the ignorant terror, and Gaspar the
dull and affected erudition.

It was, however, altogether impossible that this state of things could
long continue. The age which had buried itself in formalism grew weary
at last of the restraint; and the approach of a new era was marked by
the appearance, and the enthusiastic reception, of writers who took
true delight in those wild scenes of nature which had so long been
despised.

92. I think the first two writers in whom the symptoms of a change are
strongly manifested are Mrs. Radcliffe and Rousseau; in both of whom the
love of natural scenery, though mingled in the one case with what was
merely dramatic, and in the other with much that was pitifully morbid or
vicious, was still itself genuine, and intense, differing altogether in
character from any sentiments previously traceable in literature. And
then rapidly followed a group of writers, who expressed, in various
ways, the more powerful or more pure feeling which had now become one of
the strongest instincts of the age. Of these, the principal is your own
Walter Scott. Many writers, indeed, describe nature more minutely and
more profoundly; but none show in higher intensity the peculiar passion
for what is majestic or lovely in _wild_ nature, to which I am now
referring. The whole of the poem of the "Lady of the Lake" is written
with almost a boyish enthusiasm for rocks, and lakes, and cataracts; the
early novels show the same instinct in equal strength wherever he
approaches Highland scenery; and the feeling is mingled, observe, with a
most touching and affectionate appreciation of the Gothic architecture,
in which alone he found the elements of natural beauty seized by art; so
that, to this day, his descriptions of Melrose and Holy Island
Cathedral, in the "Lay of the Last Minstrel" and "Marmion," as well as
of the ideal abbeys in the "Monastery" and "Antiquary," together with
those of Caerlaverock and Lochleven Castles in "Guy Mannering" and "The
Abbot," remain the staple possessions and text-books of all travelers,
not so much for their beauty or accuracy, as for their _exactly
expressing that degree of feeling with which most men in this century
can sympathize_.

Together with Scott appeared the group of poets--Byron, Wordsworth,
Keats, Shelley, and, finally, Tennyson--differing widely in moral
principles and spiritual temper, but all agreeing more or less in this
love for natural scenery.

93. Now, you will ask me-