Chapter I

Love of the Sublime and Beautiful in Nature more eminently
developed in Modern than in Classical Literature -- the Fact
striking, that the Love of Nature is so conspicuous in our
Literature, more faint in that of the Continent, still more in
that of the Ancients -- this Affection only developed in
proportion to the Intellectual Culture of our Nature -- the same
Objects pursued in Art as in Literature, the Sublime and Beautiful
-- the Greek Poets more cognizant of the Amenities than the
Sublimity of Nature -- Homer the greatest Exception -- Instances
of his higher Perceptions -- Hesiod nearly destitute of it --
Theocritus most alive to the Picturesque -- his Picture of the Two
Fishermen, of King Anycus, of a Drinking-cup -- his luxurious
Sense of Out-of-door Enjoyment -- Love of Nature amongst the
Romans -- one Cause of the continuance of their Simplicity of Life
-- instanced in Virgil, Horace, and Cicero -- Modern Literature a
New World of Feeling and Sentiment -- Difference between Longinus
and Burke -- Love of Nature in the Ancients, incidental -- Ours a
perpetual Affection -- Instanced in Wordsworth, Shelley, and Byron
-- Originating cause to be found in Christianity -- Development of
it in the Hebrew Literature -- Completion of it in the Christian
Revelation -- Proofs of this 305

CHAPTER II.

Development of the Love of the Country greater in English than in
Continental Literature -- Comparison of our Literature, in various
Departments, with the Continental -- German Literature kindred to
the English -- The Idylls of Voss -- Testimony of a French Writer
to our greater Love of Nature -- the Influence of the Writings of
John Wilson in Blackwood’s Magazine, and of Bewick’s Wood-cuts 324

CHAPTER III.

Influence of Wood-engraving on the Love of the Picturesque in the
Country -- Introduction of Stereotyping Wood-cuts in the Cheap
Magazines -- Probable Results from the Use of the Art -- in what
respects Wood is superior to Copper or Steel -- Causes that
prevent the Successors of Bewick equalling him in Knowledge of
Nature -- how this Defect is to be remedied 341

PART V.

THE FORESTS OF ENGLAND.