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 Gaenge.  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 Kuenste.]

[Footnote 4:  See Die Entwickelung des Naturgefuehls bei den Griechen und Roemern, 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 Kuenste.  Comp.  Grimm, Deutsche Rechtsaltertuemer.]

[Footnote 7:  Grimm.]

[Footnote 8:  Carriere, 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 Naturgefuehls bei den Griechen und Roemern.]

[Footnote 6:  Melanges philosophiques, historiques, et litteraires.]

[Footnote 7:  Homily 4.]

[Footnote 8:  Homily 6.]

[Footnote 9:  Biese, Die Entwickelung des Naturgefuehls bei den Griechen und Roemern.

’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.’]