274 Xan^scape Hrcbitecture 



stilled and refreshed man; sublimity, which raised 

 him to noble thoughts; tenderness, which, while 

 stirring in the largest and loftiest things, condescends 

 to the lowest : is with the humblest worm and weed as 

 much as in the greatest movements of the elements 

 or the stars. Above all, nature he now saw to be 

 the shape and image of right reason, — reason in its 

 highest sense embodied and made visible in order, 

 stability, in conformity to eternal law. The percep- 

 tion of this satisfied his intellect and calmed and 

 soothed his heart." ^ 



The sanative and pleasurable effects of "rural inci- 

 dents" and open grass spaces of comparatively large 

 extent are continually emphasized in the writings of 

 Olmsted and Vaux whether they have been indited 

 jointly or individually. Of all the different country 

 experiences the charms of which they proclaim, the 

 great sweeping meadows and shadowing trees on their 

 borders, and now and then in the midst, are considered 

 the most important — the green pastures and still 

 waters, the restful embrace and hfe-giving glance of 

 nature, where the turf and lakes or streams give new 

 vigour to exhausted human beings, and prove that of all 

 the phases of park landscape, the best and happiest is 

 the pastoral one. 



Read what Olmsted and Vaux say on this subject of 

 the pastoral landscape in the Tenth Annual Report to 

 the Prospect Park Commissioners in 1873: 



' Mt. Royal Paxk Report. 



