It has often been said, that if delight in nature were not altogether unknown to the ancients, yet that its expression was more rare and less animated among them than in modern times. Schiller, in his considerations on naïve and sentimental poetry, remarks, that “when we think of the glorious scenery which surrounded the ancient Greeks, and remember the free and constant intercourse with nature in which their happier skies enabled them to live, as well as how much more accordant their manners, their habits of feeling, and their modes of representation, were with the simplicity of nature, of which their poetic works convey so true an impress, we cannot but remark with surprise how few traces we find amongst them of the sentimental interest with which we moderns attach ourselves to natural scenes and objects. In the description of these, the Greek is indeed in the highest degree exact, faithful, and circumstantial, but without exhibiting more warmth of sympathy than in treating of a garment, a shield, or of a suit of armour. Nature appears to interest his understanding rather than his feelings; he does not cling to her with intimate affection and sweet melancholy, as do the moderns.”