SPONTANEITY. 



WE are not always aware of the true sources of our 

 pleasures, especially those agreeable sensations awakened 

 by a view of certain kinds of landscape. I believe the 

 sentiment of spontaneity, or our love of what seems true 

 to nature, to be one of them ; and that while the expres- 

 sion of this quality acts more powerfully upon men of 

 sensitive minds, all are capable of feeling it. Spontaneity 

 is the expression of entire freedom on the part of Nature, 

 during the growth of plants, how much soever her 

 free course may have been modified by circumstances 

 previously affecting the soil and situation. Thus no less 

 spontaneity may be seen in the wildings that cover an 

 old fortification, or the deserted grounds of an ancient 

 garden, than in those of a hill or a valley which has never 

 been disturbed by man. We all admire the freedom of 

 these growths ; but we may not be aware how much they 

 transcend in beauty the fairest works of the planter's 

 hand. 



The connoisseur of art may object to these views of the 

 beauty of landscape, because they are based on a senti- 

 ment which is opposed to the exercise of ornamental art 

 for its improvement. A painter, however, if he possess 

 the soul of his art, understands that in a rural scene 

 every building that forms part of it must either be plain 

 and simple, or, if highly ornate, it must be very ancient. 

 The antiquity of such a building effaces the expression 

 of pride and pretence which, if it were new, would be 

 painfully apparent. But the landscape-gardener's art has 



