11 



It is curious to compare with this simple scene, 

 the superb description of Paradise by Milton, who 

 found, in his own correct natural taste, a guide which 

 the practice of the art was, in his time, far from 

 affording. 



the crisped brooJis, 



Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold, 

 With mazy error under pendent shades 

 Ran nectar, visiting each plant, and fed 

 Flowers worthy of Paradise, which not nice Art 

 In beds and curious knots, but Nature boon 

 Poured forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain. 



It was long, however, before the art reached in 

 practice the point of correct taste indicated by this 

 fine passage. Among the Romans, and in modern 

 times, until a very recent period, the prevailing taste 

 was for grounds ornamented in a formal and fantastic 

 way. Pliny, who was one of the wealthiest and most 

 distinguished, as well as most accomplished persons 

 of his time, has given in his works a description of 

 two .of his villas, which appear to have been orna- 

 mented very nearly in the same way with the Dutch 

 and French gardens of the time of Lewis XIV. They 

 were laid out in regular walks, adorned with artificial 

 flowers and basins, statues, obelisks, and evergreens, 

 cut into fantastic shapes. In the time of Lewis XIV. 

 this was the taste which prevailed throughout Europe 

 and extended even into England, But the better 

 spirits, as we have seen from the passage in Milton, 

 foresaw, by the instinctive light of their own good 

 taste, the improvement that occurred shortly after. 

 Pope, in one of his Moral Essays, finely ridicules the 

 style of the day, and predicts that its tasteless crea- 



