The more spiritual feeling found its expression in the writings of men like Bernard of Clairvaux, Hugh of St. Victor, Francis of Assisi, Alexander Neckam, and many others.[1075] Bernard of Clairvaux believed that a man could learn more of the eternal verities through a reverent contemplation of nature than through the study of books. He wrote to Master Henry Murdach, an Englishman who afterwards became a monk of Clairvaux: “Believe one who has tried: you shall find a fuller satisfaction in the woods than in books. The trees and the rocks will teach you that which you cannot hear from the masters. Do you think that you cannot draw honey from the rock and oil from the hardest flint? Do not our mountains drop sweetness? the hills flow with milk and honey? and the valleys stand thick with corn?” (Eales’s translation).[1076] Bernard was fond of complex and detailed allegorical comparisons of the aspects of nature with the theological or spiritual concepts which he believed they symbolize. In a sermon on Benedict he said: “St. Benedict was a mighty fruit tree, like a tree planted by a watercourse. Where are the watercourses? Truly they are in the valleys, because midway between the mountains the water flows down. Who may not perceive that the streams retreat from the steep slopes of the mountains and make their way straight to the lowly midst of the valleys? Thus does God repulse the haughty and give grace to the humble. Here you may set foot in safety. Whoever of you are of the flock of Christ, place your trust in his staff and follow the footpath in the valley. On the hillsides that ancient serpent has ever chosen his abode which bites the horse’s hoof and makes the rider fall back. Select rather the valley for your wanderings and plantings. Do not seek the dry and rocky mountain side to set out trees. In the valleys is abundance. There plants thrive, the grass is lush, fruits grow, and, according to the words of Scripture, ‘the vales shall abound with corn.’”[1077]