And thus, while we recognise the potent influence which the scenery of the country has exerted on the progress of our literature, we can look forward to a fresh extension of this influence as the outcome of geological investigation. Already the result of this widening of the outlook has made itself felt alike in prose and verse. The terrestrial revolutions of which each hill and dale is a witness; the contrasts presented between the present aspect and past history of every crag and peak; the slow, silent sculpturing that has carved out all this marvellous array of mountain-forms--appeal vividly to the imagination, and furnish themes that well deserve poetic treatment. That they will be seized upon by some Wordsworth of the future, I cannot doubt. The bond between landscape and literature will thus be drawn closer than ever. Men will be taught that beneath and behind all the outward beauty of our lowlands, our uplands, and our highlands there lies an inner history which, when revealed, will give to that beauty a fuller significance and an added charm. FOOTNOTES: [20] _Types of Scenery and Their Influence on Literature_, the Romanes Lecture, delivered in the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, June 1, 1898. [21] See the preceding essay for a fuller discussion of this part of the subject. [22] See p. 24. [23] _The Task_, bk. i. 154-176. [24] _Ibid._, i. 177. [25] _The Task_, iii. 357. [26] _Ibid._, iv. 246. [27] _Ibid._, vi. 112. [28] _Winter_, 8. [29] _Summer_, 192. [30] _Ibid._, 89. [31] _Autumn_, 476. [32] _Spring_, 381, 400, 402; _Summer_, 13. [33] _Autumn_, 337. [34] _To William Simpson_, stanza 15. [35] _Elegy on Captain Matthew Henderson._ [36] _Poem on Pastoral Poetry._ [37] _Winter, a Dirge._ [38] _A Winter Night._ [39] _The gloomy night is gathering fast._ [40] _To Mary in Heaven._ [41] This was remarked by Wordsworth in the prefatory note to his lines on Mossgiel. [42] _The Vision._ [43] Scott was familiar with this natural trait. '"That's the Forth," said the Bailie, with an air of reverence, which I have observed the Scotch usually pay to their distinguished rivers. The Clyde, the Tweed, the Forth, the Spey, are usually named by those who dwell on their banks with a sort of respect and pride, and I have known duels occasioned by any word of disparagement.'--_Rob Roy_, vol. ii., chap. xi. [44] Arnold, _On the Study of Celtic Literature_, 1867, p. 152.