OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 



DESCRIPTION OF A CHINESE GARDEN. 

 From " The Citizen of the World." 



THE English have not yet brought the art 

 of gardening to the same perfection with 

 the Chinese, but have lately begun to imitate 

 them : nature is now followed with greater as- 

 siduity than formerly ; the trees are suffered 

 to shoot out into the utmost luxuriance ; the 

 streams, no longer forced from their native 

 beds, are permitted to wind along the valleys ; 

 spontaneous flowers take the place of finished 

 parterre, and the enamelled meadow of the 

 shaven green. 



Yet still the English are far behind us in this 

 charming art ; their designers have not yet 

 attained a power of uniting instruction with 

 beauty. A European will scarcely conceive 



