Page:Aspects of nature in different lands and different climates; with scientific elucidations (IA b29329668 0002).pdf/23

 description of the physiognomy of nature. George Forster, in the narrative of his voyages, and in his other publications,—Goethe, in the descriptions of nature which so many of his immortal works contain,—Buffon, Bernardin de St. Pierre, and Chateaubriand, have traced with inimitable truth of description the character of some of the zones into which the earth is divided. Not only do such descriptions afford us mental enjoyment of a high order, but the knowledge of the character which nature assumes in different regions is moreover intimately connected with the history of man, and of his civilisation. For although the commencement of this civilisation is not solely determined by physical relations, yet the direction which it takes, the national character, and the more grave or gay dispositions of men, are dependent in a very high degree on climatic influences. How powerfully have the skies of Greece acted on its inhabitants! The nations settled in the fair and happy regions bounded by the Euphrates, the Halys, and the Egean Sea, also early attained amenity of manners and delicacy of sentiment. When in the middle ages religious enthusiasm suddenly re-opened the sacred East to the nations of Europe who were sinking back into barbarism, our ancestors in returning to their homes brought with them gentler manners, acquired in those delightful valleys. The poetry of the Greeks, and the ruder songs of the primitive northern nations, owe great part of their peculiar character to the aspect of the plants and animals seen by the bard, to the mountains and valleys which surrounded him, and to the air which he breathed. And to recall more familiar objects, who does not