The Development of the Feeling for Nature in the Middle Ages and Modern Times

er riddle guessed,--and medi?val civilization arose, founded upon Christianity and Germanism. There are times in the world's history when

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 n

Christian models, as to form upon the great writers of antiquity; but matter and form are only separable i

e; Judaism admitted no delight in her for her own sake, and Christianity int

n love the world, the love of the Father is not in him': by which John m

pleasures. It held that Creation, through the entrance of sin, had become a caricature, and th

enely, delighting in its smooth flow; with Christianity, as Jean Paul put it, 'all the present of earth

nchantment of the devil; and sin, the worm

shewed the presence or action of deities with whom man had intimate relations; every form of life,

cognized one world--that of spirit; and one sphere of the spiritual, religion--the relation between God and man

smic and hostile to Nature. And Nature, like the world at large, only existed for it in relation to its Crea

at things as a whole; the Christian considered Nature as a work of God, full o

e.' 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 exclusi

idual point of view about Nature, for it was not possible to consider her freely and

e Germanic spirit, with the German Gemüth (for which no other language has a word

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

mpulse 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 landsc

ine, delicate birch, stalwart oak, each had its effect; and the wildness and roughness of land, sea, and animal life in the North co

to her was deep and heartfelt from the first. Devoutly religious, it gazed at her

oughs of sacred trees; and the howling of wind, the rustle of leaves, the soughing in the tree tops, were sounds o

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;

d spring, killed by blind H?dur, was the expre

irst 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

ubterranean night, the darkness of the underworld. Frigg, wife of the highest god, kn

nnlein), sometimes friendly, sometimes unfriendly to man; now peaceful and helpful

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 t

s into birds. Two ravens, Hugin and Munin, whose names signify thought and memory, were Odin's constant

en, wo lange

d snakes who exchanged shapes, an

too, were familiar

vour the moon. The German, like the Greek, dreaded nothing more than the eclipse of sun or moon, and connected it with the destructio

us 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 an

ytime and summer with songs of delight, but grieved in silence through night and winter: the first swallow and s

ere interlaced in confusion;

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 formul?, in their summary survey

f the mute life of plants--that side of Nature which had almost e

rm of the giant Ymir, whom the sons of Boer slew, in order to make the mou

etched 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; an

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 cam

n a new and better earth aro

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

nhild, 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 S

th and legend, and, like heathen superstitions in the first centuries of Christianity, found its most fruitful soil among the people. It has often been disg

andscape, and pronounced in his mythology, found both an obstacle and a support in