their leaves to + sleep, stand motionless beside the dark crowns of the manga, the + jaca, and the ethereal jambos; or sometimes a sudden wind arises + and the juiceless leaves of the acaju rustle, the richly flowered + grumijama and pitanga let drop a fragrant shower of snow-white + blossoms; the crowns of the majestic palms wave slowly over the + silent roof which they overshade, like a symbol of peace and + tranquillity. + + Shrill cries of the cicada, the grasshopper, and tree frog make + an incessant hum, and produce by their monotony a pleasing + melancholy.... Every half-hour different balsamic odours fill the + air, and other flowers alternately unfold their leaves to the + night.... While the silent vegetable world, illuminated by scores + of fireflies as by a thousand moving stars, charms the night by + its delicate effluvia, brilliant lightnings play incessantly on + the horizon, and elevate the mind in joyful admiration to the + stars, which, glowing in solemn silence in the firmament above + the continent and ocean, fill the soul with a presentiment of + still sublimer wonders. + +Travels by sea were described at much greater length and with much +more effusion than travels by land; one might infer from the silence +of the people who moved about in Europe in the eighteenth century, +that no love of Nature existed. The extreme discomfort of the road up +to a hundred years ago may account for this silence within Germany. + +Lady Mary Wortley Montagu wrote in 1716 of Saxon Switzerland: + + We passed by moonshine the frightful precipices that divide + Bohemia from Saxony, at the bottom of which runs the river Elbe + ... in many places the road is so narrow that I could not discern + an inch of space between the wheels and the precipice.... + +and her husband declared that + + he had passed the Alps five times in different places, without + having gone a road so dangerous. + +Scherr relates that in the late autumn of 1721 a citizen of +Schwabisch-Gmünd travelled to Ellwangen, a distance of eight hours' +posting. + +Before starting, he had a mass performed in St John's Church 'for the +safe conclusion of the coming journey.' He set off one Monday with +his wife and a maid in a two-horse vehicle called a small tilt waggon +(_Planwägelchen_), but in less than an hour the wheels stuck in mud, +and the whole party had to get out and push the carriage, up to their +knees in filth. In the middle of the village of Boebingen the driver +inadvertently drove the front left wheel into a manure hole, the +carriage was overturned, and the lady of the party had her nose and +cheek badly grazed by the iron hoops. + +From Moeggelingen to Aalen they were obliged to use three horses, and +yet it took fully six hours, so that they were obliged to spend the +night there. Next morning they set off early, and reached the village +of Hofen by mid-day without accidents. Here for a time the travelling +ceased, for a hundred paces beyond the village the carriage fell into +a puddle, and they were all terribly soiled; the maid's right +shoulder was dislocated, and the manservant's hand injured. The axle +of one of the wheels was broken, and a horse completely lamed in the +left forefoot. They had to put up a second time for the night, leave +horses, carriage, man, and maid in Hofen, and hire a rack waggon, in +which at last, pitifully shaken, they reached the gates of Ellwangen +on Wednesday at vesper bells. + +When Eva König, Lessing's _fiancée_, was on her way from Brunswick to +Nuremberg in 1772, she wrote to him from Rattelsdorf (two miles north +of Bamberg), on February 28th, as follows: + + You will certainly never in your life have heard of a village + called Rattelsdorf? We have been in it already twenty-four hours, + and who knows if we shall not have to stay four times as long! It + depends on the Maine, whether it falls or not; as it is now, one + could not cross it, even if one dared to. I have never in my life + met with so many hindrances, so many dangers and hardships, as on + this journey. I can hardly think of any misfortunes which we have + not already had. + +She goes on to describe that in thirty-eight hours two axles and two +poles had been broken, the horses had bolted with them, one horse had +fallen and died, and so on; on March 2nd they were still prisoners in +the wretched village. + +In 1750 a day's journey was still reckoned at five miles, two hours +to the mile; and when in July 1750 Klopstock travelled with Gleim +from Halberstadt to Magdeburg in a light carriage drawn by four +horses, at the rate of six miles in six hours, he thought this speed +remarkable enough to merit comparison with the racing in the Olympian +games. People of any pretensions shunned the discomforts of +travelling on foot--the bad roads, the insecurity, the dirty inns, +and the rough treatment in them; to walk abroad in good clothes and +admire the scenery was an unknown thing. (G. Freytag.) + +It was only after the widening of thoroughfares, the invention of +steamboats (the first was on the Weser 1827) and railways (1835), +that travelling became commoner and more popular, and feeling for +Nature was thereby increased. + +After the Swiss Alps had been discovered for them, people began to +feel interest in their native mountains; Zimmermann led the way with +his observations on a journey in the Harz 1775, and Gatterer in 1785 +published _A Guide to Travelling in the Harz_ in five volumes. + +In 1806 appeared Nicolas's _Guide to Switzerland_, in 1777 J.T. +Volkmar's _Journey to the Riesengebirge_, and before long each little +country and province, be it Weimar, Mecklenburg, or the Mark, had +discovered a Switzerland within its own boundaries, with mountains as +much like the Swiss Alps as a charming little girl is like a giant. + +It was the opening of men's eyes to the charms of romantic scenery at +home. + +The Isle of Rügen too, Swedish at that time, with its striking +contrasts of deep blue bays and inlets, chalk rocks and beech woods, +came into fashion with lovers of Nature, especially after the road +from Sagard to Stubbenkamer had been improved[17]--so much so, in +fact, that in 1805 Grümbke was complaining that many people only went +there to feast, not to enjoy the scene: + + You know I am no foe to pleasure, and appreciate my food and + drink after physical exertion as much as any one; but it is + desecration to make that the main object here. In this dreadfully + beautiful wilderness, under these green corridors of beeches, on + the battlements of this great dazzling temple, before this huge + azure mirror of the sea, only high and serious thoughts should + find a place--the whole scene, stamped as it is with majesty and + mystery, seems designed to attract the mind to the hidden life of + the unending world around it. For this, solitude and rest are + necessary conditions, hence one must visit Stubbenkamer either + alone or with intimate and congenial friends. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE UNIVERSAL PANTHEISTIC FEELING OF +MODERN TIMES + + +The eighteenth century, so proudly distinguished as the century of +Frederic the Great and Maria Theresa, Kant and Lessing, Rousseau and +Voltaire, the age of enlightenment, and, above all, of the +Revolution, was the most sentimental period in history. Its feeling +for Nature bore the same stamp. Many of the Anacreontists and +Göttingen poets, as well as Klopstock, shewed genuine enthusiasm; but +their horizon was narrow, and though F. Stolberg sang of the sea and +his native mountains, most of them only rang the changes on moonlight +and starlight, pastoral idylls, the joys of spring, and winter +excursions on the ice. Even Rousseau, the prophet of high mountains, +was the child of the same sentimental, self-adoring time; a morbid +strain, call it misanthropy, melancholy, what you will, underlay all +his passion for Nature. It was Goethe who dissolved the spell which +lay over the world, and, although born into the days of beautiful +souls, moonshine poets, seraphic heaven stormers, pastoral poems, and +_La Nouvelle Héloise_, ennobled and purified the tone of the day and +freed it from convention! + +It was by dint of his genius for expression, the gift of finding the +one right word, that he became the world's greatest lyrist: what he +felt became a poem, what he saw a picture. + +To see and to fashion into poetry were one with him, whereas his +predecessors had called out the whole artillery of Olympus--nymphs, +Oreads, Chloe, Phyllis, Damon, Aurora, Echo, and Zephyr--even the +still heavier ordnance of the old Teutonic gods and half-gods, only +to repeat stereotyped ideas, and produce descriptions of scenery, +without lyric thought and feeling. + +But Goethe's genius passed through very evident stages of +development, and found forerunners in Lessing and Herder. + +Lessing's mind was didactic and critical, not lyric, so that his +importance here is a negative one. In laying down the limits of +poetry and painting in _Laocoon_, he attacked the error of his day +which used poetry for pictures, debasing it to mere descriptions of +seasons, places, plants, etc. + +He was dealing with fundamental principles when he said: + + Simonides called painting dumb poetry, and poetry speaking + painting; but ... many modern critics have drawn the crudest + conclusions possible from this agreement between painting and + poetry. At one time they confine poetry within the narrow limits + of painting, and at another allow painting to fill the whole wide + sphere of poetry.... This fault-finding criticism has partially + misled the virtuosos themselves. In poetry a fondness for + description, and in painting a fancy for allegory, has arisen + from the desire to make the one a speaking picture without really + knowing what it can and ought to paint, and the other a dumb poem + without having considered in how far painting can express + universal ideas without abandoning its proper sphere and + degenerating into an arbitrary method of writing.... Since the + artist can use but a single moment of ever-changing Nature, and + the painter must further confine his study of this one moment to + a single point of view, while their works are made not simply to + be looked at, but to be contemplated long and often, evidently + the most fruitful moment and the most fruitful aspect must be + chosen. Now that only is fruitful which allows free play to the + imagination. The more we see, the more we must be able to + imagine; and the more we imagine, the more we must think we see. + +And against descriptive poetry he said: + + When a poetaster, says Horace, can do nothing else, he falls to + describing a grove, an altar, a brook winding through pleasant + meadows, a rushing river, or a rainbow. Pope expressly enjoined + upon every one who would not prove himself unworthy the name of + poet, to abandon as early as possible this fondness for + description. A merely descriptive poem he declared to be a feast + made up of sauces. + +Acute as his distinction was between poetry as the representative art +of actions in time, and painting as the representative art of bodies +in space, he did not give due value to lyric feeling or landscape +painting.[1] They belong to a region in which his sharp, critical +acumen was not at home. + +But his discussions established the position that external objects of +any sort, including Nature in all her various shapes, are not proper +subjects for poetry when taken as Thomson, Brockes, and Haller took +them, by themselves alone, but must first be imbued with human +feeling. And the same holds good of landscape painting. Goethe's +lyrics are the most perfect examples of this blending of the outer +and inner world. + +Lessing's criticisms had a salutary, emancipating effect upon +prevalent taste; but a more positive influence came into play through +Herder's warm predilection for the popular songs, which had been so +long neglected, and for all that rises, as in the Psalms, Homer, +Shakespeare, Ossian, from primitive sources of feeling, and finds +spontaneous expression in poetry. The effect of his pioneering was +marked, especially upon Goethe. Herder understood the revulsion of +feeling from the unnatural restraint of the Pigtail period, and while +holding up the mirror to his own day, he at the same time led its +taste and the expression of it towards what was simple and natural, +by disclosing the treasures which lay hidden in the poetry of the +people. The lyric was freed from the artificiality and convention +which had so long ruled it, and although he did not carry out his +plan of a history of poetry, his collections and his profound remarks +upon them were of great service, sowing a seed that bore fruit in +succeeding days. + +The popular songs to him were children of the same mother as the +plants and flowers. 'All the songs of such unlettered folk,'[2] he +said, 'weave a living world around existing objects, actions, and +events. How rich and manifold they all become! And the eye can +actually see them, the mind realize them; they are set in motion. The +different parts of the song are no more connected together than the +trees and bushes in a wood, the rocks in a desert, or the scenes +depicted.' In another place[3] he put the history of feeling for +Nature very tersely: 'There is no doubt that the spirit of man is +made gentler by studying Nature. What did the classics aim at in +their Georgics, but under various shapes to make man more humane and +raise him gradually to order, industry, and prosperity, and to the +power to observe Nature?...' Hence, when poetry revived in the Middle +Ages, she soon recollected the true land of her birth among the +plants and flowers. The Provencal and the romantic poets loved the +same descriptions. Spenser, for instance, has charming stanzas about +beautiful wilds with their streams and flowers; Cowley's six books on +plants, vegetables, and trees are written with extraordinary +affection and a superfluity of imagination; and of our old Brockes, +Gessner says: 'He observed Nature's many beauties down to their +finest minutiæ, the smallest things move his tender feelings; a +dewdrop on a blade of grass in the sunshine inspires him. His scenes +are often too laboured, too wide in scope, but still his poems are a +storehouse of pictures direct from Nature. Haller's _Alps_, Kleist's +poems and Gessner's, Thomson's _Seasons_, speak for themselves.' + +He delighted in Shaftesbury's praises of Nature as the good and +beautiful in the _Moralists_, and translated it[4]; in fact, in +Herder we have already an æsthetic cult of the beauties of Nature. + +After the moral disquisitions of Pope, Addison, Shaftesbury, etc., +Nature's influence on man, moral and æsthetic, became, as we have +already seen, a favourite theme in Germany too, both in pious and +rationalistic circles[5]; but there are few traces of any æsthetic +analysis. + +The most important one was Kant's, in his _Observations on the +Beautiful and Sublime_ in 1764. He distinguished, in the finer +feeling for Nature, a feeling for the sublime and a feeling for the +beautiful. + + Both touch us pleasantly, but in different ways. The sight of a + mountain with a snowy peak reaching above the clouds, the account + of a storm ... these excite pleasure, but mixed with awe; while + flowery meadows, valleys with winding streams and covered by + browsing herds, a description of Elysium ... also cause pleasant + feelings, but of a gay and radiant kind. To appreciate the first + sensations adequately, we must have a feeling for the sublime; to + appreciate the second, a feeling for the beautiful. + +He mentioned tall oaks, lonely shades in consecrated groves, and +night-time, as sublime; day, beds of flowers, low hedges, and trees +cut into shapes, as beautiful. + + Minds which possess the feeling for the sublime are inclined to + lofty thoughts of friendship, scorn of the world, eternity, by + the quiet stillness of a summer evening, when the twinkling + starlight breaks the darkness. The light of day impels to + activity and cheerfulness. The sublime soothes, the beautiful + stimulates. + +He goes on to subdivide the sublime: + + This feeling is sometimes accompanied by horror or by dejection, + sometimes merely by quiet admiration, at other times by a sense + of wide-spread beauty. I will call the first the terrible, the + second the noble, the third the splendid sublime. + + Profound solitude is sublime, but in a terrible way. This is why + great deserts, like the Desert of Gamo in Tartary, have always + been the supposed abode of fearful shades, hobgoblins, and + ghostly spectres. The sublime is always great and simple; the + beautiful may be small, elaborate, and ornamental. + +He tried, too, to define the romantic in Nature, though very vaguely: + + The dreadful variety of the sublime, when quite unnatural, is + adventurous. When sublimity or beauty is excessive, it is called + romantic. + +In his _Kalligone_, which appeared in 1800, Herder quoted Kant in +making one of the characters say, 'One calls day beautiful, night +sublime,' and tried to carry the idea a step further; 'The sublime +and beautiful are not opposed to each other, but stem and boughs of a +tree whose top is the most sublimely beautiful of all,' that is the +romantic. In the same book he attempted to analyze his impressions of +Nature, calling a rugged place odious, an insignificant one without +character tedious. 'In the presence of great mountains,' he says, +'the spirit is filled with bold aspirations, whereas in gentle +valleys it lies quiet.' Harmony in variety was his ideal, like the +sea in storm and calm. 'An ocean of beautiful forms in rest and +movement.' + +And in reference to the contrast between a place made 'dreadful and +horrible' by a torrent dashing over rocks and a quiet and charming +valley, he said: 'These changes follow unalterable laws, which are +recognized by our minds, and in harmony with our feelings.' He saw +the same order in variety among plants, from the highest to the +lowest, from palm tree to moss. In the second part of the book he +gave an enthusiastic description of the sublime in sky and sea. + +His beautiful words on the inspiration of Nature shew his insight +into her relation to the poet soul of the people: + + Everything in Nature must be inspired by life, or it does not + move me, I do not feel it. The cooling zephyr and the morning + sunbeam, the wind blowing through the trees, and the fragrant + carpet of flowers, must cool, warm, pervade us--then we feel + Nature. The poet does not say he feels her, unless he feels her + intensely, living, palpitating and pervading him, like the wild + Nature of Ossian, or the soft luxuriant Nature of Theocritus and + the Orientals. In Nature, the more varieties the better; for + instance, in a beautiful country I rustle with the wind and + become alive (and give life--inspire), I inhale fragrance and + exhale it with the flowers; I dissolve in water; I float in the + blue sky; I feel all these feelings. + +Herder touched the lyre himself with a skilful hand. Thought +predominated with him, but he could make Nature live in his song.[7] +'I greet thee, thou wing of heaven,' he sang to the lark; and to the +rainbow, 'Beautiful child of the sun, picture and hope over dark +clouds ... hopes are colours, are broken sun-rays and the children of +tears, truth is the sun.' + +In _By the Sea at Naples_ he wrote: + + A-weary of the summer's fiery brand, + I sat me down beside the cooling sea, + Where the waves heaving, rolled and kissed the strand + Of the grey shore, ... + And over me, high over in the air, + Of the blue skyey vault, rustled the tree ... + Queen of all trees, slender and beautiful, + The pine tree, lifting me to golden dreams. + +In _Recollections of Naples_: + + Yes! they are gone, those happy, happy hours + Joyous but short, by Posilippo's bay! + Sweet dream of sea and lake, of rock and hill, + Grotto and island, and the mirrored sun + In the blue water--thou hast passed away! + +and + + When the glow of evening softly fades + From the still sea, and with her gleaming host + The moon ascends the sky. + +_Night_ is very poetic: + + And comest thou again, + Thou Mother of the stars and heavenly thoughts? + Divine and quiet Mother, comest thou? + The earth awaits thee, from thy chalice cup + But one drop of thy heavenly dew to quaff, + Her flowers bend low their heads; + And with them, satiate with vision, droops + My overcharged soul.... + O starry goddess with the crown of gold, + Upon whose wide-spread sable mantle gleam + A thousand worlds ... + Silence divine, that filleth all the world, + Flowing so softly to the eternal shores + Of an eternal universe.... + +And in _St John's Night_, he exclaims: + + Infinite, ah! inexhaustible art thou, Mother Nature! + +Like the rest, Herder suffered from the over-sensitiveness of his +day. His correspondence with his _fiancée_ shews this[8]; one sees +Rousseau's influence: + + My pleasantest hours are when, quite alone, I walk in a charming + wood close to Bückeburg, or lie upon a wall in the shade of my + garden, or lastly, for we have had capital moonlight for three + nights, and the last was the best of all, when I enjoy these + hours of sweetly sleeping night with all the songs of the + nightingale. + + I reckon no hours more delightful than those of green solitude. I + live so romantically alone, and among woods and churches, as only + poets, lovers, and philosophers can live. + +And his _fiancée_ wrote: + + 'Tis all joy within and around me since I have known thee, my + best beloved: every plant and flower, everything in Nature, seems + beautiful to me. + +and + + I went early to my little room; the moon was quite covered by + clouds, and the night so melancholy from the croaking of the + frogs, that I could not leave the window for a long time: my + whole soul was dark and cloudy; I thought of thee, my dear one, + and that thought, that sigh, reduced me to tears. + +and + + Do you like the ears of wheat so much? I never pass a cornfield + without stroking them. + +Goethe focussed all the rays of feeling for Nature which had found +lyrical expression before him, and purged taste, beginning with his +own, of its unnatural and sickly elements. So he became the +liberating genius of modern culture. Not only did German lyric poetry +reach its climax in him; but he was the most accurate, individual, +and universal interpreter of German feeling for Nature. + +His wide original mind kept open house for the most diverse elements +of feeling, and exercised an ennobling control upon each and all at +will; Homer's naivete, Shakespeare's sympathy, Rousseau's enthusiasm, +even Ossian's melancholy, found room there. + +While most love lyrics of his day were false in feeling, mere raving +extravagances, and therefore poor in those metaphors and comparisons +which prove sympathy between Nature and the inner life, it could be +said of him that 'Nature wished to know what she looked like, and so +she created Goethe.' He was the microcosm in which the macrocosm of +modern times was reflected. + +He was more modern and universal than any of his predecessors, and +his insight into Nature and love for her have been rarely equalled in +later days. He did not live, like so many of the elegiac and idyllic +poets of the eighteenth century, a mere dream-life of the +imagination: Goethe stood firmly rooted among the actualities; from +boyhood up, as he said in _Wahrheit und Dichtung_, he had 'a warm +feeling for all objective things.' + +No poet, Klopstock not excepted, was richer in verbal invention, and +many of the phrases and epithets which he coined form in themselves +very striking evidence (which is lost in translation) of his close +and original observation of Nature. + +He has many beautiful comparisons to Nature: + +His lady-love is 'brightly beautiful as morning clouds on yonder +height.' + +'I was wont to look at thee as one looks at the stars and moon, +delighting in thee without the most distant wish in my quiet breast +to possess thee.' + +'I give kisses as the spring gives flowers.' + +'My feeling for thee was like seed, which germinates slowly in +winter, but ripens quickly in summer.' + +The stars move 'with flower feet.' + +The graces are 'pure as the heart of the waters, as the marrow of +earth.' + +A delicate poem is a rainbow only existing against a dark ground. + +In _Stella_: + + Thou dost not feel what heavenly dew to the thirsty it is, to + return to thy breast from the sandy desert world. + + I felt free in soul, free as a spring morning. + +In _Faust_: + + The cataract bursting through the rocks is the image of human + effort; its coloured reflection the image of life. + +When Werther feels himself trembling between existence and +non-existence, everything around him sinking away, and the world +perishing with him: + + The past flashes like lightning over the dark abyss of the + future. + +These are among his still more numerous metaphors: + +A sea of folly, an ocean of fragrance, the waves of battle, the +stream of genius, the tiger claw of despair, the sun-ray of the past. +Iphigenia says to Orestes: + + O let the pure breath of love blow lightly on thy heart's flame + and cool it. + +and Eleonora complains about Tasso: + + Let him go! But what twilight falls round me now! Formerly the + stream carried us along upon the light waves without a rudder. + +In Goethe we see very clearly how the inner life, under the pressure +of its own intensity, will, so to speak, overflow into the outer +world, making that live in its turn; and how this is especially the +case when the amorous passion is present to add its impetus to +feeling, and attribute its own fervour to all around. + +_May Song_, _On the Lake_, _Ganymede_, are instances of this. + +_Ganymede_: + + Oh, what a glow + Around me in morning's + Blaze thou diffusest, + Beautiful spring! + With the rapture of love but intenser, + Intenser and deeper and sweeter, + Nestles and creeps to my heart + The sensation divine + Of thy fervour eternal, + Oh, thou unspeakably fair! + +Beautiful personifications abound: + +The sun is proudly throned in heaven. + +The glowing sun gazes at the rugged peak or charms it with fiery +love, + +Or bathes like the moon in the ocean. + +The parting glance of Mother Sun broods on the grapes. + +'Morning came frightening away light sleep with its footsteps.' + +'The young day arose with delight.' + +The moon: 'Thou spreadest thy glance soothingly over my abode.' + +On a cloudy night: 'Evening already rocked earth, and night hung on +the mountains; from a hill of clouds the moon looked mournfully out +of the mist.' + +'The lofty stars turn their clear eyes down to me.' + +Even the rock lives: 'The hard rock opens its bosom, not envying +earth its deep springs.' + +The stream: 'Thou hurriest on with joyful light mood; see the rock +spring bright with the glance of the stars, yet no shady valley, no +flowers make him tarry ... his course winds downwards to the plain, +then he scatters in delightful spray, in cloud waves ... foams +gloomily to the abyss.' + + With gradual step from out the far-off grey, + Self-heralded draws on the storm. + Birds on the wing fly low across the water, weighted down, + And seamen hasten to reef in the sail + Before its stubborn wrath. + +His flowers are alive: + + The beauteous snowdrops + Droop o'er the plain, + The crocus opens + Its glowing bud ... + With saucy gesture + Primroses flare, + And roguish violets + Hidden with care. + +But these are only examples. To obtain a clear idea of Goethe's +attitude, we must take a more general survey of his work, for his +poetic relationship to Nature, like his mental development in +general, passed through various stages of growth. That it was a warm +one even in youth is shewn by the letter in 1766 from Leipzig[9]: + + You live contented in M. I even so here. Lonely, lonely, + altogether lonely. Dearest Riese, this loneliness has impressed + my soul with a certain sadness. + + This solitary joy is mine, + When far apart from all mankind, + By shady brook-side to recline. + And keep my loved ones in my mind.... + +He goes on with these lines: + + Then is my heart with sorrow filled, + Sad is mine eye. + The flooded brook now rages by, + That heretofore so gently rilled. + No bird sings in the bushes now, + The tree so green is dry, + The zephyr which on me did blow + So cheering, now storms northerly, + And scattered blossoms bears on high. + +He was already in full sympathy with Nature. A few of his earlier +poems[10] shew prevalent taste, the allusions to Zephyr and Lima, for +instance, in _Night_; but they are followed by lines which are all +his own. + +He had an incomparable way of striking the chords of love and Nature +together. + +Where his lady-love dwells, 'there is love, and goodness is Nature.' +He thinks of her + + When the bright sunlight shimmers + Across the sea, + When the clear fountain in the moonbeam glimmers. + + Thou art seductive and charming; flowers, + Sun, moon, and stars only worship thee. + +There is passionate feeling for Nature in the _May Song_ of his +Sesenheimer period: + + How gloriously gleameth + All Nature to me! + How bright the sun beameth, + How fresh is the lea! + White blossoms are bursting + The thickets among, + And all the gay greenwood + Is ringing with song! + There's radiance and rapture + That nought can destroy, + Oh earth, in thy sunshine, + Oh heart, in thy joy. + Oh love! thou enchanter + So golden and bright, + Like the red clouds of morning + That rest on yon height, + It is them that art clothing + The fields and the bowers, + And everywhere breathing + The incense of flowers. + +Looking back in old age to those happy days of youth, he saw in +memory not only Frederica but the scenery around her. He said +(_Wahrheit und Dichtung_): 'Her figure never looked more charming +than when she was moving along a raised footpath; the charm of her +bearing seemed to vie with the flowering ground, and the +indestructible cheerfulness of her face with the blue sky.' In Alsace +he wrote: + + One has only to abandon oneself to the present in order to enjoy + the charms of the sky, the glow of the rich earth, the mild + evenings, the warm nights, at the side of one's love, or near + her. + +and one of the poems to Frederica says: + + The world lies round me buried deep in mist, but + In one glance of thine lies sunshine and happiness. + +There is a strong pulse of life--life that overflows into Nature--in +_The Departure_: + + To horse! Away, o'er hill and steep, + Into the saddle blithe I spring; + The eve was cradling earth to sleep, + And night upon the mountains hung. + With robes of mist around him set, + The oak like some huge giant stood, + While, with its hundred eyes of jet, + Peer'd darkness from the tangled wood. + Amid a bank of clouds the moon + A sad and troubled glimmer shed; + The wind its chilly wings unclosed, + And whistled wildly round my head. + Night framed a thousand phantoms dire, + Yet did I never droop nor start; + Within my veins what living fire! + What quenchless glow within my heart! + +And very like it, though in a minor key, is the Elegy which begins, +'A tender, youthful trouble.' + +He tells in _Wahrheit und Dichtung_ how he found comfort for his love +troubles in Frankfort: + + They were accustomed to call me, on account of wandering about + the district, the 'wanderer.' In producing that calm for the + mind, which I felt under the open sky, in the valleys, on the + heights, in the fields, and in the woods, the situation of + Frankfort was serviceable.... On the setting in of winter a new + world was revealed to us, since I at once determined to skate.... + For this new joyous activity we were also indebted to Klopstock, + to his enthusiasm for this happy species of motion.... To pass a + splendid Sunday thus on the ice did not satisfy us, we continued + in movement late into the night.... The full moon rising from the + clouds, over the wide nocturnal meadows which were frozen into + fields of ice, the night breeze which rustled towards us on our + course, the solemn thunder of the ice which sunk as the water + decreased, the strange echo of our own movements, rendered the + scenes of Ossian just present to our minds. + +His attachment, to Lotte, stirred far deeper feelings than the +earlier ones to Frederica and Lilli: + + (If I, my own dear Lilli, loved thee not, How should I joy to + view this scene so fair! And yet if I, sweet Lilli, loved thee + not, Should I be happy here or anywhere?) + +and drew him correspondingly nearer to Nature. + +There is no book in any language which so lives and moves and has its +being in Nature as _Werther_.[11] In _Wahrheit und Dichtung_ Goethe +said of the 'strange element' in which _Werther_ was designed and +written: + + I sought to free myself internally from all that was foreign to + me, to regard the external with love, and to allow all beings, + from man downwards, as low as they were comprehensible, to act + upon me, each after its own kind. Thus arose a wonderful affinity + with the single objects of Nature, and a hearty concord, a + harmony with the whole, so that every change, whether of place or + region, or of the times of the day and year, or whatever else + could happen, affected me in the deepest manner. The glance of + the painter associated itself with that of the poet; the + beautiful rural landscape, animated by the pleasant river, + increased my love of solitude and favoured my silent observations + as they extended on all sides. + +The strong influence of _La Nouvelle Héloise_ upon _Werther_ was very +evident, but there was a marked difference between Goethe's feeling +for Nature and Rousseau's. Rousseau had the painter's eye, but not +the keen poetic vision. + +Goethe's romances are pervaded by the penetrating quality peculiar to +his nation, and by virtue of which in _Werther_, the outer world, the +scenery, was not used as framework, but was always interwoven with +the hero's mood. The contrast between culture and Nature is always +marked in Rousseau, and his religion was deism; Goethe resolves +Nature into feeling, and his religion was a growing pantheism. As a +work of art, _Werther_ is excellent, _La Nouvelle Héloise_ is not. +Goethe used his hero's bearing towards Nature with marvellous effect +to indicate the turns and changes of his moods, just as he indicated +the threatening calamity and the growing apprehension of it by +skilful stress laid upon some of her little traits--a faculty which +only Theodore Storm among later poets has caught from him. + +The growth of amorous passion is portrayed as an elementary force, +and the revolutionary element in the book really consists in the +strength of this passion and the assertion of its natural rights. +Everything artificial, forced, conventional, in thought, act, and +feeling--and what at that time was not?--was repugnant to Werther; +what he liked most of all was the simplicity of children and +uneducated people. + + Nothing distresses me more than to see men torment each other; + particularly when in the flower of their age, in the very season + of pleasure, they waste their few short days of sunshine in + quarrels and disputes, and only perceive their error when it is + too late to repair it. + +To such intense sympathy as this, all that had been sung ere now by +German poets had to give place. Nature, which hitherto had played no +_rôle_ at all in fiction, not even among the English, was Werther's +truest and most intimate friend. + +Werther is sensitive and sentimental, though in a single-hearted way, +with a sentimentality that reminds us more and more, as the story +proceeds, of the gloomy tone of Ossian and Young. He is a thoroughly +original character, who feels that he is right so to be; and although +he falls a prey to his melancholy, yet there is much more force and +thought in his outpourings than in all the moonshine tirades that +preceded him. It is the work of a true poet, in the best days of a +brilliant youth. + +Werther, like Rousseau, was happiest in solitude. Solitude, in the +'place like paradise,' was precious balm to his feeling heart, which +he considers 'like a sick child'; and the 'warm heavenly imagination +of the heart' illuminates Nature round him--his 'favourite valley,' +the 'sweet spring morning,' Nature's 'unspeakable beauty.' He was +absorbed in artistic feeling, though he could not draw; 'I could not +draw them, not a stroke, and have never been a greater artist than at +that moment.' His power lay in imbuing his whole subject with +feeling; he felt the heart of Nature beating, and its echo in his own +breast. + + When the lovely valley teems with vapour around me, and the + meridian sun strikes the upper surface of the impenetrable + foliage of my trees, and but a few stray gleams steal into the + inner sanctuary, then I throw myself down in the tall grass by + the trickling stream; and as I lie close to the earth, a thousand + unknown plants discover themselves to me. When I hear the buzz of + the little world among the stalks, and grow familiar with the + countless indescribable forms of the insects and flies, then I + feel the presence of the Almighty who formed us in His own image, + and the breath of that universal love which bears and sustains + us, as it floats around us in an eternity of bliss; and then, my + friend, when darkness overspreads my eyes, and heaven and earth + seem to dwell in my soul and absorb its power, like the idea of a + beloved mistress, then I often long and think: O that you could + describe these conceptions, that you could impress upon paper all + that lives so full and warm within you, that it might be the + mirror of your soul, as your soul is the mirror of the infinite + God! + + O! my friend! but it is too much for my strength. I sink under + the weight of the grandeur of these visions. + +Werther could not express all his love for Nature, but the secret of +it lay in the power to bring his own world of thought and feeling +into communion with her, and so give her speech. He divined something +immortal in her akin to himself. 'The true feeling of Nature,' he +said, 'is love.' He poured 'the stream of his genius' over her, and +she became 'dear and familiar' to him.... The simple homely scenery +delighted him--the valley, the brook, the fine walnut trees. + + When I go out at sunrise in the morning to Walheim, and with my + own hands gather the peas in the garden, which are to serve for + my dinner; when I sit down to shell them and read my Homer during + the intervals, and then, selecting a saucepan from the kitchen, + fetch my own butter, put my mess on the fire, cover it up.... + Nothing fills me with a more pure and genuine sense of happiness + than those traits of patriarchal life, which, thank heaven, I can + imitate without affectation. + +With the growth of his love-passion his feeling for Nature increased; +on July 24th he wrote: + + I never felt happier, I never understood Nature better, even down + to the veriest stem or smallest blade of grass. + +Then Albert came on the scene, and love became a torment, and Nature +a tormentor: + + _August_ 18.--Must it ever be thus, that the source of our + happiness must also be the fountain of our misery? The full and + ardent sentiment which animated my heart with the love of Nature, + overwhelming me with a torrent of delight, and which brought all + paradise before me, has now become an insupportable torment, a + demon which perpetually pursues and harasses me. When in bye-gone + days I gazed from these rocks upon yonder mountains across the + river and upon the green flowery valley before me, and saw all + nature budding and bursting around--the hills clothed from foot + to peak with tall thick forest trees, the valleys in all their + varied windings shaded with the loveliest woods, and the soft + river gliding along amongst the lisping reeds, mirroring the + beautiful clouds which the soft evening breeze wafted across the + sky--when I heard the groves about me melodious with the music of + birds, and saw the million swarms of insects dancing in the last + golden beams of the sun, whose setting rays awoke the humming + beetles from their grassy beds, whilst the subdued tumult around + directed my attention to the ground, and I there observed the + arid rock compelled to yield nutriment to the dry moss, whilst + the heath flourished upon the barren sands below me--all this + displayed to me the inner warmth which animates all Nature, and + filled and glowed within my heart. I felt myself exalted by this + overflowing fulness to the perception of the Godhead, and the + glorious forms of an infinite universe became visible to my + soul.... From the inaccessible mountains across the desert, which + no mortal foot has trod, far as the confines of the unknown + ocean, breathes the spirit of the eternal Creator, and every atom + to which He has given existence finds favour in His sight. Ah! + how often at that time has the flight of a bird soaring above my + head inspired me with the desire of being transported to the + shores of the immeasurable waters, there to quaff the pleasure of + life from the foaming goblet of the infinite, and to partake, if + but for a moment, even with the confined powers of my soul, the + beatitude of the Creator, who accomplishes all things in himself + and through himself.... It is as if a curtain had been drawn from + before my eyes.... My heart is wasted by the thought of that + destructive power which lies concealed in every part of universal + nature--Nature has formed nothing that does not consume itself + and every object near it; so that, surrounded by earth, and air, + and all the active powers, I wander on my way with aching heart, + and the universe is to me a fearful monster, for ever devouring + its own offspring.... If in such moments I find no sympathy ... I + either wander through the country, climb some precipitous cliff, + or force a path through the trackless thicket, where I am + lacerated and torn by thorns and briars, and thence I find + relief. + +Then, as he was going away, he felt how sympathetic the place had +been to him: + + I was walking up and down the very avenue which was so dear to + me--a secret sympathy had frequently drawn me thither.... + +the moon rose from behind a hill, increasing his melancholy, and +Charlotte put his feeling into words, saying (like Klopstock): + + _September_ 10.--Whenever I walk by moonlight, it brings to my + remembrance all my beloved and departed friends, and I am filled + with thoughts of death and futurity. + +Even in his misery he realises the [Greek: charisgoôn] of Euripides, +Petrarch's _dolendi voluptas_--the _Wonne der Wehmuth_. + +On September 4th he wrote: + + It is even so! As Nature puts on her autumn tints, it becomes + autumn with me and around me. My leaves are sere and yellow, and + the neighbouring trees are divested of their foliage. + +It was due to this autumn feeling that he could say: + + Ossian has superseded Homer in my heart. To what a world does the + illustrious bard carry me! To wander over pathless wilds, + surrounded by impetuous whirlwinds, where, by the feeble light of + the moon, we see the spirits of our ancestors; to hear from the + mountain tops, 'mid the roar of torrents, their plaintive sounds + issuing from deep caverns.... And this heart is now dead; no + sentiment can revive it. My eyes are dry, and my senses, no more + refreshed by the influence of soft tears, wither and consume my + brain. I suffer much, for I have lost the only charm of life, + that active sacred power which created worlds around me, and it + is no more. When I look from my window at the distant hills and + behold the morning sun breaking through the mists and + illuminating the country round it which is still wrapt in + silence, whilst the soft stream winds gently through the willows + which have shed their leaves; when glorious Nature displays all + her beauties before me, and her wondrous prospects are + ineffectual to attract one tear of joy from my withered heart.... + +On November 30th he wrote: 'About dinner-time I went to walk by the +river side, for I had no appetite,' and goes on in the tone of +Ossian: + + Everything around me seemed gloomy: a cold and damp easterly wind + blew from the mountains, and black heavy clouds spread over the + plain. + +and in the dreadful night of the flood: + + Upon the stroke of twelve I hastened forth. I beheld a fearful + sight. The foaming torrents rolled from the mountains in the + moonlight; fields and meadows, trees and hedges, were confounded + together, and the entire valley was converted into a deep lake + which was agitated by the roaring wind. And when the moon shone + forth and tinged the black clouds with silver, and the impetuous + torrent at my feet foamed and resounded with awful and grand + impetuosity, I was overcome by a mingled sensation of awe and + delight. With extended arms I looked down into the yawning abyss, + and cried 'Plunge!' For a moment my senses forsook me, in the + intense delight of ending my sorrows and my sufferings by a + plunge into that gulf. + +To his farewell letter he adds: + + Yes, Nature! put on mourning. Your child, your friend, your + lover, draws near his end. + +The genuine poetic pantheism, which, for all his melancholy and +sentimentality, was the spring of Werther's feeling, is seen in +loftier and more comprehensive form in the first part of _Faust_, +when Faust opens the book and sees the sign of macrocosmos: + + How all things live and work, and ever blending, + Weave one vast whole from Being's ample range! + How powers celestial, rising and descending, + Their golden buckets ceaseless interchange. + Their flight on rapture-breathing pinions winging, + From heaven to earth their genial influence bringing, + Through the wide whole their chimes melodious ringing. + +And the Earth spirit says: + + In the currents of life, in action's storm, + I float and I wave + With billowy motion,-- + Birth and the grave + A limitless ocean. + +Not only of knowledge of, but of feeling for, Nature, it is said: + + Inscrutable in broadest light, + To be unveiled by force she doth refuse. + +But Faust is in deep sympathy with her; witness: + + Thou full-orbed moon! Would thou wert gazing now + For the last time upon my troubled brow! + +and + + Loos'd from their icy fetters, streams and rills + In spring's effusive, quick'ning mildness flow, + Hope's budding promise every valley fills. + And winter, spent with age, and powerless now, + Draws off his forces to the savage hills. + +and the idyllic evening mood, which gives way to a burst of longing: + + In the rich sunset see how brightly glow + Yon cottage homes girt round with verdant green. + Slow sinks the orb, the day is now no more; + Yonder he hastens to diffuse new light. + Oh! for a pinion from the earth to soar, + And after, ever after him to strive! + Then should I see the world outspread below, + Illumined by the deathless evening beams, + The vales reposing, every height aglow, + The silver brooklets meeting golden streams.... + Alas! that when on Spirit wing we rise, + No wing material lifts our mortal clay. + But 'tis our inborn impulse, deep and strong, + To rush aloft, to struggle still towards heaven, + When far above us pours its thrilling song + The skylark lost amid the purple even, + When on extended pinion sweeps amain + The lordly eagle o'er the pine-crowned height. + And when, still striving towards its home, the crane + O'er moor and ocean wings its onward flight. + +But the most complete expression of Goethe's attitude, not only in +the period of _Werther_ and the first part of _Faust_, but generally, +is contained in the _Monologue_, which was probably written not +earlier than the spring of 1788: + + Spirit sublime! Thou gav'st me, gav'st me all + For which I prayed. Not vainly hast thou turn'd + To me thy countenance in flaming fire; + Thou gav'st me glorious Nature for my realm, + And also power to feel her and enjoy; + Not merely with a cold and wond'ring glance, + Thou didst permit me in her depths profound, + As in the bosom of a friend, to gaze; + Before me thou dost lead her living tribes, + And dost in silent grove, in air and stream, + Teach me to know my kindred.... + +His feeling was not admiration alone, nor reverence alone, but the +sympathy of _Childe Harold_: + + Are not the mountains, waves, and skies a part + Of me and of my soul, as I of them? + Is not the love of these deep in my heart + With a pure passion? Should I not contemn + All objects, if compared with these? + +and the very confession of faith of such poetic pantheism is in +Faust's words: + + Him who dare name, + And yet proclaim, + Yes, I believe?... + The All-embracer, + All-sustainer, + Doth he not embrace, sustain + Thee, me, himself? + Lifts not the heaven its dome above? + Doth not the firm-set earth beneath us rise? + And beaming tenderly with looks of love, + Climb not the everlasting stars on high? + +The poems which date directly after the Wetzlar period are full of +this sympathetic pantheistic love for Nature--_Mahomet's Song_, for +example, with its splendid comparison of pioneering genius to a +mountain torrent: + + Ho! the spring that bursts + From the mountain height + Joyous and bright, + As the gleam of a star.... + Down in the vale below + Flowers bud beneath his tread ... + And woo him with fond eyes. + And the streamlets of the mountains + Shout to him, and cry out 'Brother'! + Brother! take thy brothers with thee, + With thee to thine ancient father, + To the eternal Ocean, + Who with outstretch'd arms awaits us.... + And so beareth he his brothers + To their primal sire expectant, + All his bosom throbbing, heaving, + With a wild, tumultuous joy. + +We see the same pathos--the pathos of Pindar and the Psalms--in the +comparison: + + Like water is the soul of man, + From heaven it comes, to heaven it goes, + And back again to earth in ceaseless change. + +in the incomparable _Wanderer_, in _Wanderer's Storm Song,_ and, +above all, in _Ganymede_, already given, of which Loeper remarks: + + The poem is, as it were, a rendering of that letter (Werther's of + May 10th) in rhythm. The underlying pantheism had already shewn + itself in the _Wanderer's Storm Song_. It was not the delight in + God of a Brockes, not the adoration of a Klopstock, not sesthetic + enjoyment of Nature, not, as in later years, scientific interest; + it was rather a being absorbed in, identified with, Nature, a + sympathy carried so far that the very ego was surrendered to the + elements. + +On the Lake of Zurich he wrote, June 15th, 1775: + + And here I drink new blood, fresh food, + From world so free, so blest; + How sweet is Nature and how good, + Who holds me to her breast. + +and Elmire sings in _Ermin and Elmire_: + + From thee, O Nature, with deep breath + I drink in painful pleasure. + +One of the gems among his Nature poems is _Autumn Feelings_ (it was +the autumn of his love for Lilli): + + Flourish greener as ye clamber, + O ye leaves, to seek my chamber; + Up the trellised vine on high + May ye swell, twin-berries tender, + Juicier far, and with more splendour + Ripen, and more speedily. + O'er ye broods the sun at even, + As he sinks to rest, and heaven + Softly breathes into your ear + All its fertilizing fulness, + While the moon's refreshing coolness, + Magic-laden, hovers near. + And alas! ye're watered ever + By a stream of tears that rill + From mine eyes--tears ceasing never, + Tears of love that nought can still. + +The lyrical effect here depends upon the blending of a single +impression of Nature with the passing mood--an occasional poem rare +even for Goethe. + +In a letter to Frau von Stein he admitted that he was greatly +influenced by Nature: + + I have slept well and am quite awake, only a quiet sadness lies + upon my soul.... The weather agrees exactly with my state of + mind, and I begin to believe that it is the weather around me + which has the most immediate effect upon me, and the great world + thrills my little one with her own mood. + +Again, _To the Moon_, in the spring 1778, expresses perfect communion +between Nature and feeling: + + Flooded are the brakes and dells + With thy phantom light, + And my soul receives the spell + Of thy mystic night. + To the meadow dost thou send + Something of thy grace, + Like the kind eye of a friend + Beaming on my face. + Echoes of departed times + Vibrate in mine ear, + Joyous, sad, like spirit chimes, + As I wander here. + Flow, flow on, thou little brook, + Ever onward go! + Trusted heart and tender look + Left me even so! + Richer treasure earth has none + Than I once possessed-- + Ah! so rich, that when 'twas gone + Worthless was the rest. + Little brook! adown the vale + Rush and take my song: + Give it passion, give it wail, + As thou leap'st along! + Sound it in the winter night + When thy streams are full, + Murmur it when skies are bright + Mirror'd in the pool. + Happiest he of all created + Who the world can shun, + Not in hate, and yet unhated, + Sharing thought with none, + Save one faithful friend, revealing + To his kindly ear + Thoughts like these, which o'er me stealing, + Make the night so drear. + +In January 1778, he wrote to Frau von Stein about the fate of the +unhappy Chr. von Lassberg, who had drowned himself in the Ilm: + + This inviting grief has something dangerously attractive about + it, like the water itself; and the reflections of the stars, + which gleam from above and below at once, are alluring. + +To the same year belongs _The Fisher_, which gave such melodious +voice to the magic effect of a shimmering expanse of water, 'the +moist yet radiant blue,' upon the mood; just as, later on, _The +Erlking_, with the grey of an autumn evening woven ghostlike round +tree and shrub, made the mind thrill with foreboding. + +Goethe was always an industrious traveller. In his seventieth year he +went to Frankfort, Strassburg, the Rhine, Thuringia, and the Harz +Mountains (Harzreise, 1777): 'We went up to the peaks, and down to +the depths of the earth, and hammered at all the rocks.' His love for +Nature increased with his science; but, at the same time, poetic +expression of it took a more objective form; the passionate +vehemence, the really revolutionary attitude of the _Werther_ period, +gave way to one equally spiritual and intellectual, but more +temperate. + +This transition is clearly seen in the Swiss letters. In his first +Swiss travels, 1775, he was only just free from _Werther_, and his +mind was too agitated for quiet observation: + + Hasten thee, Kronos!... + Over stock and stone let thy trot + Into life straightway lead.... + Wide, high, glorious the view + Gazing round upon life, + While from mount unto mount + Hovers the spirit eterne, + Life eternal foreboding.... + +Far more significant and ripe--in fact, mature--are the letters in +1779, shewing, as they do, the attitude of a man of profound mind, in +the prime of his life and time. He was the first German poet to fall +under the spell of the mountains--the strongest spell, as he held, +which Nature wields in our latitudes. 'These sublime, incomparable +scenes will remain for ever in my mind'; and of one view in +particular, over the mountains of Savoy and Valais, the Lake of +Geneva, and Mont Blanc, he said: 'The view was so great, man's eye +could not grasp it.' + +He wrote of his feelings with perfect openness to Frau von Stein, and +these letters extended farther back than those from Switzerland, and +were partly mixed with them. + +From Selz: + + An uncommonly fine day, a happy country--still all green, only + here and there a yellow beech or oak leaf. Meadows still in their + silver beauty--a soft welcome breeze everywhere. Grapes improving + with every step and every day. Every peasant's house has a vine + up to the roof, and every courtyard a great overhanging arbour. + The air of heaven soft, warm, and moist. The Rhine and the clear + mountains near at hand, the changing woods, meadows, fields like + gardens, do men good, and give me a kind of comfort which I have + long lacked. + +The pen remains as ever the pen of a poet, but he looks at +Switzerland now with a mature, settled taste, analyzing his +impressions, and studying mountains, glaciers, boulders, +scientifically. + +Of the Staubbach Fall, near Lauterbrunnen (Oct. 9th, 1779): + + The clouds broke in the upper air, and the blue sky came through. + Clouds clung to the steep sides of the rocks; even the top where + the Staubbach falls over, was lightly covered. It was a very + noble sight ... then the clouds came down into the valley and + covered all the foreground. The great wall over which the water + falls, still stood out on the right. Night came on.... In the + Munsterthal, through which we came, everything was lofty, but + more within the mind's power of comprehension than these. In + comparison with the immensities, one is, and must remain, too + small. + +And after visiting the Berne glacier from Thun (Oct. 14): + + It is difficult to write after all this ... the first glance from + the mountain is striking, the district is surprisingly extensive + and pleasant ... the road indescribably beautiful ... the view + from the Lake of Brienz towards the snow mountains at sunset is + great. + +More eloquent is the letter of October 3rd, from the Munsterthal: + + The passage through this defile roused in me a grand but calm + emotion. The sublime produces a beautiful calmness in the soul, + which, entirely possessed by it, feels as great as it ever can + feel. How glorious is such a pure feeling, when it rises to the + very highest without overflowing. My eye and my soul were both + able to take in the objects before me, and as I was preoccupied + by nothing, and had no false tastes to counteract their + impression, they had on me their full and natural effect. When we + compare such a feeling with that we are sensible of, when we + laboriously harass ourselves with some trifle, and strain every + nerve to gain as much as possible for it, and, as it were, to + patch it out, striving to furnish joy and aliment to the mind + from its own creation; we then feel sensibly what a poor + expedient, after all, the latter is.... + + When we see such objects as these for the first time, the + unaccustomed soul has to expand itself, and this gives rise to a + sort of painful joy, an overflowing of emotion which agitates the + mind and draws from us the most delicious tears.... If only + destiny had bidden me to dwell in the midst of some grand + scenery, then would I every morning have imbibed greatness from + its grandeur, as from a lonely valley I would extract patience + and repose. + + One guesses in the dark about the origin and existence of these + singular forms.... These masses must have been formed grandly and + simply by aggregation. Whatever revolutions may subsequently have + up-heaved, rent, and divided them ... the idea of such nightly + commotions gives one a deep feeling of the eternal stability of + the masses.... One feels deeply convinced that here there is + nothing accidental, that here there is working an eternal law + which, however slowly, yet surely governs the universe. + +By the Lake of Geneva, where he thought of Rousseau, he went up the +Dole: + + The whole of the Pays de Vaux and de Gex lay like a plan before + us ... we kept watching the mist, which gradually retired ... one + by one we distinctly saw Lausanne ... Vevey.... There are no + words to express the beauty and grandeur of this view ... the + line of glittering glaciers was continually drawing the eye back + again to the mountains. + +From Cluse he wrote: + + The air was as warm as it usually is at the beginning of + September, and the country we travelled through beautiful. Many + of the trees still green; most of them had assumed a + brownish-yellow tint, but only a few were quite bare. The crops + were rich and verdant, the mountains caught from the red sunset a + rosy hue blended with violet, and all these rich tints were + combined with grand, beautiful, and agreeable forms of the + landscape. + +At Chamouni, about effects of light: + + Here too again it seemed to us as if the sun had first of all + attracted the light mists which evaporated from the tops of the + glaciers, and then a gentle breeze had, as it were, combed the + fine vapours like a fleece of foam over the atmosphere. I never + remember at home, even in the height of summer, to have seen any + so transparent, for here it was a perfect web of light. + +At the Col de Baume: + + Whilst I am writing, a remarkable phenomenon is passing along the + sky. The mists, which are shifting about and breaking in some + places, allow you through their openings, as through skylights, + to catch a glimpse of the blue sky, while at the same time the + mountain peaks, rising above our roofs of vapour, are illuminated + by the sun's rays.... + +At Leukertad, at the foot of the Gemmi, he wrote (Nov. 9th): + + The clouds which gather here in this valley, at one time + completely hiding the immense rocks and absorbing them in a waste + impenetrable gloom, or at another letting a part of them be seen + like huge spectres, give to the people a cast of melancholy. In + the midst of such natural phenomena, the people are full of + presentiments and forebodings ... and the eternal and intrinsic + energy of his (man's) nature feels itself at every nerve moved to + forebode and to indulge in presentiments. + +On the way across the Rhine glacier to the Furka, he felt the +half-suggestive, half-distressing sense of mountain loneliness: + + It was a strange sight ... in the most desolate region of the + world, in a boundless monotonous wilderness of mountains + enveloped in snow, where for three leagues before and behind you + would not expect to meet a living soul, while on both sides you + had the deep hollows of a web of mountains, you might see a line + of men wending their way, treading each in the deep footsteps of + the one before him, and where, in the whole of the wide expanse + thus smoothed over, the eye could discern nothing but the track + they left behind them. The hollows, as we left them, lay behind + us grey and boundless in the mist. The changing clouds + continually passed over the pale disc of the sun, and spread over + the whole scene a perpetually moving veil. + +He sums up the impressions made on him with: + + The perception of such a long chain of Nature's wonders, excites + within me a secret and inexpressible feeling of enjoyment. + +The most profound change in his mental life was brought about by his +visit to Italy, 1786-87. The poetic expression of this refining +process, this striving towards the classic ideal, towards Sophrosyne, +was _Iphigenia_. + +Its effect upon his feeling for Nature appeared in a more +matter-of-fact tone; the man of feeling gave way to the scientific +observer. + +He had, as he said (Oct. 30th, 1887), lately 'acquired the habit of +looking only at things, and not, as formerly, seeing with and in the +things what actually was not there.' + +He no longer imputed his feelings to Nature, and studied her +influence on himself, but looked at her with impersonal interest. +Weather, cloud, mountain formation, the species of stone, landscape, +and social themes, were all treated almost systematically as so much +diary memoranda for future use. There was no artistic treatment in +such jottings; meteorology, botany, and geology weighed too heavily. + +The question, 'Is a place beautiful?' paled beside 'Is its soil +clay?' 'Are its rocks quartz, chalk, or mica schist?' The problem of +the archetypal plant was more absorbing than the finest groups of +trees. The years of practical life at Weimar, and, above all, the +ever-growing interest in science, were the chief factors in this +change, which led him, as he said in his _Treatise on Granite_, + + from observation and description of the human heart, that part of + creation which is the most youthful, varied, unstable, and + destructible, to observation of that Son of Nature, which is the + oldest, deepest, most stable, most indestructible. + +The enthusiastic subjective realism of stormy youth was replaced by +the measured objective realism of ripe manhood. Hence the difference +between his letters from Switzerland and those from Italy, where this +inner metamorphosis was completed; as he said, 'Between Weimar and +Palermo I have had many changes.' + +For all that, he revelled in the beauty of Italy. As he once said: + + It is natural to me to revere the great and beautiful willingly + and with pleasure; and to develop this predisposition day by day + and hour by hour by means of such glorious objects, is the most + delightful feeling. + +The sea made a great impression upon him: + + I set out for the Lido...landed, and walked straight across the + isthmus. I heard a loud hollow murmur--it was the sea! I soon saw + it; it crested high against the shore as it retired, it was about + noon and time of ebb. I have then at last seen the sea with my + own eyes, and followed it on its beautiful bed, just as it + quitted it. + +But further on he only remarks: 'The sea is a great sight.' +Elsewhere, too, it is only noticed very shortly. + +Rome stimulated his mind to increased productiveness, and, partly for +this reason, he could not assimilate all the new impressions which +poured in upon him from without, from ruins, paintings, churches, +palaces, the life of the people. He drew a great deal too; from +Frascati he wrote (Nov. 15th, 1786): + + The country around is very pleasant; the village lies on the side + of a hill, or rather of a mountain, and at every step the + draughtsman comes upon the most glorious objects. The prospect is + unbounded. Rome lies before you, and beyond it on the right is + the sea, the mountains of Tivoli, and so on. + +In Rome itself (Feb. 2nd, 1787): + + Of the beauty of a walk through Rome by moonlight it is + impossible to form a conception without having witnessed it. + +During Carnival (Feb. 21st): + + The sky, so infinitely fine and clear, looked down nobly and + innocently upon the mummeries. + +In the voyage to Sicily: + + At noon we went on board; the weather being extremely fine, we + enjoyed the most glorious of views. The corvette lay at anchor + near to the Mole. With an unclouded sun the atmosphere was hazy, + giving to the rocky walls of Sorrento, which were in the shade, a + tint of most beautiful blue. Naples with its living multitudes + lay in full sunshine, and glittered brilliantly with countless + tints. + +and on April 1st: + + With a cloudy sky, a bright but broken moonlight, the reflection + on the sea was infinitely beautiful. + +At first, Italy, and especially Rome, felt strange to him, in +scenery, sky, contour, and colour. It was only by degrees that he +felt at home there. + +He refers to this during his second visit to Rome in a notable +remark, which aptly expresses the faculty of apperception--the link +between us and the unfamiliar, which enables mental growth. + +June 16th, 1787: + + One remark more! Now for the first time do the trees, the rocks, + nay, Rome itself, grow dear to me; hitherto I have always felt + them as foreign, though, on the other hand, I took pleasure in + minor subjects having some resemblance to those I saw in youth. + +On August 18th, 1787, he wrote: + + Yesterday before sunrise I drove to Acqua Acetosa. Verily, one + might well lose his senses in contemplating the clearness, the + manifoldness, the dewy transparency, the heavenly hue of the + landscape, especially in the distance. + +In October, when he heard of the engagement of a beautiful Milanese +lady with whom he had fallen in love: + + I again turned me instantly to Nature, as a subject for + landscapes, a field I had been meanwhile neglecting, and + endeavoured to copy her in this respect with the utmost fidelity. + I was, however, more successful in mastering her with my eyes.... + All the sensual fulness which that region offers us in rocks and + trees, in acclivities and declivities, in peaceful lakes and + lively streams, all this was grasped by my eye more + appreciatively, if possible, than ever before, and I could hardly + resent the wound which had to such degree sharpened my inward and + outward sense. + +On leaving Rome, he wrote: + + Three nights before, the full moon shone in the clearest heaven, + and the enchantment shed over the vast town, though often felt + before, was never felt so keenly as now. The great masses of + light, clear as in mild daylight, the contrast of deep shades, + occasionally relieved by reflexions dimly portraying details, all + this transported us as if into another, a simpler and a greater, + world. + +The later diaries on his travels are sketchy throughout, and more +laconic and objective: for example, at Schaffhausen (Sept. 18th): + + Went out early, 7.30, to see the Falls of the Rhine; colour of + water, green--causes of this, the heights covered by mist--the + depths clear, and we saw the castle of Laufen half in mist; + thought of Ossian. Love mist when moved by deep feeling. + +At Brunnen: + + Green of the lake, steep banks, small size of boatman in + comparison to the enormous masses of rock. One saw precipices + grown over by trees, summits covered by clouds. Sunshine over the + scene, one felt the formless greatness of Nature. + +He was conscious of the great change in himself since his last visit +there, and wrote to Schiller (Oct. 14th, 1797): + + I remember the effect these things had upon me twenty years ago. + The total impression remained with me, but the details faded, and + I had a wonderful longing to repeat the whole experience and + correct my impressions. I had become another man, and therefore + it must needs appear different to me. + +In later years he travelled a great deal in the Harz Mountains, to +Carlsbad, Toplitz, the Maine, Marienbad, etc. After the death of his +great friends, Schiller and Carl August, he was more and more lonely, +and his whole outlook, with increasing years, grew more impersonal, +his attitude to Nature more abstract and scientific; the archetypal +plant was superseded by the theory of colours. But he kept fresh eyes +for natural beauty into ripe age; witness this letter from +Heidelberg, May 4th, 1808, to Frau von Stein: + + Yesterday evening, after finishing my work, I went alone to the + castle, and first scrambled about among the ruins, and then + betook myself to the great balcony from which one can overlook + the whole country. It was one of the loveliest of May evenings + and of sunsets. No! I have really never seen such a fine view! + Just imagine! One looked into the beautiful though narrow Neckar + valley, covered on both sides with woods and vineyards and fruit + trees just coming into flower. Further off the valley widened, + and one saw the setting sun reflected in the Rhine as it flowed + majestically through most beautiful country. On its further side + the horizon was bounded by the Vosges mountains, lit up by the + sun as if by a fire. The whole country was covered with fresh + green, and close to me were the enormous ruins of the old castle, + half in light and half in shade. You can easily fancy how it + fascinated me. I stood lost in the view quite half an hour, till + the rising moon woke me from my dreams. + +Goethe's true lyrical period was in the seventies, before his Italian +journeys; during and after that time he wrote more dramatic and epic +poetry, with ballads and the more narrative kind of epic. In sending +_Der Jüngling und der Mühlbach_ to Schiller from Switzerland in 1797, +he wrote: 'I have discovered splendid material for idylls and +elegies, and whatever that sort of poetry is called.' + +Nature lyrics were few during his Italian travels, as in the journey +to Sicily, 1787; among them were _Calm at Sea_: + + Silence deep rules o'er the waters, + Calmly slumbering lies the main. + +and _Prosperous Voyage_: + + The mist is fast clearing, + And radiant is heaven, + Whilst Æolus loosens + Our anguish-fraught bond. + +The most perfect of all such short poems was the _Evening Song_, +written one September night of 1783 on the Gickelhahn, near Ilmenau. +He was writing at the same time to Frau von Stein: 'The sky is +perfectly clear, and I am going out to enjoy the sunset. The view is +great and simple--the sun down.' + + Every tree top is at peace. + E'en the rustling woods do cease + Every sound; + The small birds sleep on every bough. + Wait but a moment--soon wilt thou + Sleep in peace. + + The hush of evening, the stilling of desire in the silence of the + wood, the beautiful resolution of all discords in Nature's + perfect concord, the naive and splendid pantheism of a soul which + feels itself at one with the world--all this is not expressed in + so many words in the _Night Song_; but it is all there, like the + united voicesin a great symphony. (SCHURÉ.) + +The lines are full of that pantheism which not only brings subject +and object, Mind and Nature, into symbolic relationship, but works +them into one tissue. Taken alone with _The Fisher_ and _To the +Moon_, it would suffice to give him the first place as a poet of +Nature. + +He was not only the greatest poet, but the greatest and most +universal thinker of modern times. With him feeling and knowledge +worked together, the one reaching its climax in the lyrics of his +younger days, the other gradually moderating the fervour of passion, +and, with the more objective outlook of age, laying greater stress +upon science. His feeling for Nature, which followed an unbroken +course, like his mental development generally, stands alone as a type +of perfectly modern feeling, and yet no one, despite the many +intervening centuries, stood so near both to Homer and to +Shakespeare, and in philosophy to Spinoza. + +But because with Goethe poetry and philosophy were one, his pantheism +is full of life and poetic vision, whilst that of the wise man of +Amsterdam is severely mathematical and abstract. And the postulate of +this pantheism was sympathy, harmony between Nature and the inner +life. He felt himself a part of the power which upholds and +encompasses the world. Nature became his God, love of her his +religion. In his youth, in the period of _Werther, Ganymede_, and the +first part of _Faust_, this pantheism was a nameless, unquenchable +aspiration towards the divine--for wings to reach, like the rays of +light, to unmeasured heights; as he said in the Swiss mountains, +'Into the limitless spaces of the air, to soar over abysses, and let +him down upon inaccessible rocks.' + +After the Italian journeys science took the lead, the student of +Nature supplanted the lover, even his symbolism took a more abstract +and realistic form. But he never, even in old age, lost his love for +the beauties of Nature, and, holding to Spinoza's fundamental ideas +of the unchangeableness and eternity of Nature's laws, and the +oneness of the Cosmos, he sought to think it out and base it upon +scientific grounds, through the unbroken succession of animal and +vegetable forms of life, the uniform 'formation and transformation of +all organic Nature.' He wrote to Frau von Stein: 'I cannot express to +you how legible the book of Nature is growing to me; my long spelling +out has helped me. It takes effect now all of a sudden; my quiet +delight is inexpressible; I find much that is new, but nothing that +is unexpected--everything fits in and conforms, because I have no +system, and care for nothing but truth for its own sake. Soon +everything about living things will be clear to me.'[13] + +Poetic and scientific intuition were simultaneous with him, and their +common bond was pantheism. This pantheism marked an epoch in the +history of feeling. For Goethe not only transformed the unreal +feeling of his day into real, described scenery, and inspired it with +human feeling, and deciphered the beauty of the Alps, as no one else +had done, Rousseau not excepted; but he also brought knowledge of +Nature into harmony with feeling for her, and with his wonderfully +receptive and constructive mind so studied the earlier centuries, +that he gathered out all that was valuable in their feeling. + +As Goethe in Germany, so Byron in England led the feeling for Nature +into new paths by his demoniac genius and glowing pantheism. Milton's +great imagination was too puritan, too biblical, to allow her +independent importance; he only assigned her a _rôle_ in relation to +the Deity. In fiction, too, she had no place; but, on the other hand, +we find her in such melancholy, sentimental outpourings as Young's +_Night Thoughts_: + + Night, sable Goddess! from her ebon throne + In rayless majesty now stretches forth + Her leaden sceptre o'er a slumb'ring world... + Creation sleeps. 'Tis as the gen'ral pulse + Of life stood still, and Nature made a pause; + An awful pause, prophetic of her end...etc. + +There is a wealth of imagery and comparison amid Ossian's melancholy +and mourning; clouds and mist are the very shadows of his struggling +heroes. For instance: + + His spear is a blasted pine, his shield the rising moon. He sat + on the shore like a cloud of mist on the rising hill. + + Thou art snow on the heath; thy hair is the mist of Cromla, when + it curls on the hill, when it shines to the beam of the west. Thy + breasts are two smooth rocks seen from Branno of streams. + + As the troubled noise of the ocean when roll the waves on high; + as the last peal of the thunder of heaven, such is the noise of + battle. + + As autumn's dark storms pour from two echoing hills, towards each + other approached the heroes. + + The clouds of night came rolling down, Darkness rests on the + steeps of Cromla. The stars of the north arise over the rolling + of Erin's waves; they shew their heads of fire through the flying + mist of heaven. A distant wind roars in the wood. Silent and dark + is the plain of death. + +Wordsworth's influence turned in another direction. His real taste +was pastoral, and he preached freer intercourse with Nature, glossing +his ideas rather artificially with a theism, through which one reads +true love of her, and an undeniable, though hidden, pantheism. + +In _The Influence of Natural Objects_ he described how a life spent +with Nature had early purified him from passion: + + Nor was this fellowship vouchsafed to me + With stinted kindness. In November days, + When vapours, rolling down the valleys, made + A lonely scene more lonesome, among woods + At noon, and 'mid the calm of summer nights, + When by the margin of the trembling lake + Beneath the gloomy hills, I homeward went + In solitude, such intercourse was mine. + 'Twas mine among the fields both day and night, + And by the waters all the summer long, + And in the frosty season, when the sun + Was set, and visible for many a mile, + The cottage windows through the twilight blazed, + I heeded not the summons.... + +Like Klopstock, he delighted in sledging + + while the stars + Eastward were sparkling bright, and in the west + The orange sky of evening died away. + +Far more characteristic of the man is the confession in _Tintern +Abbey_: + + Nature then + (The coarser pleasures of my boyish days + And their glad animal movements all gone by) + To me was all in all. I cannot paint + What then I was. The sounding cataract + Haunted me like a passion; the tall rock, + The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood, + The colours and their forms, were then to me + An appetite, a feeling and a love + That had no need of a remoter charm + By thought supplied, or any interest + Unborrow'd from the eye. + +Beautiful notes, to be struck again more forcibly by the frank +pantheism of Byron. + +What Scott had been doing for Scotland,[14] and Moore for Ireland, +Wordsworth, with still greater fidelity to truth, tried to do for +England and her people; in contrast to Byron and Shelley, who forsook +home to range more widely, or Southey, whose _Thalaba_ begins with an +imposing description of night in the desert: + + How beautiful is night! + A dewy freshness fills the silent air, + No mist obscures, nor cloud, nor speck, nor stain + Breaks the serene of heaven; + In full-orb'd glory yonder Moon divine + Rolls through the dark blue depths. + Beneath her steady ray + The desert-circle spreads + Like the round ocean, girdled with the sky. + How beautiful is night! + +But all that previous English poets had done seemed harmless and +innocent in comparison with Byron's revolutionary poetry. Prophecy in +Rousseau became poetry in Byron. + +There was much common ground between these two passionate aspiring +spirits, who never attained to Goethe's serenity. Both were +melancholy, and fled from their fellows; both strove for perfect +liberty and unlimited self-assertion; both felt with the wild and +uproarious side of Nature, and found idyllic scenes marred by +thoughts of mankind. + +Byron's turbulence never subsided; and his love for Nature, +passionate and comprehensive as it was, was always 'sickled o'er' +with misanthropy and pessimism, with the 'world-pain.' + +He turned to her first through disdain of his kind and love of +introspection, and later on, when he was spurned by the London world +which had been at his feet, and disdain grew into hatred and disgust, +from a wish to be alone. But, as Boettger says: + + Though this heart, in which the whole universe is reflected, is a + sick one, it has immeasurable depths, and an intensified spirit + life which draws everything under its sway and inspires it, + feeling and observing everything only as part of itself. + +The basis of Byron's feeling for Nature was a revolutionary +one--elementary passion. The genius which threw off stanza after +stanza steeped in melody, was coupled with an unprecedented +subjectivity and individualism. When the first part of _Childe +Harold_ came out, dull London society was bewitched by the music and +novelty of this enthusiastic lyric of Nature, with its incomparable +interweaving of scenery and feeling: + + The sails were fill'd, and fair the light winds blew, + As glad to waft him from his native home.... + But when the sun was sinking in the sea, + He seized his harp... + Adieu, adieu! my native shore + Fades o'er the waters blue; + The night winds sigh, the breakers roar, + And shrieks the wild sea-mew; + Yon sun that sets upon the sea + We follow in his flight; + Farewell awhile to him and thee, + My native land, good-night! + +He says of the beauty of Lusitania: + + Oh Christ! it is a goodly sight to see + What Heaven hath done for this delicious land. + What fruits of fragrance blush on every tree! + What goodly prospects o'er the hills expand!... + The horrid crags, by toppling convent crown'd, + The cork trees hoar that clothe the shaggy steep, + The mountain moss, by scorching skies imbrown'd, + The sunken glen, whose sunless shrubs must weep. + The tender azure of the unruffled deep, + The orange tints that gild the greenest bough, + The torrents that from cliff to valley leap, + The vine on high, the willow branch below, + Mix'd in one mighty scene, with varied beauty glow. + +Yet his spirit drives him away, 'more restless than the swallow in +the skies.' + +The charm of the idyllic is in the lines: + + But these between, a silver streamlet glides.... + Here leans the idle shepherd on his crook, + And vacant on the rippling waves doth look, + That peaceful still 'twixt bitterest foemen flow. + +The beauty of the sea and night in this: + + The moon is up; by Heaven a lovely eve! + Long streams of light o'er dancing waves expand.... + How softly on the Spanish shore she plays, + Disclosing rock, and slope, and forest brown + Distinct.... + + Bending o'er the vessel's laving side + To gaze on Dian's wave-reflected sphere. + +He reflects that: + + To sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell, + To slowly trace the forest's shady scene.... + To climb the trackless mountain all unseen + With the wild flock that never needs a fold, + Alone o'er steeps and foaming falls to lean,-- + This is not solitude; 'tis but to hold + Converse with Nature's charms, and view her stores unroll'd. + But 'midst the crowd, the hum, the shock of men, + To hear, to see, to feel, and to possess, + And roam along, the world's tired denizen, + With none who bless us, none whom we can bless ... + This is to be alone--this, this is solitude. + +His preference for wild scenery shews here: + + Dear Nature is the kindest mother still, + Though always changing, in her aspect mild; + From her bare bosom let me take my fill, + Her never-wean'd, though not her favour'd child. + O she is fairest in her features wild, + Where nothing polish'd dares pollute her path; + To me by day or night she ever smiled, + Though I have mark'd her when none other hath, + And sought her more and more, and loved her best in wrath. + +He observes everything--now 'the billows' melancholy flow' under the +bows of the ship, now the whole scene at Zitza: + + Where'er we gaze, around, above, below, + What rainbow tints, what magic charms are found! + Rock, river, forest, mountain, all abound, + And bluest skies that harmonize the whole; + Beneath, the distant torrent's rushing sound + Tells where the volumed cataract doth roll + Between those hanging rocks, that shock yet please the soul. + +This is full of poetic vision: + + Where lone Utraikey forms its circling cove, + And weary waves retire to gleam at rest, + How brown the foliage of the green hill's grove, + Nodding at midnight o'er the calm bay's breast, + As winds come lightly whispering from the west, + Kissing, not ruffling, the blue deep's serene;-- + Here Harold was received a welcome guest; + Nor did he pass unmoved the gentle scene, + For many a job could he from Night's soft presence glean. + +Feeling himself 'the most unfit of men to herd with man,' he is happy +only with Nature: + + Once more upon the waters! yet once more! + And the waves bound beneath me as a steed + That knows his rider. Welcome to the roar! + Swift be their guidance, wheresoe'er it lead. + + Where rose the mountains, there to him were friends; + Where rolled the ocean, thereon was his home; + Where a blue sky and glowing clime extends, + He had the passion and the power to roam; + The desert, forest, cavern, breaker's foam, + Were unto him companionship; they spake + A mutual language, clearer than the tome + Of his land's tongue, which he would oft forsake + For Nature's pages glass'd by sunbeams on the lake. + +Again: + + I live not in myself, but I become + Portion of that around me, and to me + High mountains are a feeling, but the hum + Of human cities torture; I can see + Nothing to loathe in Nature save to be + A link reluctant in a fleshly chain, + Class'd among creatures, when the soul can flee, + And with the sky, the peak, the heaving plain + Of ocean, or the stars, mingle, and not in vain. + + Are not the mountains, waves, and skies a part + Of me and of my soul, as I of them? + Is not the love of these deep in my heart + With a pure passion? Should I not contemn + All objects, if compared with these? + +Love of Nature was a passion with him, and when he looked + + Upon the peopled desert past + As on a place of agony and strife, + +mountains gave him a sense of freedom. + +He praised the Rhine: + + Where Nature, nor too sombre nor too gay, + Wild but not rude, awful yet not austere, + Is to the mellow earth as autumn to the year. + +and far more the Alps: + + Above me are the Alps, + The palaces of Nature, whose vast walls + Have pinnacled in clouds their snowy scalps, + And throned eternity in icy halls + Of cold sublimity, where forms and falls + The avalanche, the thunderbolt of snow! + All that expands the spirit, yet appals, + Gather around these summits, as to shew + How Earth may pierce to Heaven, yet leave vain man below. + +On the Lake of Geneva: + + Ye stars which are the poetry of heaven... + All heaven and earth are still--though not in sleep, + But breathless, as we grow when feeling most; + And silent, as we stand in thoughts too deep. + All heaven and earth are still: from the high host + Of stars, to the lull'd lake and mountain coast, + All is concenter'd in a life intense, + Where not a beam, nor air, nor leaf is lost, + But hath a part of being, and a sense + Of that which is of all Creator and defence. + + And this is in the night. Most glorious night, + Thou wert not sent for slumber; let me be + A sharer in thy fierce and far delight, + A portion of the tempest and of thee! + How the lit lake shines, a phosphoric sea, + And the big rain comes dancing to the earth! + And now again 'tis black--and now, the glee + Of the loud hills shakes with its mountain mirth, + As if they did rejoice o'er a young earthquake's birth. + But where of ye, oh tempests, is the goal? + Are ye like those within the human breast? + Or do ye find, at length, like eagles, some high nest? + + The morn is up again, the dewy morn + With breath all incense, and with cheek all bloom, + Laughing the clouds away with playful scorn, + And living as if earth contained no tomb. + +In Clarens: + + Clarens! sweet Clarens, birthplace of deep Love, + Thine air is the young breath of passionate thought, + Thy trees take root in Love; the snows above + The very glaciers have his colours caught, + And sunset into rose-hues sees them wrought + By rays which sleep there lovingly; the rocks, + The permanent crags, tell here of Love. + +Yet + + Ever and anon of griefs subdued + There comes a token like a scorpion's sting, + Scarce seen, but with fresh bitterness imbued; + And slight withal may be the things which bring + Back on the heart the weight which it would fling + Aside for ever; it may be a sound, + A tone of music, summer's eve or spring, + A flower, the wind, the ocean, which shall wound, + Striking the electric chain with which we are darkly bound. + +The unrest and torment of his own heart he finds reflected in Nature: + + The roar of waters! from the headlong height + Velino cleaves the wave-worn precipice; + The fall of waters! rapid as the light + The flashing mass foams, shaking the abyss; + The hell of waters! where they howl and hiss, + And boil in endless torture; while the sweat + Of their great agony, wrung out from this + Their Phlegethon, curls round the rocks of jet + That gird the gulf around, in pitiless horror set, + And mounts in spray the skies, and thence again + Returns in an unceasing shower, which round + With its unemptied cloud of gentle rain + Is an eternal April to the ground, + Making it all one emerald; how profound + The gulf, and how the giant element + From rock to rock leaps with delirious bound, + Crushing the cliffs, which downward, worn and rent + With his fierce footsteps, yields in chasms a fearful rent.... + Horribly beautiful! but, on the verge + From side to side, beneath the glittering morn, + An Iris sits amidst the infernal surge, + Like Hope upon a deathbed. + +The 'enormous skeleton' of Rome impresses him most by moonlight: + + When the rising moon begins to climb + Its topmost arch, and gently pauses there; + When the stars twinkle through the loops of time, + And the low night breeze waves along the air! + +Underlying all his varying moods is this note: + + There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, + There is a rapture on the lonely shore, + There is society, where none intrudes, + By the deep sea, and music in its roar: + I love not man the less, but Nature more, + From these our interviews, in which I steal + From all I may be, or have been before, + To mingle with the Universe and feel + What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal. + +The sea, the sky with its stars and clouds, and the mountains, are +his passion: + + Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean--roll! + Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain; + Man marks the earth with ruin--his control + Stops with the shore; upon the watery plain + The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain + A shadow of man's ravage, save his own, + When, for a moment, like a drop of rain + He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan, + Without a grave, unknell'd, uncoffin'd, and unknown. + (_Childe Harold_.) + + The day at last has broken. What a night + Hath usher'd it! How beautiful in heaven! + Though varied with a transitory storm, + More beautiful in that variety!... + And can the sun so rise, + So bright, so rolling back the clouds into + Vapours more lovely than the unclouded sky, + With golden pinnacles and snowy mountains, + And billows purpler than the ocean's, making + In heaven a glorious mockery of the earth. + (_Sardanapalus.)_ + +He had loved the Scotch Highlands in youth: + + Amidst Nature's native scenes, + Loved to the last, whatever intervenes + Between us and our childhood's sympathy + Which still reverts to what first caught the eye. + He who first met the Highlands' swelling blue + Will love each peak that shews a kindred hue, + Hail in each crag a friend's familiar face, + And clasp the mountain in his mind's embrace. + (_The Island_.) + +and in _The Island_ he says: + + How often we forget all time, when lone, + Admiring Nature's universal throne, + Her woods, her wilds, her waters, the intense + Reply of hers to our intelligence! + Live not the stars and mountains? Are the waves + Without a spirit? Are the dropping cares + Without a feeling in their silent tears? + No, no; they woo and clasp us to their spheres, + Dissolve this clog and clod of clay before + Its hour, and merge our soul in the great shore. + (_The Island_.) + +Byron's feeling was thus, like Goethe's in _Werther_ and _Faust_, a +pantheistic sympathy. But there was this great difference between +them--Goethe's mind passed through its period of storm and stress, +and attained a serene and ripe vision; Byron's never did. Melancholy +and misanthropy always mingled with his feelings; he was, in fact, +the father of our modern 'world-pain.' + +Still more like a brilliant meteor that flashes and is gone was +Shelley, the most highly strung of all modern lyrists. With him, too, +love of Nature amounted to a passion; but it was with her remote +aerial forms that he was most at home. His imagination, a cosmic one, +revelling among the spheres, was like Byron's in its preference for +the great, wide, and distant; but unlike his in giving first place to +the serene and passionless. As Brandes says: 'In this familiarity +with the great forms and movements of Nature, Shelley is like Byron; +but like him as a fair genius is like a dark one, as Ariel is like +the flame-bringing angel of the morning star.' + +We see his love for the sea, especially at rest, in the 'Stanzas +written in dejection near Naples,' which contain the beautiful line +which proved so prophetic of his death: + + The sun is warm, the sky is clear, + The waves are dancing fast and bright; + Blue isles and snowy mountains wear + The purple noon's transparent might.... + I see the deep's untrampled floor + With green and purple sea-weeds strewn; + I see the waves upon the shore + Like light dissolved, in star showers thrown.... + Yet now despair itself is mild, + Even as the winds and waters are; + I could lie down like a tired child + And weep away the life of care + Which I have borne, and yet must bear,-- + Till death like sleep might steal on me, + And I might feel in the warm air + My cheek grow cold, and hear the sea + Breathe o'er my dying brain its last monotony. + +In his _Essay on Love_, speaking of the irresistible longing for +sympathy, he says: + + In solitude, or in that deserted state when we are surrounded by + human beings, and yet they sympathize not with us, we love the + flowers, the grass, and the water and the sky. In the motion of + the very leaves of spring, in the blue air, there is then found a + secret correspondence with our heart. There is eloquence in the + tongueless wind, and a melody in the flowing brooks and the + rustling of the reeds beside them, which, by their inconceivable + relation to something within the soul, awaken the spirits to a + dance of breathless rapture, and bring tears of mysterious + tenderness to the eyes, like the voice of one beloved singing to + you alone. + +As Brandes says: 'His pulses beat in secret sympathy with Nature's. +He called plants and animals his dear sisters and brothers, and the +words which his wife inscribed upon his tombstone in Rome, "cor +cordium," are true of his relation to Nature also.' + +_The Cloud_, with its marvellously vivid personification, is a +perfect example of his genius. + +It gives the measure of his unlikeness to the more homekeeping +imaginations of his contemporaries Wordsworth, Coleridge, Burns, and +Moore; and at the same time to Byron, for here there are no morbid +reflections; the poem is pervaded by a naive, childlike tone, such as +one hears in the old mythologies. + +_The Cloud_: + + I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers + From the seas and the streams; + I bear light shade for the leaves when laid + In their noonday dreams. + From my wings are shaken the dews that waken + The sweet buds every one, + When rocked to rest on their Mother's breast + As she dances about the sun. + I wield the flail of the lashing hail, + And whiten the green plains under; + And then again I dissolve it in rain, + And laugh as I pass in thunder. + + I sift the snow on the mountains below, + And their great pines groan aghast, + And all the night 'tis my pillow white + While I sleep in the arms of the Blast.... + From cape to cape, with a bridge-like shape, + Over a torrent sea, + Sunbeam-proof, I hang like a roof, + The mountains its columns be. + The triumphal arch through which I march, + With hurricane, fire, and snow, + When the Powers of the air are chained to my chair, + Is the million-coloured bow; + The Sphere-fire above its soft colours wove + While the moist earth was laughing below. + I am the daughter of Earth and Water, + And the nursling of the Sky. + +As Brandes puts it; When the cloud sings thus of the moon: + + When + That orbed maiden with white fire laden, + Whom Mortals call the Moon, + Glides glimmering o'er my fleece-like floor + By the midnight breezes strewn; + And wherever the beat of her unseen feet, + Which only the angels hear, + May have broken the woof of my tent's thin roof, + The Stars peep behind her and peer. + +or of-- + + The sanguine Sunrise, with his meteor eyes, + +the reader is carried back, by dint of the virgin freshness of the +poet's imagination, to the time when the phenomena of Nature were +first moulded into mythology. + +This kinship to the myth is very clear in the finest of all his +poems, the _Ode to the West Wind_, when the poet says to the wind: + + O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,... + Thou on whose stream, 'mid the steep sky's commotion, + Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed. + Shook from the tangled boughs of heaven and ocean. + Angels of rain and lightning, there are spread + On the blue surface of thine airy surge, + Like the bright hair uplifted from the head + Of some fierce Mænad, even from the dim verge + Of the horizon to the zenith's height, + The locks of the approaching storm. + +He calls the wind the 'breath of Autumn's being,' the one + + Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed + The winged seeds. + +And cries to it: + + If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear; + If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee; + A wave to pant beneath thy power and share + The impulse of thy strength, only less free + Than thou, O uncontrollable!... + 0 lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud! + I fall upon the thorns of life, I bleed! + A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed + One too like thee, tameless, and swift, and proud. + Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is; + What if my leaves are falling like its own? + The tumult of thy mighty harmonies + Will take from both a deep autumnal tone, + Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce, + My spirit. Be thou me, impetuous one! + Drive my dead thoughts over the universe, + Like withered leaves, to quicken a new birth; + And by the incantation of this verse, + Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth + Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind! + Be through my lips to unawakened earth + The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind, + If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? + +His poems are full of this power of inspiring all the elements with +life, breathing his own feeling into them, and divining love and +sympathy in them; for instance: + + The fountains mingle with the river, + And the river with the ocean; + The winds of heaven mix for ever + With a sweet emotion.... + See the mountains kiss high heaven, + And the waves clasp one another... + And the sunlight clasps the earth, + And the moonbeams kiss the sea. + +and: + + I love all thou lovest, + Spirit of Delight; + The fresh earth in new leaves dressed, + And the starry night, + Autumn evening and the morn + When the golden mists are born. + I love snow and all the forms + Of the radiant frost; + I love waves and winds and storms-- + Everything almost + Which is Nature's, and may be + Untainted by man's misery. + +To Goethe, Byron, and Shelley, this pantheism, universal love, +sympathy with Nature in all her forms, was the base of feeling; but +both of England's greatest lyrists, dying young, failed to attain +perfect harmony of thought and feeling. There always remained a +bitter ingredient in their poetry. + +Let us now turn to France. + + +LAMARTINE AND VICTOR HUGO + +Rousseau discovered the beauty of scenery for France; St Pierre +portrayed it poetically, not only in _Paul and Virginia_, but in +_Chaumiére Indienne_ and _Etudes de la Nature_. The science which +these two writers lacked, Buffon possessed in a high degree; but he +had not the power to delineate Nature and feeling in combination: he +lacked insight into the hidden analogies between the movements of the +mind and the phenomena of the outer world. Chateaubriand, on the +contrary, had this faculty to its full modern extent. It is true that +his ego was constantly to the fore, even in dealing with Nature, but +his landscapes were full of sympathetic feeling. He had Rousseau's +melancholy and unrest, and cared nothing for those 'oppressive +masses,' mountains, except as backgrounds; but he was enthusiastic +about the scenery which he saw in America, the virgin forests, and +the Mississippi--above all, about the sea. His Réné, that life-like +figure, half-passionate, half-_blasé_, measuring everything by +himself, and flung hither and thither by the waves of passion, shewed +a lover's devotion to the sea and to Nature generally.[15] 'It was +not God whom I contemplated on the waves in the magnificence of His +works: I saw an unknown woman, and the miracle of his smile, the +beauties of the sky, seemed to me disclosed by her breath. I would +have bartered eternity for one of her caresses. I pictured her to +myself as throbbing behind this veil of the universe which hid her +from my eyes. Oh! why was it not in my power to rend the veil and +press the idealized woman to my heart, to spend myself on her bosom +with the love which is the source of my inspiration, my despair, and +my life?' + +In subjectivity and dreaminess both Chateaubriand and Lamartine were +like the German romanticists, but their fundamental note was theism, +not pantheism. The storm of the French Revolution, which made radical +changes in religion, as in all other things, was followed by a +reaction. Christianity acquired new power and inwardness, and Nature +was unceasingly praised as the mirror of the divine idea of creation. + +In his _Génie du Christianisme_, Chateaubriand said: + + The true God, in entering into His Works, has given his immensity + to Nature... there is an instinct in man, which puts him in + communication with the scenes of Nature. + +Lamartine was a sentimental dreamer of dreams, a thinker of lofty +thoughts which lost themselves in the inexpressible. His +_Meditations_ shew his ardent though sad worship of Nature; his love +of evening, moonlight, and starlight. For instance, _L'Isolement_: + + Ici gronde le fleuve aux vagues écumantes, + Il serpente et s'enfonce en un lointain obscur: + Là le lac immobile étend ses eaux dormantes + Oò l'étoile du soir se lève dans l'azur. + An sommet de ces monts couronnés de bois sombres, + Le crépuscule encore jette un dernier rayon; + Et le char vaporeux de la reine des ombres + Monte et blanchit déjà les bords de l'horizon. + +_Le Soir_: + + Le soir ramène le silence.... + Venus se lève à l'horizon; + A mes pieds l'étoile amoureuse + De sa lueur mystérieuse + Blanchit les tapis de gazon. + De ce hêtre au feuillage sombre + J'entends frissonner les rameaux; + On dirait autour des tombeaux + Qu'on entend voltiger une ombre, + Tout-à-coup, détaché des cieux, + Un rayon de l'astre nocturne, + Glissant sur mon front taciturne, + Vient mollement toucher mes yeux. + Doux reflet d'un globe de flamme + Charmant rayon, que me veux-tu? + Viens-tu dans mon sein abattu + Porter la lumière à mon âme? + Descends-tu pour me révéler + Des mondes le divin mystére, + Ces secrets cachés dans la sphère + Où le jour va te rappeler? + +In the thought of happy past hours, he questions the lake: + + Un soir, t'en souvient-il, nous voguions en silence; + On n'entendait au loin, sur l'onde et sous les cieux, + Que le bruit des rameurs qui frappaient en cadence + Tes flots harmonieux. + O lac! rochers muets! grottes! forêt obscure! + Vous que le temps épargne ou qu'il peut rajeunir + Gardez de cette nuit, gardez, belle nature, + Au moins le souvenir!... + Que le vent qui gémit, le roseau qui soupire + Que les parfums légers de ton air embaumé, + Que tout ce qu'on entend, l'on voit, ou l'on respire, + Tout dise: 'ils out aimés! + +_La Prière_ has: + + Le roi brillant du jour, se couchant dans sa gloire, + Descend avec lenteur de son char de victoire; + Le nuage éclatant qui le cache à nos yeux + Conserve en sillons d'or sa trace dans les cieux, + Et d'un reflet de pourpre inonde l'étendue. + Comme une lampe d'or dans l'azur suspendue, + La lune se balance aux bords de l'horizon; + Ses rayons affaiblis dorment sur le gazon, + Et le voile des nuits sur les monts se déplie. + C'est l'heure, où la nature, un moment recueillie, + Entre la nuit qui touche et le jour qui s'enfuit + S'élève au créateur du jour et de la nuit, + Et semble offrir à Dieu dans son brillant langage, + De la création le magnifique hommage. + Voilà le sacrifice immense, universelle! + L'univers est le temple, et la terre est l'autel; + Les cieux en sont le dôme et ses astres sans nombre, + Ces feux demi-voilés, pâle ornement de l'ombre, + Dans la voûte d'azur avec ordre semés, + Sont les sacrés flambeaux pour ce temple allumés... + Mais ce temple est sans voix... + + ...Mon coeur seul parle dans ce silence-- + La voix de l'univers c'est mon intelligence. + Sur les rayons du soir, sur les ailes du vent, + Elle s'élève à Dieu... + +_Le Golfe de Baia_: + + Vois-tu comme le flot paisible + Sur le rivage vient mourir? + Mais déjà l'ombre plus épaisse + Tombe et brunit les vastes mers; + Le bord s'efface, le bruit cesse, + Le silence occupe les airs. + C'est l'heure où la Mélancholie + S'assied pensive et recueillie + Aux bords silencieux des mers. + +The decay of autumn corresponds to his own dolorous feelings: + + Oui, dans ces jours d'automne où la nature expire, + A ses regards voilés je trouve plus d'attraits; + C'est l'adieu d'un ami, c'est le dernier sourire + Des lèvres que la mort va fermer pour jamais. + +This is from _Ischia_: + + Le Soleil va porter le jour à d'autres mondes; + Dans l'horizon désert Phébé monte sans bruit, + Et jette, en pénétrant les ténébres profondes, + Un voile transparent sur le front de la nuit. + Voyez du haut des monts ses clartés ondoyantes + Comme un fleuve de flamme inonder les coteaux, + Dormir dans les vallons on glisser sur les pentes, + Ou rejaillir au loin du sein brillant des eaux.... + Doux comme le soupir d'un enfant qui sommeille, + Un son vague et plaintif se répand dans les airs.... + Mortel! ouvre ton âme à ces torrents de vie, + Reçois par tous les sens les charmes de la nuit.... + +He sees the transitoriness of all earthly things reflected in Nature: + + L'onde qui baise ce rivage, + De quoi se plaint-elle à ses bords? + Pourquoi le roseau sur la plage, pourquoi le ruisseau sous l'ombrage, + Rendent-ils de tristes accords? + De quoi gémit la tourterelle? Tout naist, tout paise. + +Such a depth of sympathy and dreamy dolorous reverie was new to +France, but Rousseau had broken the ice, and henceforward feeling +flowed freely. To Lamartine the theist, as to the pantheists Goethe, +Shelley, and Byron, Nature was a friend and lover. + +Victor Hugo was of the same mind, but his poetry is clearer and more +plastic than Lamartine's. We quote from his finest poems, the +_Feuilles d'Automne_. He was a true lyrist, familiar both with the +external life of Nature and the inner life of man. His beautiful 'Ce +qu'on entend sur la montagne' has the spirit of _Faust_. He imagines +himself upon a mountain top, with earth on one side, the sea on the +other; and there he hears two voices unlike any ever heard before: + + L'une venait des mers, chant de gloire! hymne heureux! + C'était la voix des flots qui se parlaient entre eux.... + Or, comme je l'ai dit, l'Océan magnifique + Epandait une voix joyeuse et pacifique + Chantant comme la harpe aux temples de Sion, + Et louait la beauté de la création. + +while from the other voice: + + Pleurs et cris! L'injure, l'anatheme.... + C'était la terre et l'homme qui pleuraient!... + L'une disait, Nature! et l'autre, Humanité! + +The personifications in this poem are beautiful. He, too, like +Lamartine, loves sea and stars most of all. These verses from _Les +Orientales_ remind one of St Augustine: + + J'étais seul près des flots par une nuit d'étoiles, + Pas un nuage aux cieux; sur les mers pas de voiles, + Et les bois et les monts et toute la nature + Semblaient interroger dans confus murmure + Les flots des mers, les feux du ciel. + Et les étoiles d'or, légions infinies, + A voix haute, à voix basse, avec mille harmonies + Disaient en inclinant leurs couronnes de feu, + Et les flots bleus, que rien gouverne et n'arrête, + Disaient en recourbant l'écume de leur crête: + C'est le Seigneur Dieu, le Seigneur Dieu! + + Parfois lorsque tout dort, je m'assieds plein de joie + Sous le dôme étoilé qui sur nos fronts flamboie; + J'écoute si d'en haut il tombe quelque bruit; + Et l'heure vainement me frappe de son aile + Quand je contemple ému cette fête eternelle + Que le ciel rayonnant donne au monde la nuit! + Souvent alors j'ai cru que ces soleils de flamme + Dans ce monde endormi n'échauffaient que mon âme; + Qu'à les comprendre seul j'étais prédestiné; + Que j'étais, moi, vaine ombre obscure et taciturne, + Le roi mystérieuse de la pompe nocturne; + Que le ciel pour moi seul s'était illuminé! + +The necessary condition of delight in Nature is very strikingly +given: + + Si vous avez en vous, vivantes et pressées, + Un monde intérieur d'images, de pensées, + De sentimens, d'amour, d'ardente passion + Pour féconder ce monde, échangez-le sans cesse + Avec l'autre univers visible qui vous presse! + Mêlez toute votre âme à la création.... + Que sous nos doigts puissans exhale la nature, + Cette immense clavier! + +His lyrics are rich in fine scenes from Nature, unrolled in cold but +stately periods, and the poetic intuition which always divines the +spirit life brought him near to that pantheism which we find in all +the greatest English and German poets of his time,[16] and which lay, +too, at the root of German romanticism. + + +THE GERMAN ROMANTICISTS + +Schiller did not possess the intrinsically lyrical genius of Goethe; +his strength lay, not in song, but drama, and in a didactic form of +epic--the song not of feeling, but of thought. + +Descriptions of Nature occur here and there in his epics and dramas; +but his feeling for her was chiefly theoretic. Like his +contemporaries, he passed through a sentimental period; _Evening_ +shews this, and _Melancholy, to Laura_: + + Laura, a sunrise seems to break + Where'er thy happy looks may glow.... + Thy soul--a crystal river passing, + Silver clear and sunbeam glassing, + Mays into blossom sad autumn by thee: + Night and desert, if they spy thee, + To gardens laugh--with daylight shine, + Lit by those happy smiles of thine! + +With such ecstatic extravagances contrast the excellent descriptions +of Nature full of objective life in his longer poems--for instance, +the tumult of Charybdis and the unceasing rain in _The Diver_, +evening in _The Hostage_, and landscape in _William Tell_ and _The +Walk_. In the last, as Julian Schmidt says, the ever varying scenery +is made a 'frame for a kind of phenomenology of mankind.' + + Flowers of all hue are struggling into glow + Along the blooming fields; yet their sweet strife + Melts into one harmonious concord. Lo! + The path allures me through the pastoral green + And the wide world of fields! The labouring bee + Hums round me, and on hesitating wing + O'er beds of purple clover, quiveringly + Hovers the butterfly. Save these, all life + Sleeps in the glowing sunlight's steady sheen-- + E'en from the west no breeze the lull'd airs bring. + Hark! in the calm aloft I hear the skylark sing. + The thicket rustles near, the alders bow + Down their green coronals, and as I pass, + Waves in the rising wind the silvering grass; + Come! day's ambrosial night! receive me now + Beneath the roof by shadowy beeches made + Cool-breathing, etc. + +Schiller's interest in Nature was more a matter of reflection than +direct observation; its real tendency was philosophical and ethical. +He called Nature naive (he included naturalness in Nature); those who +seek her, sentimental; but he overlooked (as we saw in an earlier +chapter) the fact that antiquity did not always remain naive, and +that not all moderns are sentimental. + +As Rousseau's pupil he drew a sharp distinction between Nature and +Art, and felt happy in solitude where 'man with his torment does not +come,' lying, as he says in _The Bride of Messina_, like a child on +the bosom of Nature. + +In Schiller's sense of the word, perhaps no poet has been more +sentimental about Nature than Jean Paul. + +He was the humorous and satirical idyllist _par excellence_, and laid +the scenes of his romances in idyllic surroundings, using the +trifling events of daily life to wonderful purpose. There is an +almost oriental splendour in his pages, with their audacious +metaphors and mixture of ideas. With the exception of Lake Maggiore +in _Titan_, he gives no set descriptions of landscape; but all his +references to it, all his sunrises and sunsets, are saturated with +the temperament of his characters, and they revel in feeling. They +all love Nature, and wander indefatigably about their own +countryside, finding the reflection of their feelings in her. There +is a constant interweaving of the human soul and the universe; +therein lies his pantheistic trait. 'To each man,' he said,[17] +'Nature appears different, and the only question is, which is the +most beautiful? Nature is for ever becoming flesh for mankind; outer +Nature takes a different form in each mind.' Certainly the nature of +Jean Paul was different from the Nature of other mortals. Was she +more beautiful? He wrote of her in his usual baroque style, with a +wealth of thought and feeling, and everywhere the sparkle of genius; +but it is all presented in the strangest motley, as exaggerated and +unenjoyable as can be. For example, from _Siebenkâs_: + + I appeared again then on the last evening of the year 1794, on + the red waves of which so many bodies, bled to death, were borne + away to the ocean of eternity. + + To the butterfly--proboscis of Siebenkäs, enough honey--cells + were still open in every blue thistle-blossom of destiny. + + When they had passed the gate--that is to say, the + un-Palmyra-like ruins of it--the crystal reflecting grotto of the + August night stood open and shining above the dark green earth, + and the ocean-calm of Nature stayed the wild storm of the human + heart. Night was drawing and closing her curtain (a sky full of + silent suns, not a breath of breeze moving in it) up above the + world, and down beneath it the reaped corn stood in the sheaves + without a rustle. The cricket with his one constant song, and a + poor old man gathering snails for the snail pits, seemed to be + the only things that dwelt in the far-reaching darkness. + +When it was autumn in his heart: + + Above the meadows, where all the flowers were withered and dead; + above the fields, where the corn ears waved no more, floated dim + phantom forms, all pale and wan, faint pictures of the past. Over + the grand eternal woods and hills a biting mist was draped in + clinging folds, as if all Nature, trembling into dust, must + vanish in its wreaths.... But one bright thought pierced these + dark fogs of Nature and the soul, turning them to a white + gleaming mist, a dew all glittering with rainbow colours, and + gently lighting upon flowers. + +When his married life grew more unhappy, in December: + + The heart of our sorrowful Firmian grew sadder yet, as he stood + upon this cold, burnt-out hearth-place of Nature. + +and in spring + + it seemed to him as if his life dwelt, not in a bodily heart, but + in some warm and tender tear, as if his heavy-laden soul were + expanding and breaking away through some chink in its prison, and + melting into a tone of music, a blue ether wave. + +And _Titan_ expresses that inner enfranchisement which Nature bestows +upon us: + + Exalted Nature! when we see and love thee, we love our fellow-men + more warmly, and when we must pity or forget them, thou still + remainest with us, reposing before the moist eye like a verdant + chain of mountains in the evening red. Ah! before the soul in + whose sight the morning dew of its ideals has faded to a cold, + grey drizzle ... thou remainest, quickening Nature, with thy + flowers and mountains and cataracts, a faithful comforter; and + the bleeding son of the gods, cold and speechless, dashes the + drop of anguish from his eyes, that they may rest, far and clear, + on thy volcanoes, and on thy springs and on thy suns. + +This is sunset in his abstruse artistic handling: + + The sun sinks, and the earth closes her great eye like that of a + dying god. Then smoke the hills like altars; out of every wood + ascends a chorus; the veils of day, the shadows, float around the + enkindled transparent tree-tops, and fall upon the gay, gem-like + flowers. And the burnished gold of the west throws back a dead + gold on the east, and tinges with rosy light the hovering breast + of the tremulous lark--the evening bell of Nature. + +And this sunrise: + + The flame of the sun now shot up ever nearer to the kindled + morning clouds; at length in the heavens, in the brooks and + ponds, and in the blooming cups of dew, a hundred suns rose + together, while a thousand colours floated over the earth, and + one pure dazzling white broke from the sky. It seemed as if an + almighty earthquake had forced up from the ocean, yet dripping, a + new-created blooming plain, stretching out beyond the bounds of + vision, with all its young instincts and powers; the fire of + earth glowed beneath the roots of the immense hanging garden, and + the fire of heaven poured down its flames and burnt the colours + into the mountain summits and the flowers. Between the porcelain + towers of white mountains the coloured blooming heights stood as + thrones of the Fruit-Goddess; over the far-spread camp of + pleasure blossom-cups and sultry drops were pitched here and + there like peopled tents; the ground was inlaid with swarming + nurseries of grasses and little hearts, and one heart detached + itself after another with wings, or fins, or feelers, from the + hot breeding-cell of Nature, and hummed and sucked and smacked + its little lips, and sung: and for every little proboscis some + blossom-cup of; joy was already open. The darling child of the + infinite mother, man, alone stood with bright joyful eyes upon + the market-place of the living city of the sun, full of + brilliance and noise, and gazed, delighted, around him into all + its countless streets; but his eternal mother rested veiled in + immensity, and only by the warmth which went to his heart did he + feel that he was lying upon hers. + +For very overflow of thought and imagery and ecstasy of feeling, Jean +Paul never achieved a balanced beauty of expression. + +The ideal classic standard which Winckelmann and Lessing had laid +down--simple and plastic, calm because objective, crystal-clear in +thought and expression--and which Goethe and Schiller had sought to +realize and imbue with modern ideas, was too strictly limited for the +Romanticists. Hyperion's words expressed their taste more accurately: +'O, man is a god when he dreams, a beggar when he thinks!' and they +laid stress upon restless movement, fantastic, highly-coloured +effects, a crass subjectivity, a reckless licence of the imagination. + +Actual and visible things were disregarded; they did not accord with +this claim for infinity and the nebulous, for exploring the secret +depths of the soul. + +It was perhaps a necessary reaction from Goethe's classicism; but it +passed like a bad dream, after tending, thanks to its heterogeneous +elements, now to the mediæval period, now to that of Storm and +Stress, and now to Goethe, Herder, and Winckelmann. It certainly +contained germs of good, which have grown and flourished in our own +day. + +In keeping with its whole character, the Romantic feeling for Nature +was subjective and fantastic to excess, mystically enthusiastic, +often with a dreamy symbolism at once deep and naive; its inmost core +was pantheistic, with a pantheism shading off imperceptibly into +mysticism. + +After _Werther_, there is perhaps no work of modern fiction in which +Nature plays so artistic a part as in Holderlin's _Hyperion_. + +Embittered by life's failure to realize his ideals, he cries: 'But +thou art still visible, sun in the sky! Thou art still green, sacred +earth! The streams still rush to the sea, and shady trees rustle at +noon. The spring's song of joy sings my mortal thoughts to sleep. The +abundance of the universe nourishes and satiates my famished being to +intoxication.' + +This mystical pantheism could not be more clearly expressed than +here: + + O blessed Nature! I know not how it happens when I lift my eyes + to your beauty; but all the joy of the sky is in the tears which + I shed before you--a lover before the lady of his love. When the + soft waves of the air play round my breast, my whole being is + speechless and listens. Absorbed in the blue expanse, I often + look up to the ether and down to the holy sea; and it seems as if + a kindred spirit opened its arms to me, as if the pain of + loneliness were lost in the divine life. To be one with all that + lives, in blessed self-forgetfulness to return to the All of + Nature, that is the height of thought and bliss--the sacred + mountain height, the place of eternal rest, where noon loses its + sultriness and thunder its voice, and the rough sea is like the + waves in a field of wheat. + +To such feeling as this the actualities are but fetters, hindering +aspiration. + +'O, if great Nature be the daughter of a father, is the daughter's +heart not his heart? Is not he her deepest feeling? But have I found +it? Do I know it?' + +He tries to discern the 'soul of Nature,' hears 'the melody of +morning light begin with soft notes.' He says to the flower, 'You are +my sister,' and to the springs, 'We are of one race': he finds +symbolic resemblance between his heart and all the days and seasons: +he feels the beauty of the 'land like paradise,' while scarcely ever, +except in the poem _Heidelberg_, giving a clear sketch of scenery. A +number of fine comparisons from Nature are scattered through his +writings [18]: + + The caresses of the charming breezes. + + She light, clear, flattering sea. + + Sacred air, the sister of the mind which moves and + lives in us with fiery force, present everywhere immortal. + + Earth, 'one of the flowers of the sky.' + + Heaven, 'the unending garden of life.' + + Beauty, that 'which is one and all.' + +He describes his love in a mystical form: + + We were but one flower, and our souls lived in each other as + flowers do, when they love and hide their joy within a closed + calyx.... The clear starry night had now become my element, for + the beautiful life of my love grew in the stillness as in the + depths of earth gold grows mysteriously. + +He delights 'thus to drink the joy of the world out of one cup with +the lady of his love.' + +'Yea, man is a sun, seeing all and transfiguring all when he loves; +and when he does not love, he is like a dark dwelling in which a +little smelly lamp is burning.' All this is soft and feminine, but it +has real poetic charm. + +Beautiful too, though sad and gloomy, is his _Song of Fate_: + + Nowhere may man abide, + But painfully from hour to hour + He stumbles blindly on to the unknown, + As water falls from rock to rock + The long year through. + +His pantheism finds expression in the odes--in _To Nature_, for +instance: + + Since my heart turneth upward to the sun + As one that hears her voice, + Hailing the stars as brothers, and the spring + As melody divine; + Since in the breath that stirs the wood thy soul, + The soul of joy, doth move + On the still waters of my heart--therefore, + O Nature! these are golden days to me! + +Tieck, too, was keenly alive to Nature. Spring[19]: + + Look all around thee how the spring advances! + New life is playing through the gay green trees! + See how in yonder bower the light leaf dances + To the bird's tread and to the quivering breeze! + How every blossom in the sunlight glances! + The winter frost to his dark cavern flees, + And earth, warm wakened, feels through every vein + The kindling influence of the vernal rain. + Now silvery streamlets, from the mountain stealing, + Dance joyously the verdant vales along; + Cold fear no more the songster's tongue is sealing, + Down in the thick dark grove is heard his song. + And all their bright and lovely hues revealing, + A thousand plants the field and forest throng; + Light comes upon the earth in radiant showers, + And mingling rainbows play among the flowers. + +All his writings seem intoxicated with Nature. The hero of his novel +_William Lovell_, scamp though he is, a man of criminal egotism whose +only law is licence, is deeply in love with Nature. + +He wrote from Florence: + + Nature refreshes my soul with her endless beauty. I am often full + of enthusiasm at the thousand charms of Nature and Art ... at + last my longing to travel to wonderful distant places is + satisfied. Even as a child, when I stood outside my father's + country-house, and gazed at the distant mountains and discovered + a windmill on the very line of the horizon, it seemed to beckon + me as it turned, my blood pulsed more quickly, my mind flew to + distant regions, a strange longing often filled my eyes with + tears. + + Often it seems to me as if the enigma in ourselves were about to + be unriddled, as if we were suddenly to see the transformation of + all our feelings and strange experiences. Night surrounded me + with a hundred terrors, the transparent moonlight sky was like a + crystal dome overhead--in this world the most unusual feelings + were as shadows. + +'Franz Sternbald' had the same intoxicated feeling for Nature: + + I should like to fill the whole world with songs of love, to move + moonrise and sunrise to echo back my joys and sorrows; and trees, + twigs, leaves, grasses to catch the melody and all repeat my + music with a thousand tongues.[20] + +To the Romantic School, Music and Nature were a passion; they longed +to resolve all their feelings, like Byron, at one flash, into music. +'For thought is too distant.' Night and the forest, moonlight and +starlight, were in all their songs. + +There is a background of landscape all through _Franz Sternbald's +Wanderings_. + +In the novels of the eighteenth century landscape had had no place; +Hermes once gave a few lines to sunset, but excused it as an +extravagance, and begged readers and critics not to think that he +only wanted to fill up the page. + +Rousseau altered this; Sophie la Roche, in her _Freundschaftlichen +Frauenzimmerbriefen_, introduced ruins, moonlight scenery, hills, +vales, and flowering hedges, etc., into scenes of thought and +feeling; and most of all, Goethe in _Werther_ tunes scenery and soul +to one key. In his later romances he avoided descriptions of scenery. +Jean Paul, like Tieck in _Franz Sternbald_, never spares us one +sunset or sunrise. Some of Tieck's concise descriptions are very +telling, like Theodore Storm's at the present day: + + Rosy light quivered on the blades of grass, and morning moved in + waves along them. + + The redder the evening grew, the heavier became his dreams; the + darkened trees, the shadows lengthening across the fields, the + smoke from the roofs of a little village, and the stars coming + into view one by one in the sky--all this moved him deeply, moved + him to a wistful compassion for himself. + +As Franz wanders about the wood: + + He observes the trees reflected in a neighbouring pond. He had + never looked at landscape with this pleasure, it had never been + given to him to discern the various colours and their shadows, + the charm of the stillness, the effect of the foliage, as now in + the clear water. Till now he had never drawn a landscape, only + looked at it as a necessary adjunct to many historical pictures, + had never felt that lifeless Nature could herself compose + something whole and complete in itself, and so worthy to be + represented. + +Tieck's shorter stories, fairy tales and others, shew taste for the +mysterious and indefinite aspects of Nature--reflections in water, +rays of light, cloud forms: + + They became to him the most fitting characters in which to record + that indefinite inexpressible feeling which gave its special + colour to his spiritual life.[21] + +The pantheism of Boehme, with whom he was closely associated, always +attracted him, and in Jena he came under the influence of Steffens, +and also of Schelling, whose philosophy of Nature called Nature a +mysterious poem, a dreaming mind. This mind it became the chief aim +of Novalis, as well as Tieck, to decipher. + +From simple descriptions of Nature he went on to read mystic meanings +into her, seeking, psychologically in his novels and mystically in +his fairy tales, to fathom the connection between natural phenomena +and elementary human feeling. _Blond Egbert_ was the earliest example +of this: + + Night looked sullenly through the windows, and the trees without + rustled in the wet cold ... the moon looked fitfully through + breaks in the driving clouds.[22] + +In the same book Bertha describes the horror of loneliness, the vague +longings, and then the overwhelming delight in new impressions, which +seized her when she fled from home as a child and lost herself among +the mountains. + +_The Runenberg_ gives in a very powerful way the idea of the weird +fascination which the subterranean powers were supposed to exert over +men, alluring and befooling them, and rousing their thirst for gold. + +The demoniacal elements in mountain scenery, its crags and abysses, +are contrasted with idyllic plains. The tale is sprinkled over with +descriptions of Nature, which give it a fairy-like effect.[23] + +The most extraordinary product of this School was Novalis. With him +everything resolved itself into presentiment, twilight, night, into +vague longings for a vague distant goal, which he expressed by the +search for 'the blue flower.' This is from _Heinrich von +Ofterdingen_: + +'The cheerful pageant of the glorious evening rocked him in soft +imaginings; the flower of his heart was visible now and then as by +sheet lightning.' He looked at Nature with the mystic's eye, and +described her fantastically: + + I am never tired of looking minutely at the different plants. + Growing plants are the direct language of the earth; each new + leaf, each remarkable flower, is a mystery which projects itself, + and because it cannot move with love and longing, nor attain to + words, is a dumb, quiet plant. When in solitude one finds such a + flower, does it not seem as if all around it were brightened, + and, best of all, do not the little feathered notes around it + remain near? One could weep for joy, and there, far from the + world, stick hands and feet into the earth, to take root, and + never more leave so delightful a spot. This green mysterious + carpet of love is drawn over the whole earth. + +It is not surprising that night should attract this unnaturally +excited imagination most of all: + + Sacred, inexpressible, mysterious Night, delicious balsam drops + from thy hands, from the poppy sheaf; thou upliftest the heavy + wings of the Spirit.[24] + +Night and death are delight and bliss. + +The fairy-like tale of _Hyacinth and Little Rose,_ with its charming +personifications, is refreshing after all this: + + The violet told the strawberry in confidence, she told her friend + the gooseberry, who never ceased to jeer when Hyacinth went, so + the whole garden and wood soon knew it, and when Hyacinth went + out, voices from all sides cried out, 'Little Rose is my + favourite.' When he goes into the wide world to find the land of + Isis, he asks the way of the animals, and of springs, rocks, and + trees, and the flowers smile at him, the springs offer him a + fresh drink, and there is wonderful music when he comes home. 'O + that men could understand the music of Nature!' cries the + listener in the tale. Then follows a description of 'the sweet + passion for the being of Nature and her enchanting raptures,' and + the charm of the poetic imagination which finds 'a great sympathy + with man's heart' in all the external world. For example, in the + breath of wind, which 'with a thousand dark and dolorous notes + seems to dissolve one's quiet grief into one deep melodious sigh + of all Nature.' + + 'And am I myself other than the stream when I gaze gloomily down + into its waters and lose my thoughts in its flow?' And in ecstasy + the youth exclaims: 'Whose heart does not leap for joy, when he + feels Nature's innermost life in its fulness, when that powerful + feeling, for which language has no other name than love and + bliss, spreads like a vapour through his being, and he sinks, + palpitating, on the dark alluring breast of Nature, and his poor + self is lost in the overwhelming waves of joy?'[25] + +Here we have the key to the romantic feeling for Nature--communion of +the soul with Nature in a twilight mood of dreamy absorption. + +Yet amidst all this, real delight in romantic scenery was not quite +lacking: witness Hulsen's[26] _Observations on Nature on a Journey +through Switzerland_; and the genuine lyric of Nature, untainted by +mystic and sickly influences, was still to be heard, as in +Eichendorff's beautiful songs and his _Tautgenichts_. + +The Romantic School, in fact, far as it erred from the path, did +enlarge the life of feeling generally, and with that, feeling for +Nature, and modern literature is still bound to it by a thousand +threads. + +Our modern rapture has thus been reached by a path which, with many +deviations in its course, has come to us from a remote past, and is +still carrying us farther forward. + +Its present intensity is due to the growth of science, for although +feeling has become more realistic and matter-of-fact in these days of +electricity and the microscope, love for Nature has increased with +knowledge. Science has even become the investigator of religion, and +the pantheistic tendency of the great poets has passed into us, +either in the idea of an all-present God, or in that of organic force +working through matter--the indestructible active principle of life +in the region of the visible. Our explorers combine enthusiasm for +Nature with their tireless search for truth--for example, Humboldt, +Haeckel, and Paul Güssfeldt; and though, as the shadow side to this +light, travelling and admiration of Nature have become a fashion, yet +who nowadays can watch a great sunset or a storm over the sea, and +remain insensible to the impression? + +Landscape painting and poetry shew the same deviations from the +straight line of development as in earlier times. Our garden craft, +like our architecture, is eclectic; but the English park style is +still the most adequate expression of prevalent taste: spaces of turf +with tree groups, a view over land or sea, gradual change from garden +to field; to which has been added a wider cultivation of foreign +plants. In landscape painting the zigzag course is very marked: +landscapes such as Bocklin's, entirely projected by the imagination +and corresponding to nothing on earth, hang together in our galleries +with the most faithful studies from Nature. It is the same with +literature. In fiction, novels which perpetuate the sentimental +rhapsodies of an early period, and open their chapters with forced +descriptions of landscape, stand side by side with the masterly work +of great writers--for example, Spielhagen, Wilhelmine von Hillern, +and Theodore Storm. + +In poetry, the lyric of Nature is inexhaustible. Heine, the greatest +lyrist after Goethe, though his poetry has, like the Nixie, an +enchantingly fair body with a fish's tail, wrote in the _Travels in +the Harz_: 'How infinitely blissful is the feeling when the outer +world of phenomena blends and harmonizes with the inner world of +feeling; when green trees, thoughts, birds' songs, sweet melancholy, +the azure of heaven, memory, and the perfume of flowers, run together +and form the loveliest of arabesques.' + +But his delight in Nature was spoilt by irony and straining after +effect--for example, in _The Fig Tree_; and although _The Lotos +Flower_ is a gem, and the _North Sea Pictures_ shew the fine eye of a +poet who, like Byron and Shelley, can create myths, his +personifications as a whole are affected, and his personal feeling is +forced upon Nature for the sake of a witty effect. + +Every element of Nature has found skilled interpreters both in poetry +and painting, and technical facility and truth of representation now +stand on one level with the appreciation of her charms. + + + + +NOTES + +INTRODUCTION + + +[Footnote 1: _Kritische Gänge_. Comp. Vischer, _Ueber den optischen +Formsinn,_ and Carl du Prel, _Psychologie der Lyrik_.] + +[Footnote 2: As in elegy _Ghatarkarparam_.] + +[Footnote 3: Comp. Humboldt, _Cosmos_. Schnaase, _Geschichte der +bildenden Künste_.] + +[Footnote 4: See _Die Entwickelung des Naturgefühls bei den Griechen +und Römern_, Biese.] + + +CHAPTER I + +[Footnote 1: Lucos ac nemora consecrant deorumque nominibus adpellant +secretum illud, quod sola reverentia vident, Tac. Germ. Comp. Grimm, +_Deutsche Mythologie_.] + +[Footnote 2: Grimm. Simrock, _Handbuch der Mythologie_.] + +[Footnote 3: Grimm.] + +[Footnote 4: Grimm.] + +[Footnote 5: Grimm.] + +[Footnote 6: _Geschichte der bildenden Künste_. Comp. Grimm, +_Deutsche Rechtsaltertümer_.] + +[Footnote 7: Grimm.] + +[Footnote 8: Carrière, _Die Poesie_.] + + +CHAPTER II + +[Footnote 1: Clement of Rome, i _Cor._ 19, 20. Zoeckler, _Geschichte +der Beziehungen zwischen Theologie und Naturwissenschaft_.] + +[Footnote 2: Comp. _Vita S. Basilii_.] + +[Footnote 3: _Basilii opera omnia_. Parisus, 1730.] + +[Footnote 4: _Cosmos_.] + +[Footnote 5: Biese, _Die Entwickelung des Naturgefühls bei den +Griechen und Römern_.] + +[Footnote 6: _Mélanges philosophiques, historiques, et littéraires_.] + +[Footnote 7: _Homily_ 4.] + +[Footnote 8: _Homily_ 6.] + +[Footnote 9: Biese, _Die Entwickelung des Naturgefühls bei den +Griechen und Römern_. + +'In spring the Cydmian apple trees give blossom watered by river +streams in the hallowed garden of the nymphs; in spring the buds grow +and swell beneath the leafy shadow of the vine branch. But my heart +knoweth no season of respite; nay, like the Thracian blast that +rageth with its lightning, so doth it bear down from Aphrodite's +side, dark and fearless, with scorching frenzy in its train, and from +its depths shaketh my heart with might.'] + +[Footnote 10: Comp. Biese, _op. cit._] + +[Footnote 11: _Deutsche Rundschau_, 1879.] + +[Footnote 12: Comp. Biese, _op. cit._] + +[Footnote 13: Chrysostom was not only utilitarian, but praised and +enjoyed the world's beauty. From the fifth to third century, Greek +progress in feeling for Nature can be traced from unconscious to +conscious pleasure in her beauty.] + +[Footnote 14: _De Mortalitate_, cap. 4.] + +[Footnote 15: _Geschichte der christlich-lateinischen Literatur_.] + +[Footnote 16: When one thinks of Sappho, Simonides, Theocritus, +Meleager, Catullus, Ovid, and Horace, it cannot be denied that this +is true of Greek and Roman lyric.] + +[Footnote 17: As in the Homeric time, when each sphere of Nature was +held to be subject to and under the influence of its special deity. +But it cannot be admitted that metaphor was freer and bolder in the +hymns; on the contrary, it was very limited and monotonous.] + +[Footnote 18: In _Cathemerinon_.] + +[Footnote 19: Comp. fragrant gardens of Paradise, Hymn 3. + +In Hamartigenia he says that the evil and ugly in Nature originates +in the devil.] + +[Footnote 20: Ebert.] + +[Footnote 21: The Robinsonade of the hermit Bonosus upon a rocky +island is interesting.] + +[Footnote 22: Comp. Biese, _op. cit._] + +[Footnote 23: Comp. _ad Paulinum_, epist. 19, _Monum. German._ v. 2.] + +[Footnote 24: _Carm. nat. 7._] + +[Footnote 25: _Ep._ xi.] + +[Footnote 26: _Migne Patrol_ 60.] + +[Footnote 27: _Migne Patrol_ 59.] + +[Footnote 28: Ebert.] + +[Footnote 29: Comp. Biese, _op. cit._] + +[Footnote 30: Comp. Biese, _op. cit._] + +[Footnote 31: _Migne Patrol_ 58.] + +[Footnote 32: _Carm._ lib. i.] + +[Footnote 33: _Amoenitas loci_: Variorum libri Lugduni, 1677.] + +[Footnote 34: _Monum. Germ._, 4th ed., Leo, lib. viii.] + +[Footnote 35: _Deutsche Rundschau_, 1882.] + +[Footnote 36: _Monum. German Histor., poet. lat. medii ævi_, I. +Berlin 1881, ed. Dümmler. Alcuin, _Carmen_ 23.] + +[Footnote 37: Zoeckler, _Geschichte der Beziehungen zwischen +Theologie und Naturwissenschaft_. 'On rocky crags by the sea, on +shores fringed by oak or beech woods, in the shady depths of forests, +on towering mountain tops, or on the banks of great rivers, one sees +the ruins or the still inhabited buildings which once served as the +dwellings of the monks who, with the cross as their only weapon, were +the pioneers of our modern culture. Their flight from the life of +traffic and bustle in the larger towns was by no means a flight from +the beauties of Nature.' The last statement is only partly true. In +the prime of the monastic era the beauties of Nature were held to be +a snare of the devil. Still, in choosing a site, beauty of position +was constantly referred to as an auxiliary motive. 'Bernhard loved +the valley,' 'but Bernhard chose mountains,' are significant +phrases.] + +[Footnote 38: Comp. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_, on the old Germanic +idea of a conflict between winter and spring.] + +[Footnote 39: Dümmler, vi. _Carolus et Leo papa._] + +[Footnote 40: Walahfridi Strabi, _De cultura hortorum_.] + +[Footnote 41: Comp. H. von Eichen, _Geschichte und System der +mittelalterlichen Weltanschauung_. Stuttg. Cotta, 1887.] + + +CHAPTER III + +[Footnote 1: Prutz, _Geschichte der Kreuzzüge_. Berlin, 1883.] + +[Footnote 2: Allatius, _Symmicta_. Coeln, 1653.] + +[Footnote 3: _Deutsche Pilgerreisen nach dem heiligen Lande_, +Roehricht und Meissner. Berlin, 1880.] + +[Footnote 4: For excellent bibliographical evidence see _Die +geographische Kenntnis der Alpen im Mittelalter_ in supplement to +_Münchner Allgem. Zeitung_, January 1885.] + +[Footnote 5: Comp. Oehlmann, _Die Alpenpässe im Mittelalter, Jahrbuch +für Schweizer_.] + +[Footnote 6: Biese, _op. cit._] + +[Footnote 7: Fr. Diez, _Leben und Werke der Troubadours_. Zwickau, +1829] + +[Footnote 8: _Des Minnesangs Frühling_, von Lachmann-Haupt.] + +[Footnote 9: _Geschichte der Malerei._ Woermann und Wottmann.] + +[Footnote 10: 'Detailed study of Nature had begun; but the attempt to +blend the separate elements into a background landscape in +perspective betrayed the insecurity and constraint of dilettante work +at every point.' Ludwig Kämmerer on the period before Van Eyck in +_Die Landschaft in der deutschen Kunst bis zum Tode Albrecht Dürers_. +Leipzig, 1880] + + +CHAPTER IV + +[Footnote 1: _Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien._] + +[Footnote 2: _Untersuchungen über die kampanische Wandmalerei._ +Leipzig, 1873.] + +[Footnote 3: Comp. Schnaase, _op. cit._] + +[Footnote 4: _Argon_, ii. 219; iii. 260, 298. Comp. Cic. _ad Att._, +iv. 18, 3.] + +[Footnote 5: _Renaissance und Humanismus in Italien und Deutschland._ +Berlin, 1882. (Oncken, _Allgemeine Geschichte in Einzeldarstettungen_, +ii. 8.)] + +[Footnote 6: _Itinerar. syr._, Burckhardt ii.] + +[Footnote 7: _Loci specie percussus_, Burckhardt i.] + +[Footnote 8: In his paper 'Kulturgeschichte und Naturwissenschaft' +(_Deutsche Rundschau_, vol. xiii.), which is full both of original +ideas and of exaggerated summary opinions, Du Bois Reymond fails to +do justice to this, and altogether misjudges Petrarch's feeling for +Nature. After giving this letter in proof of mediæval feeling, he +goes on to say: 'Full of shame and remorse, he descends the mountain +without another word. The poor fellow had given himself up to +innocent enjoyment for a moment, without thinking of the welfare of +his soul, and instead of gloomy introspection, had looked into the +enticing outer world. Western humanity was so morbid at that time, +that the consciousness of having done this was enough to cause +painful inner conflict to a man like Petrarch--a man of refined +feeling, and scientific, though not a deep thinker.' Even granting +this, which is too tragically put, the world was on the very eve of +freeing itself from this position, and Petrarch serves as a witness +to the change.] + +[Footnote 9: Comp., too, _De Genealogia Deorum_, xv., in which he +says of trees, meadows, brooks, flocks and herds, cottages, etc., +that these things 'animum mulcent,' their effect is 'mentem in se +colligere.'] + +[Footnote 10: Comp. Voigt, _Enea Silvio de' Piccolomini als Papst +Pius II. und sein Zeitalter_.] + +[Footnote 11: Comp. Geiger and Ad. Wolff, _Die Klassiker aller Zeiten +und Nationen_.] + +[Footnote 12: Quando mira la terra ornata e bella. Rime di V. +Colonna.] + +[Footnote 13: Ombrosa selva che il mio duolo ascolti.] + + +CHAPTER V + +[Footnote 1: Ruge, _Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen._ +Berlin, 1881. (_Allgem. Geschichte in Einzeldarstellungen_, von +Oncken.) _Die neu Welt der Landschaften_, etc. Strasburg, 1534.] + +[Footnote 2: _De rebus oceanicis et novo orbi Decades tres Petri +Martyris at Angleria Mediolanensis, Coloniæ_, 1574.] + +[Footnote 3: _Il viaggio di Giovan Leone e Le Navagazioni, di Aloise +da Mosto. di Pietro, di Cintra. di Anxone, di un Piloto Portuguese e +di Vasco di Gama quali si leggono nella raccolta di Giovambattista +Ramusio._ Venezia, 1837.] + +[Footnote 4: For example, this from Ramusio: 'And the coast is all +low land, full of most beautiful and very tall trees, which are +evergreen, as the leaves do not wither as do those in our country, +but a new leaf appears before the other is cast off: the trees extend +right down into the marshy tract of shore, and look as if flourishing +on the sea. The coast is a most glorious sight, and in my opinion, +though I have cruised about in many parts both in the East and in the +West, I have never seen any coast which surpassed this in beauty. It +is everywhere washed by many rivers, and small streams of little +importance, as big ships will not be able to enter them.] + +[Footnote 5: Ideler, _Examen critique_. Cosmos.] + +[Footnote 6: _Coleccion de los viajes y decubrimientos que hicieron +por mar los espanoles desde fines del siglo XV. con varios documentos +ineditos ... co-ordinata e illustrada por Don Martin Fernandez de +Navarrete._ Madrid, 1858.] + +[Footnote 7: _Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen._] + +[Footnote 8: As he lay sick and despairing off Belem, an unknown +voice said to him compassionately: 'O fool! and slow to believe and +serve thy God.... He gave thee the keys of those barriers of the +ocean sea which were closed with such mighty chains, and thou wast +obeyed through many lands, and hast gained an honourable fame +throughout Christendom.' In a letter to the King and Queen of Spain +in fourth voyage.] + +[Footnote 9: Humboldt.] + +[Footnote 10: Biese, _op. cit._] + +[Footnote 11: Zoeckler, _Geschichte der Beziehungen zwischen +Theologie und Naturwissenschaft_.] + +[Footnote 12: F. Hammerich, _St Birgitta._] + +[Footnote 13: Zoeckler, _op. cit._] + +[Footnote 14: Comp. Wilkens' _Fray Luis de Leon_. Halle, 1866.] + +[Footnote 15: Comp. Wilkens' _Fray Luis de Leon_. Halle, 1866.] + +[Footnote 16: Comp. Wilkens' _Fray Luis de Leon_. Halle, 1866.] + +[Footnote 17: Comp. Wilkens' _Fray Luis de Leon_. Halle, 1866.] + +[Footnote 18: Humboldt.] + +[Footnote 19: Comp. Carrière, _Die Poesie_.] + +[Footnote 20: Zoeckler, in Herzog's _Real-Encykl._, xxi., refers to +'Le Solitaire des Indes ou la Vie de Gregoire Lopez.' Goerres, _Die +christliche Mystik_; S. Arnold, _Leben der Gläubigen_; French, _Life +of St Teresa_.] + + +CHAPTER VI + +[Footnote 1: In _Shakespeare Studien_, chap. 4, Hense treats +Shakespeare's attitude towards Nature very suggestively; but I have +gone my own way.] + +[Footnote 2: _Hamlet_, i. 3: 'The canker galls the infants of the +spring too oft before their buttons be disclosed.' Comp. i. 1; _Romeo +and Juliet_, i. 1; _Henry VI._, part 2, iii. 1; _Tempest_, i. 2.] + +[Footnote 3: Comp. Henkel, _Das Goethe'sche Gleichnis_; _Henry IV._, +2nd pt., iv. 4; _Richard II._, i. i; _Othello_, iii. 3, and v. 2; +_Cymbeline_, ii. 4; _King John_, ii. 2; _Hamlet_, iii. 1; _Tempest_, +iv. 2.] + +[Footnote 4: See Hense for bucolic idyllic traits.] + +[Footnote 5: _Poetische Personifikation in griechischen Dichtungen._] + + +CHAPTER VII + +[Footnote 1: Comp. Woermann, _Ueber den landschaftlichen Natursinn +der Griechen und Römer, Vorstudien zu einer Arckäologie der +Landschaftsmalerei_. München, 1871.] + +[Footnote 2: Comp. Schnaase, _Geschichte der bildenden Künste im 15 +Jahrhundert_, edited by Lübke. Stuttgart, 1879.] + +[Footnote 3: Falke, _Geschichte des modernen Geschmacks_. Leipzig, +1880] + +[Footnote 4: _Geschichte der deutschen Renaissance_. Stuttgart, +1873.] + +[Footnote 5: Comp. also Kaemmerer, _op. cit._] + +[Footnote 6: Lûbke, _op. cit._] + +[Footnote 7: Lûbke refers to A. von Zahn's searching work, _Durer's +Kunstlehre und sein Verhältnis zur Renaissance_. Leipzig, 1866.] + +[Footnote 8: Proportion III., B.T. iii. b. Nuremberg, 1528.] + +[Footnote 9: _Op. cit._] + +[Footnote 10: In what follows, I have borrowed largely from +Rosenberg's interesting writings (_Greuzboten_, Nos. 43 and 44, +1884-85), and still more from Schnaase, Falke, and Carrière, as I +myself only know the masters represented at Berlin and Munich.] + +[Footnote 11: Kaemmerer, _op. cit._] + +[Footnote 12: Kaemmerer, _op. cit._] + + +CHAPTER VIII + +[Footnote 1: _Renaissance und Humanismus in Italien und +Deutschland._] + +[Footnote 2: _Renaissance und Humanismus in Italien und +Deutschland._] + +[Footnote 3: Zoeckler.] + +[Footnote 4: Comp. Hase, _Sebastian Frank von Woerd der +Schwarmgeist_.] + +[Footnote 5: Comp. Hubert, _Kleine Schriften_.] + +[Footnote 6: Zoeckler, etc.] + +[Footnote 7: Comp. Uhland, _Schriften zur Geschichte der Dichtung und +Sage_. Alte hoch und nieder deutsche Volkslieder, where plants, ivy, +holly, box, and willow, represent summer and winter.] + +[Footnote 8: Uhland.] + +[Footnote 9: Uhland.] + +[Footnote 10: Wunderhorn.] + +[Footnote 11: Biese, _op. cit._] + +[Footnote 12: Fred Cohn, '_Die Gärten in alter und neuer Zeit,' D. +Rundschau_ 18, 1879. In Italy in the sixteenth century there was a +change to this extent, that greenery was no longer clipt, but allowed +to grow naturally, and the garden represented the transition from +palace to landscape, from bare architectural forms to the free +creations of Nature. The passion for flowers--the art of the pleasure +garden, flourished in Holland and Germany. (Falke.)] + +[Footnote 13: W.H. Riehl states (_Kulturstudien aus drei +Jahrhunderten_) that Berlin, Augsburg, Leipzig, Darmstadt, and +Mannheim were described in the seventeenth century as having 'very +fine and delightful positions'; and the finest parts of the Black +Forest, Harz and Thuringian mountains as 'very desolate,' deserted, +and monotonous, or, at best, as not particularly pleasant scenery. If +only a region were flat and treeless, a delicious landscape could be +charmed out of it. Welcker, Court physician at Hesse Cassel, +describing Schlangenbad in 1721, said that it lay in a desolate, +unpleasing district, where nothing grew but foliage and grass, but +that through ingenious planting of clipt trees in lines and cross +lines, some sort of artistic effect had been produced. Clearly the +principles of French garden-craft had become a widely accepted dogma +of taste. Riehl contrasts the periwig period with the mediæval, and +concludes that the mediæval backgrounds of pictures implied feeling +for the wild and romantic. He says: 'In the Middle Ages the painters +chose romantic jagged forms of mountains and rocks for backgrounds, +hence the wild, bare, and arid counted as a prototype of beautiful +scenery, while some centuries later such forms were held to be too +rustic and irregular for beauty.' One cannot entirely agree with +this. He weakens it himself in what follows. 'It was not a real scene +which rose Alp-like before their mind's eye, but an imaginary and +sacred one; their fantastic, romantic ideal called for rough and +rugged environment': and adds, arguing in a circle, 'Their minds +passed then to real portraiture of Nature, and decided the landscape +eye of the period.' My own opinion is that the loftiness of the +'heroic' mountain backgrounds seemed suitable for the sacred subjects +which loomed so large and sublime in their own minds, and that these +backgrounds did not reveal their ideal of landscape beauty, nor 'a +romantic feeling for Nature,' nor 'a taste for the romantic,' nor yet +a wondrous change of view in the periwig period.] + +[Footnote 14: In his _Harburg Program_ of 1883 _(Beiträge zur +Geschichte des Naturgefühls_), after an incomplete survey of ancient +and modern writings on the subject, Winter sketches the development +of modern feeling for Nature in Germany from Opitz to 1770, as shewn +in the literature of that period, basing his information chiefly upon +Goedeke's _Deutsche Dichtung._] + +[Footnote 15: Comp. Chovelius _Die bedeutendsten deutschen Romanz des +17 Jahrhunderts_. Leipzig, 1866.] + +[Footnote 16: Chovelius.] + +[Footnote 17: Daniel Lohenstein's _Blumen_. Breslau, 1689.] + + +CHAPTER IX + +[Footnote 1: Freiherr von Ditfurth, _Deutsche Volks und +Gesellschaftslieder des 17 und 18 Jahrhunderts_, 1872.] + +[Footnote 2: Goedeke-Tittmannschen Sammlung, xiii., +_Trutz-Nachtigall._] + +[Footnote 3: _Geschichte der deutschen Litteratur_.] + +[Footnote 4: Tittmann's _Deutsche Dichter des 17 Jahrhunderts_, vol. +vi.] + +[Footnote 5: Comp., too, iv. 5: 'Die ihr alles hört und saget, Luft +and Forst und Meer durchjaget; Echo, Sonne, Mond, und Wind, Sagt mir +doch, wo steckt mein Kind?' + +21. 'Den sanften West bewegt mein Klagen, Es rauscht der Bach den +Seufzern nach Aus Mitleid meiner Plagen; Die Vögel schweigen, Um nur +zu zeigen Dass diese schöne Tyrannei Auch Tieren überlegen sei.' +_Abendlied_ contains beautiful personifications: 'Der Feierabend ist +gemacht, Die Arbeit schläft, der Traum erwacht, Die Sonne führt die +Pferde trinken; Der Erdkreis wandert zu der Ruh, Die Nacht drückt ihm +die Augen zu, Die schon dem süssen Schlafe winken.'] + +[Footnote 6: Hettner, _Litteraturgeschichte des 18 Jahrhunderts_.] + +[Footnote 7: Lappenberg in _Zeitschrift für Hamburgische Geschichte_, +ii. Hettner, _op. cit._] + +[Footnote 8: 'Ye fields and woods, my refuge from the toilsome world +of business, receive me in your quiet sanctuaries and favour my +Retreat and thoughtful Solitude. Ye verdant plains, how gladly I +salute ye! Hail all ye blissful Mansions! Known Seats! Delightful +Prospects! Majestick Beautys of this earth, and all ye rural Powers +and Graces! Bless'd be ye chaste Abodes of happiest Mortals who here +in peaceful Innocence enjoy a Life unenvy'd, the Divine, whilst with +its bless'd Tranquility it affords a happy Leisure and Retreat for +Man, who, made for contemplation and to search his own and other +natures, may here best meditate the cause of Things, and, plac'd +amidst the various scenes of Nature, may nearer view her Works. O +glorious Nature! supremely fair and sovereignly good! All-loving and +All-lovely All-Divine! Whose looks are so becoming, and of such +infinite grace, whose study brings such Wisdom, and whose +contemplation such Delight.... Since by thee (O Sovereign mind!) I +have been form'd such as I am, intelligent and rational; since the +peculiar Dignity of my Nature is to know and contemplate Thee; permit +that with due freedom I exert those Facultys with which thou hast +adorn'd me. Bear with my ventrous and bold approach. And since not +vain Curiosity, nor fond Conceit, nor Love of aught save Thee alone, +inspires me with such thoughts as these, be thou my Assistant, and +guide me in this Pursuit; whilst I venture thus to tread the +Labyrinth of wide Nature, and endeavour to trace thee in thy Works.'] + +[Footnote 9: Comp. Jacob von Falke, '_Der englische Garten_' (_Nord +und Süd_, Nov. 1884), and his _Geschichte des modernen Geschmacks_.] + +[Footnote 10: _Dessins des édifices, meubles, habits, machines, et +utensils des Chinois_, 1757.] + + +CHAPTER X + +[Footnote 1: '_Die Alpen im Lichte verschiedener Zeitalter_,' +_Sammlung wissenschaftlicher Vorträge_, Virchow und Holtzendorff. +Berlin, 1877.] + +[Footnote 2: + + Geschäfte Zwang und Grillen Entweihn nicht diese Trift; + Ich finde hier im Stillen Des Unmuts Gegengift. + Es webet, wallt, und spielet, Das Laub um jeden Strauch, + Und jede Staude fühlet Des lauen Zephyrs Hauch. + Was mir vor Augen schwebet Gefällt und hüpft und singt, + Und alles, alles lebet, Und alles scheint verjüngt. + Ihr Thäler und ihr Höhen Die Lust und Sommer schmückt! + Euch ungestört zu sehen, Ist, was mein Herz erquickt. + Die Reizung freier Felder Beschämt der Gärten Pracht, + Und in die offnen Wälder Wird ohne Zwang gelacht.... + In jährlich neuen Schätzen zeigt sich des Landmanns Glück, + Und Freiheit und Ergötzen Erheitern seinen Blick.... + Ihm prangt die fette Weide Und die betante Flur; + Ihm grünet Lust und Freude Ihm malet die Natur.'] + +[Footnote 3: _Litteratur geschichte_.] + +[Footnote 4: _Sämtliche poetische Werke_, J.P. Uz. Leipzig, 1786.] + +[Footnote 5: _Sämtliche Werke_. Berlin, 1803.] + +[Footnote 6: _Sämtliche Werke_, J.G. Jacobi, vol. viii. Zurich, +1882.] + +[Footnote 7: He said of his garden at Freiburg, which was laid out in +terraces on a slope, that all that Flora and Pomona could offer was +gathered there. It had a special Poet's Corner on a hillock under a +poplar, where a moss-covered seat was laid for him upon some +limestone rock-work; white and yellow jasmine grew round, and laurels +and myrtles hung down over his head. Here he would rest when he +walked in the sun; on his left was a mossy Ara, a little artificial +stone altar on which he laid his book, and from here he could gaze +across the visible bit of the distant Rhine to the Vosges, and give +himself up undisturbed to his thoughts.] + +[Footnote 8: Gessners _Schriften_. Zurich, 1770.] + +[Footnote 9: Spalding, _Die Bestimmung des Menschen_. Leipzig, 1768.] + +[Footnote 10: Klopstock's _Briefe_. Brunswick, 1867.] + +[Footnote 11: Comp. _Odes_, 'Die Kunst Tialfs' and 'Winterfreuden.'] + +[Footnote 12: _Briefe_.] + +[Footnote 13: Julian Schmidt.] + +[Footnote 14: Comp. his letters from Switzerland, which contain +nothing particular about the scenery, although he crossed the Lake of +Zurich, and 'a wicked mountain' to the Lake of Zug and Lucerne.] + +[Footnote 15: Claudius, who, at a time when the lyric both of poetry +and music was lost in Germany in conventional tea and coffee songs, +was the first to rediscover the direct expression of feeling--that +is, Nature feeling. (Storm's _Hausbuch_.)] + + +CHAPTER XI + +[Footnote 1: I have obtained much information and suggestion from +'_Ueber die geographische Kenntnis der Alpen im Mittelalter_,' and +'_Ueber die Alpine Reiselitteratur in fruherer Zeit_,' in _Allgem. +Zeitung_. Jan. 11, 1885, and Sept. 1885, respectively.] + +[Footnote 2: _Evagatorium 3, Bibliothek d. litterar. Vereins_. +Stuttgart, 1849.] + +[Footnote 3: _Bibliothek des litterar. Vereins_. Stuttgart, 1886.] + +[Footnote 4: _Descriptio Larii lacus_. Milan, 1558.] + +[Footnote 5: _Itinerarium Basil_. 1624.] + +[Footnote 6: Osenbrüggen, _Wanderungen in der Schweiz_, 1867; +_Entwickelungsgeschichte des Schweizreisens_; Friedländer, _Ueber die +Entstehung und Entwickelung_.] + +[Footnote 7: Comp. Erich Schmidt, _Richardson, Rousseau, and Goethe_. +Jena, 1875.] + +[Footnote 8: Remarks on several parts of Italy. London, 1761.] + +[Footnote 9: Letters of Lady M. Wortley Montagu, Sept. 25, 1718.] + +[Footnote 10: Friedländer, _op. cit._] + +[Footnote 11: Schmidt. Moser's description of a sensitive soul in +_Patriotischen Phantasien_ is most amusing.] + +[Footnote 12: Laprade adduces little of importance in his book _Le +Sentiment de la Nature_ (2nd edition), the first volume of which I +have dealt with elsewhere. I have little in common with Laprade, +although he is the only writer who has treated the subject +comprehensively and historically. His standpoint is that of Catholic +theology; he never separates feeling for Nature from religion, and is +severe upon unbelievers. The book is well written, and in parts +clever, but only touches the surface and misses much. His position is +thus laid down: 'Le vrai sentiment de la Nature, le seul poétique, le +seul fécond et puissant, le seul innocent de tout danger, est celui +qui ne sépare jamais l'idée des choses visibles de la pensée de +Dieu.' He accounts for the lack of any important expressions of +feeling for Nature in French classics with: 'Le génie de la France +est le génie de l'action.' and 'L'âme humaine est le but de la +poésie.' He recognizes that even with Fénélon 'la Nature reste à ses +yeux comme une simple décoration du drame que l'homme y joue, le +poëte en lui ne la regarde jamais à travers les yeux du mystique.' Of +the treatment of Nature in La Fontaine's Fables, he says: 'Ce n'est +pas peindre la Nature, c'est l'abolir'; and draws this conclusion: +'Le sentiment de l'infini est absent de la poésie du dix-septième +siècle aussi bien que le sentiment de la Nature'; and again: +'L'esprit général du dix-huitième siècle est la négation même de la +poésie ... l'amour de la Nature n'était guerre autre chose qu'une +haine déguisée et une déclaration de guerre a la société et a la +réligion. Il n'y a pai trace du sentiment légitime et profond qui +attire l'artiste et le poëte vers les splendeurs de la création, +révélatrices du monde invisible. Ne demandez pas an dix-huitème +siècle la poésie de la Nature, pas plus que celle du coeur.' Buffon +shews 'l'état poétique des sciences de la Nature,' but his brilliant +prose painting lacks 'la présence de Dieu, la révélation de l'infini +les harmonies de l'âme et de la Nature n'existent pas pour Buffon.... +plus de la rhétorique que de vrai sentiment de la Nature.'] + +[Footnote 13: Comp. the garden of Elysium in _La Nouvelle Héloise:_ +Where the gardener's hand is nowhere to be discerned, nothing +contradicts the idea of a desert island, and I cannot perceive any +footsteps of men ... you see nothing here in an exact row, nothing +level, Nature plants nothing by the ruler.'] + +[Footnote 14: _OEuvres de Jacques Bernardin Henri de Saint Pierre_.] + +[Footnote 15: 'B. de S. Pierre a plus que Rousseau les facultés +propres du paysagiste, l'amour même du pittoresque, la vive curiosité +des sites, des animaux, et des plants, la couleur et une certaine +magie spéciale du pinceau,' Laprade adds the reproof: 'Sa pensée +réligieuse est au-dessous de son talent d'artiste et en abaisse le +niveau.'] + +[Footnote 16: _Voyage round the World_, 1772-1775.] + +[Footnote 17: Paul Lemnius, 1597, _Landes Rugiae_; Kosegarten, +1777-1779; Rellstab, 1799, _Ausflucht noch der Insel Rügen;_ Navest, +1800, _Wanderungen durch die Insel Rügen_; Grümbke, 1805; _Indigena, +Streifzüge durch das Rügenland_. J.P. Hackert in 1762, and K. D. +Friedrichs in 1792, painted the scenery. Comp. E. Boll, _Die Inset +Rügen_, 1858.] + + +CHAPTER XII + +[Footnote 1: Comp. Gottschall, _Poetik_. Breslau, 1853.] + +[Footnote 2: _Ueber Ossian und die Lieder alter Völker_, Sämtliche +_Werke_, Teil 7.] + +[Footnote 3: _Op. cit._, Teil 15.] + +[Footnote 4: _Zur Philosophie und Gesehichte,_ 2 Teil.] + +[Footnote 5: J.G. Sulzer's _Unterredungen über die Schönheit der +Nätur nebst desselben moralischen Betrachtungen über besondere +Gegenstände der Naturlehre_ is typical. Charites describes his +conversion to the love of Nature by his friend Eukrates. Eukrates +woke him at dawn and led him to a hill close by, as the sun rose. The +fresh air, the birds' songs, and the wide landscape move him, and +Eukrates points out that the love of Nature is the 'most natural of +pleasures,' making the labourer so happy that he forgets servitude +and misery, and sings at his work. 'This pleasure is always new to +us, and the heart, provided it be not possessed by vanity or stormy +passions, lies always open to it. Do you not know that they who are +in trouble, and, above all, they who are in love, find their chief +relief here? Is not a sick man better cheered by sunshine than by any +other refreshment?' Then he points out Nature's harmonies and changes +of colour, and warns Charites to avoid the storms of the passions. +'Yonder brook is a picture of our soul; so long as it runs quietly +between its banks, the water is clear and grass and flowers border +it; but when it swells and flows tumultuously, all this ornament is +torn away, and it becomes turbid. To delight in Nature the mind must +be free.... She is a sanctity only approached by pure souls.... As +only the quiet stream shews the sky and the objects around, so it is +only on quiet souls that Nature's pictures are painted; ruffled water +reflects nothing.' He waxes eloquent about birds' songs, flowers, and +brooks, and wanders by the hour in the woods, 'all his senses open to +Nature's impressions,' which are 'rays from that source of all +beauty, the sight of which will one day bless the soul.' His friend +is soon convinced that Nature cannot be overpraised, and that her art +is endlessly great.] + +[Footnote 6: _Vorn Gefühl des Schönen und Physiologie überhaupt._ +Winter.] + +[Footnote 7: Comp. _Das Fluchtigste_. 'Tadle nicht der Nachtigallen, +Bald verhallend süsses Lied,' oder 'Nichts verliert sich,' etc.] + +[Footnote 8: Herder's _Nachlass_, Düntzer und F.G. von Herder, 1857.] + +[Footnote 9: Bernay's _Der junge Goethe_.] + +[Footnote 10: _Die Sprödde, Die Bekehrte, März, Lust und Qual, Luna, +Gegenwart_.] + +[Footnote 11: Laprade is all admiration for the 'incomparable artiste +et poëte inspiré du sentiment de la Nature, c'est qu'il excelle à +peindre le monde extérieur et le coeur humain l'un par l'autre, qu'il +mêle les images de l'univers visible à l'expression des sentiments +intimes, de manière à n'en former qu'un seul tissu.... Tous les +éléments d'un objet d'une situation apparaissent à la fois, et dans +leur harmonie, essentielle à cet incomparable esprit.' He is +astonished at the symbolism in _Werthtr_: 'Chaque lettre répond à la +saison ou elle est écrite.... l'idee et l'image s'identifient dans un +fait suprême, dans un cri; il se fait entre l'émotion intime et +l'impression du dehors une sorte de fusion.' And despite Goethe's +Greek paganism and pantheism, he declares: 'Le nom de Goethe marque +une de ces grandes dates, une de ces grandes révolutions de la +poésie--la plus grande, nous le croyons, depuis Homer.' ... 'Goethe +est la plus haut expression poétique des tendances de notre siècle +vers le monde extérieur et la philosophie de la Nature.'] + +[Footnote 12: Comp. _Tagebucher und Briefe Goethe's aus Italien an +Frau von Stein und Herder_. E. Schmidt, Weimar, 1886.] + +[Footnote 13: Julian Schmidt.] + +[Footnote 14: _The Lady of the Lake_ breathes a delightful freshness, +the very spirit of mountain and wood, free alike from the moral +preaching of Wordsworth, and from the storms of passion.] + +[Footnote 15: Laprade.] + +[Footnote 16: 'Sa formule réligieuse, c'est une question; sa pensée, +c'est le doute ... l'artiste divinise chaque détail. Son panthéisme +ne s'applique pas seulement à l'ensemble des choses; Dieu tout entier +est réellement présent poor lui dans chaque fragment de matière dans +le plus immonde animal ... c'est une réligion aussi vieille que +l'humanité décline; cela s'appelle purement et simplement le +fétichisme.' (Laprade.)] + +[Footnote 17: _Vorschule der Æsthetik_. Compare 'With every genius a +new Nature is created for us in the further unveiling of the old.' 2 +Aufi. _Berlin Reimer_, 1827.] + +[Footnote 18: 'Like a lily softly swaying in the hushed air, so my +being moves in its elements, in the charming dream of her.' 'Our +souls rush forward in colossal plans, like exulting streams rushing +perpetually through mountain and forest.' 'If the old mute rock of +Fate did not stand opposing them, the waves of the heart would never +foam so beautifully and become mind.' 'There is a night in the soul +which no gleam of starlight, not even dry wood, illuminates,' etc.] + +[Footnote 19: Comp. Tieck's _Biographie von Koepke_. Brandes.] + +[Footnote 20: _Franz Sternbald_, I. Berlin, 1798.] + +[Footnote 21: Haym, _Die romantische Schule_. Berlin, 1870.] + +[Footnote 22: _Phantasus_, i. Berlin, 1812.] + +[Footnote 23: 'A young hunter was sitting in the heart of the +mountains in a thoughtful mood beside his fowling-piece, while the +noise of the water and the woods was sounding through the solitude +... it grew darker ... the birds of night began to shoot with fitful +wing along their mazy courses ... unthinkingly he pulled a straggling +root from the earth, and on the instant heard with affright a stifled +moan underground, which winded downwards in doleful tones, and died +plaintively away in the deep distance. The sound went through his +inmost heart; it seized him as if he had unwittingly touched the +wound, of which the dying frame of Nature was expiring in its agony.' +(Runenberg.)] + +[Footnote 24: _Hymnen an die Nacht_.] + +[Footnote 25: In _Die Lehrlinge von Sais_.] + +[Footnote 26: _Athenäum_, iii., 1800.] + + + + +INDEX + + +Addison +Æschylus +Agrippa v. Nettesheim +Alamanni +Alberti, Leon +Alcantara +Alcuin +Alexander +Ambrose +Angilbert +Anno v. Coeln +Apollonios Rhodios +Apollonius Sidonius +Apuleius +Aquinus, Thomas +Aribert v. Mailand +Aribo +Ariosto +Aristophanes +Aristotle +Augustine +Augustus +Ausonius +Aventinus +Avitus + +Baccioli, Lucca +Bakhuysen +Basil +Beauvais, V. v. +Beda +v. Bern +Bernhard v. Clairvaux +Bernhard v. Hildesheim +Bernhard v. Ventadour +Bertran de Born +Birgitta +Blair +de Bles +Boccaccio +Boecklin +Boehme +Boetius +Boie +Bojardo +Bonaventura +Boucher +Bouts +Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, A. v. +Brockes +Brueghel, Peter and Jan +Bruno +Buffon +Bürger +Burkhard v. Monte Sion +Byron, + +Calderon +Calpernius +Camoens +Campanella +Carew +Cassiodorus +Catullus +Celtes +Chambers +Charlemagne +Chateaubriand +Chaucer +Chlodwig +Chlotaire +Chrysostom +Cicero +Claudius +Clement of Rome +v. Clugny, Abbé M. +Colonna, Vittoria +Columbus +Columella +Corneille +Cornelia +Correggio +Cowley +Cramer +Cronegk +Crugot +Cuyp +Cyprian + +Dante +Darius +Defoe +Dionisius da B.S. Sepolchro +Domidius +Dracontius +Drayton +Drummond +du Bois-Reymond +Dürer + +v. Eichendorff +Eist, Deitmar v. +Ekkehart +Ennodius +Epiphanius, M.H. +Euripides +Everdingen, A. v. +v. Eyck + +Fabri +Fénélon +Fischart +Fleming +Forster +Fortunatus, +Francis of Assisi +Frank, Sebastian +Fredegar +Frederic the Great +Friedlander +Fürttenbach + +Gatterer +Gellert +Gerhard, Paul +Gervinus +Gessner, Conrad +Gessner, Salomon +Giorgione +Gleim +Goethe +Gogen +Gottfried v. Strassburg +Gozzoli +Grasser +Gregory Nazianzen +Gregory of Nyssa +Gregory of Tours +Grümbke +Gryphius +Guarini, G. +Günther, Christian +Günther d. Liguriner +Guotenberg, U. v. +Gussfeldt + +Hadrian +Haeckel +Hagedorn +Haller +Harsdörfer +Hartmann +Hebel +Hegel +Heine +Herder +Hermes +Hilary +Hillern, W. v. +Hobbema +Hoffmannswaldau +Hölderlin +Hölty +Homer +Horace +Hugo v. St. Victor +Hugo, Victor +Hulsen +Humboldt + +Ibykos +Isodore + +Jacob v. Bern +Jacobi, Joh. G. +Jerome +Jovius + +Kalidasa +Kallimachos +Kant +Kent +Keyssler +Kiechel +Klaj +Kleist, E. v. +Klipphausen +Klopstock +König, Eva +Kürenberg + +Lamartine +Lamprecht +Leman +Lenôtre +Leon, Luis de +Leonardo da Vinci +Lessing +Livy +Logau +Lohenstein +Longos +Lopez +Lorraine, Claude +Louis XIV. +Louis XV. +Lucretius +Ludwig zu Nassau +Luis de Leon +Lüneberg +Luther + +Maghas +Mantegna +Mareuil, A. v. +Maria Theresa +v. Martius +Medici, Lorenzo de +Meer, Aart v. d. +Meleager +Memling +Menander +Michael Angelo +Milton +Minucius Felix +Molanus +Montagu +Montemayor +Montreux +Moore +Morungen, H. v. + +Moscherosch +Möser +Mosto, A. da +Murdach + +Navarrete, F. de +Nemesianus +Nettesheim, C.A. v. +Nicolas +Nonnos +Novalis + +Opitz +Osorio +Ossian +Ouwater +Ovid + +Paracelsus +Patenir +Paul, Jean, +Paul, St +Paulinus of Nola +Perdiccas +Peter Martyr +Petrarch +Pfintzing +Phidias +Philip of Macedon +Phokas +Pico della Mirandola +Pierre, B. de St +Pindar +Pisanello +Pius II. (Enea Silvio), +Plato +Pliny +Polo, Marco +Pope +Potter, Paul +Poussin +Propertius +Prudentius +Ptolemaios + +Racine +Radegunde +Raphael +Regensburg +Reinmar +Reissner +Richardson +Rickel, D. v. +Roche, Sophie la +Ronsard +Rousseau, +Rubens +Rucellai +Rückert +Rugge +Ruysbroek +Ruysdael + +Sabiende, R. v. +Sachs, Hans +Sannazaro +Sappho +Saussure +v. Schachten +Schaller +Scherr +Scheuchzer +Schickhart +Schiller +Scipio Africanus +Scott +Seneca +Shaftesbury +Shakespeare, +Shelley, +Sidney +Simonides +Socrates +Sophocles +Southey +Southwell +Spalding +Spee +Spenser +Spielhagen +Spinoza +Spix +Stolberg +Storm, Th. +Sulzer +Summenhart +Suso + +Tasso +Tauler +Teresa v. Avila +Theocritus +Theodoric +Theodulf +Thomson +Tiberius +Tibullus +Tieck +Titian +Toscanelli, Paolo + +Uhland +d'Urfé +Uz, Joh. P. + +Vasco da Gama +Velde, Adrian v. d. +Veldegge, H. v. +Vespucci +Virgil +Vischer +Vives, Luis +Volkmar +Voltaire +Voss + +Wahlafried +Walther v. d. Vogelweide +Wandelbert +Watteau +Weyden, Roger v. d. +William of Tours +Winckelmann +Wolfram v. Eschenbach +Wordsworth +Wyatt +Wynant + +Young + +Zesen, P. v. +Ziegler, A. v. +Zimmermann +Zweibrücken, A. v. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13814 *** |