LEAVES FROM THE NOTE BOOK OF BY PHILIP GILBERT HAMERTON, AUTHOR OF "THE INTELLECTUAL LIFE," "Non canimus surdis: respondent omnia silvæ."- VIRG. Ecl. x. PREFACE. IN order to give more unity to these pages, it was decided, after some hesitation, to introduce one or two fictitious personages and an element of human interest. Whatever Nature may be from the strictly scientific point of view, it is interesting to the artist (whether literary or pictorial) mainly as it is related, in ways more or less mysterious, to the world of feeling which lies hidden within our own breasts. Therefore, although a man of science might have written about the forest without reference to human sorrows or satisfactions, an artist could not do so except at the risk of sacrificing his most effective forces, those which have influence by means of sympathy and association. The principal personage of the narrative was in some degree suggested by the 'Obermann' of De Sénancour, a creation which has been, if not precisely popular, certainly very influential amongst the more sensitive and studious. minds of Continental Europe during the earlier part of the present century, and which has not even at the present day altogether lost its attraction; for 'Obermann' is still read by persons of culture, though the mental condition which De Sénancour painted in that work is much rarer in these days than it was in the days of René and Childe Harold. The fictitious personage who tells what there is of story in 'The Sylvan Year' is, however, a conception quite distinct from the dissatisfied hero of De Sénancour, and is intended to leave a very different impression upon the reader. The dominant note of 'Obermann' is ennui; the ennui of a character capable of long, indefinite suffering, but not capable of passing out of such suffering by the discipline of active sight and thought. The following narrative, so far as it paints the character of the imaginary narrator, is intended rather to exhibit the value of external nature as a refreshment to a spirit which, though it has suffered greatly, has still strength enough to take a hearty and healthy interest in everything that comes within the circle of its observation. |