Man has been accustomed to look upon the geographical elements of the earth’s surface from widely different points of view. So far we have been concerned with the record of his scientific or pseudo-scientific investigations of these elements. Let us now turn for a moment to his emotional attitude toward them. The impression made upon the heart and imagination by the aspects of countryside, mountain, and sea has constantly changed with changing religious and philosophical beliefs and with shifting social régimes. We may estimate the character of these changes in a multitude of descriptions of landscape and scenery scattered throughout the whole realm of literature. ESTHETIC APPRECIATION OF NATURE IN ANTIQUITY It is probably safe to assert that there prevailed in antiquity a genuinely esthetic appreciation of nature. If the Greeks seldom made conscious efforts to paint word pictures of the form and colors of their land, their poetry and drama none the less show in many a turn of phrase that they were alive to its beauty. The Romans rejoiced in the tranquil serenity of mild and cultivated landscapes as an escape from the welter of city life.[280] Perhaps the Roman attitude toward nature was tinged with pessimism, with regret that beauty is transient, that man’s span of life is short, and that all too soon we must cease to find solace in the loveliness of the world.[281] With the crystallization of Latin literary forms there appeared a stereotyped conception of the ideal landscape in which the essential elements were always the same: a rich meadow shaded by laurels, myrtles, and elms and watered by a murmuring stream, clear and cool; a placid spot where eternal spring prevails and where rain and storm, frost and heat are alike unknown.[282] This formula was used by the Latin poets in describing the blessed Isles of the Hesperides and the Elysian Fields; ultimately it was employed by the Christians in picturing the terrestrial Paradise.[283] EARLY CHRISTIAN ATTITUDE TOWARDS NATURE A new and different spirit pervaded the early Christian’s attitude towards nature. His thoughts were turned to the world to come and to the glory of the Kingdom of God.