The Development of the Feeling for Nature in the Middle Ages and Modern Times | Page 5

noting one after another only to group them synthetically under the idea of Godhead. Hence too, despite his profound inwardness--'The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?' (_Jeremiah_)--human individuality was only expressed in its relation to Jehovah.
'The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.'--Psalm 19.
'Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof.
'Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein; then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice.'--Psalm 96.
'Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together.'--Psalm 98.
'The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.'--Psalm 93.
'The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back. The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.'--Psalm 114.
'The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled.'--Psalm 77.
All these lofty personifications of inanimate Nature only characterise her in her relation to another, and that not man but God. Nothing had significance by itself, Nature was but a book in which to read of Jehovah; and for this reason the Hebrew could not be wrapt in her, could not seek her for her own sake, she was only a revelation of the Deity.
'Lord, how great are thy works, in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy goodness.'
Yet there is a fiery glow of enthusiasm in the songs in praise of Jehovah's wonders in creation.
'0 Lord my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty.
'Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment; who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain.
'Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters; who maketh the clouds his chariot; who walketh upon the wings of the wind.
'Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire; who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.
'Thou coveredst the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains.
'At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away.
'They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them.
'Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.
'He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills.
'They give drink to every beast of the field: the wild asses quench their thirst.
'By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, which sing among the branches ...
'He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth.
'And wine that maketh glad the heart of man ...
'The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted.
'Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her house.
'The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats, and the rocks for the conies.
'He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down.
'Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.
'The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God.
'The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and lay them down in their dens.
'Man goeth forth to his work and to his labour until the evening....
'This great and wide sea, wherein are creeping things innumerable, both small and great beasts....
'He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth; he toucheth the hills, and they smoke.
'I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God as long as I have my being.'--Psalm 104.
And what a lofty point of view is shewn by the overpowering words which Job puts into the mouth of Jehovah; 'Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof if thou knowest, or who hath stretched the line upon it?
'Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof?
'When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?...
'Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his place?
'That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it?...
'Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea, or hast thou walked in