LANDSCAPE CHARACTERS 



which had been brought about by any considerably different combina- 

 tion of forces and materials. Whether or not this valley is called com- 

 positionally beautiful will depend on the completeness of the approach 

 to esthetic unity of its characteristics. Beauty will be rendered more 

 likely by the order produced by a clear unblurred expression of natural 

 forces, but beauty does not inevitably arise from such an expression. 



There is of course an infinite number of different valleys, as there is Characters as 

 of gardens. The differences between one valley and another and of j to 

 between one garden and another are often so small that they cannot 

 profitably be referred to respectively as differences of character or 

 differences of style. On the other hand, there are typical kinds of 

 valleys (compare Plates 22 and 23), just as there are typical kinds of 

 gardens, dependent in each case on typical constant modes of organi- 

 zation ; and valleys or gardens which are made in some particular 

 typical way and approximate to the resulting typical characteristics 

 may be spoken of as being of this particular character, or style, as the 

 case may be.* Just as we agree to designate as historic styles those 

 styles which have arisen at different times in history, through similarity 

 of man's action under similar circumstances, so, when at different 

 points on the earth's surface the natural forces come to be correlated in 

 a similar way, working on similar material, their results are sufficiently 

 similar so that we may say that they have the same landscape char- 

 acter. This similarity of the character of one unified landscape to that 

 of another exists, as we have said, in all degrees, and, just as with his- 

 toric styles, only a few of these instances of similarity have interested 

 man enough so that he has given them specific names. * Indeed it is a 

 cause of great difficulty in discussing natural character that there are 

 many important characters which we can perfectly recognize through 

 their esthetic expression, but for which we have no definite names. And 

 furthermore, the names which we do have to designate different land- 

 scape characters are used primarily for another purpose : they are 

 usually names of shapes or occasionally names of materials. So, if we 

 wish to name specifically a landscape character, we are almost always 

 driven to use a cumbersome phrase, just as we must usually do in 

 designating styles, defining it by association, or connection, rather than 



* Compare landscape characters and historic styles. 



