or Nature limit or increase each other;
and Petrarch; like Dante, took scientific interest in her, and found
her a stimulant to mental work.

Burckhardt says: 'The enjoyment of Nature is for him the favourite
accompaniment of intellectual pursuits; it was to combine the two
that he lived in learned retirement at Vaucluse and elsewhere, that
he from time to time fled from the world and from his age.'

He wrote a book _On a Life of Solitude (De Vita Solitaria)_ by the
little river Sorgue, and said in a letter from Vaucluse: 'O if you
could imagine the delight with which I breathe here, free and far
from the world, with forests and mountains, rivers and springs, and
the books of clever men.'

Purely objective descriptions, such as his picture of the Gulf of
Spezzia and Porto Venere at the end of the sixth book of the
_Africa_, were rare with him; but, as we have already seen, he
admired mountain scenery. He refers to the hills on the Riviera di
Levante as 'hills distinguished by most pleasant wildness and
wonderful fertility.'[6]

The scenery of Reggio moved him, as he said,[7] to compose a poem. He
described the storm at Naples in 1343, and the earthquake at Basle.
As we have seen from one of his odes, he delighted in the wide view
from mountain heights, and the freedom from the oppression of the air
lower down. In this respect he was one of Rousseau's forerunners,
though his 'romantic' feeling was restrained within characteristic
limits. In a letter of April 26, 1335, interesting both as to the
period and the personality of the writer, he described to Dionisius
da Borgo San Sepolchro the ascent of Mt. Ventoux near Avignon which
he made when he was thirty-two, and greatly enjoyed, though those who
were with him did not understand his enjoyment. When they had
laboured through the difficulties of the climb, and saw the clouds
below them, he was immensely impressed. It was in accordance with his
love of solitude that lonely mountain tops should attract him, and
the letter shows that he fully appreciated both climb and view.

'It was a long day, the air fine. We enjoyed the advantages of vigour
of mind, and strength and agility of body, and everything else
essential to those engaged in such an undertaking, and so had no
other difficulties to face than those of the region itself.' ... 'At
first, owing to the unaccustomed quality of the air and the effect of
the great sweep of view spread out before me, I stood like one d