of the facts already sufficiently commented upon that the most abundant use of Nature was in similitudes for human qualities and passions, that these similitudes were drawn from a surprisingly small number of natural phenomena, and that the Nature side of the similitudes was often carelessly and ignorantly handled. The dominance of man is also back of the conception of Nature as stirred by man’s joys and woes, and plunged into despair by his death. Nature is, at the utmost, but the comparatively unimportant background against which man acts his part, and there is seldom any effort to suit the background to the picture. There is likewise significance in the twofold fact that in the set poetic diction there are many words and phrases relating to Nature and comparatively few relating to man. Where there was a concentration of interest the vividness of the conception demanded new and original forms of speech, while the stock diction, like cant in religious expression, showed the absence of genuine feeling. It is in Pope’s “Pastorals” not in “The Dunciad” that we find stock words, conventional phrases, and hereditary similes. In summary we may note that the characteristic attitude toward Nature in the classical period is marked by: _a_) Prevailing dislike or neglect of the grand or the terrible in Nature as mountains, the ocean, storms, and winter. _b_) A similar dislike or neglect of the mysterious or the remote, as the various phenomena of the sky. _c_) A certain apparent friendliness toward the gentle, pleasant, serviceable forms of Nature as in rural cultivated England, in spring and summer, in good weather, in various forms of horticulture. _d_) An especial pleasure in Nature ordered and made symmetrical by art, as in formal gardens and parks. _e_) Descriptions of a highly generalized sort with almost no touches of local color. _f_) Full but conventional and superficial use of Nature in similitudes for human passions and actions. _g_) Narrow, uninterested, and hence frequently inaccurate observation of natural facts. _h_) Cold and lifeless imitation of the forms and details without the spirit of Latin models. _i_) A vocabulary restricted and imitative in character. _j_) An underlying conception of Nature as entirely apart from man, and to be reckoned with merely as his servant or his foe. CHAPTER II INDICATIONS OF A NEW ATTITUDE TOWARD NATURE IN THE POETRY OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY