s well as his boundless fancy. I select one example from 'The
Gathering of the Seasons' in Kalidasa's _Ritusanhare_: a description
of the Rains.

'Pouring rain in torrents at the request of the thirst-stricken
Chatakas, and emitting slow mutterings pleasing to the ears, clouds,
bent down by the weight of their watery contents, are slowly moving
on....

'The rivers being filled up with the muddy water of the rivers, their
force is increased. Therefore, felling down the trees on both the
banks, they, like unchaste women, are going quickly towards the
ocean....

'The heat of the forest has been removed by the sprinkling of new
water, and the Ketaka flowers have blossomed. On the branches of
trees being shaken by the wind, it appears that the entire forest is
dancing in delight. On the blossoming of Ketaka flowers it appears
that the forest is smiling. Thinking, "he is our refuge when we are
bent down by the weight of water, the clouds are enlivening with
torrents the mount Vindhya assailed with fierce heat (of the
summer)."'

Charming pictures and comparisons are numerous, though they have the
exaggeration common to oriental imagination, 'Love was the cause of
my distemper, and love has healed it; as a summer's day, grown black
with clouds, relieves all animals from the heat which itself had
caused.'

'Should you be removed to the ends of the world, you will be fixed in
this heart, as the shade of a lofty tree remains with it even when
the day is departed.'

'The tree of my hope which had risen so luxuriantly is broken down.'

'Removed from the bosom of my father, like a young sandal tree rent
from the hill of Malaja, how shall I exist in a strange soil?'

This familiar intercourse with Nature stood far as the poles asunder
from the monotheistic attitude of the Hebrew. The individual, it is
true, was nothing in comparison with Brahma, the All-One; but the
divine pervaded and sanctified all things, and so gave them a certain
value; whilst before Jehovah, throned above the world, the whole
universe was but dust and ashes. The Hindoo, wrapt in the
contemplation of Nature, described her at great length and for her
own sake, the Hebrew only for the sake of his Creator. She had no
independent significance for him; he looked at her only 'sub specie
eterni Dei,' in the mirror of the eternal God. Hence he took interest
in her phases only as revelations of his God, noting one after
another only to group them syntheticall