TASTE, IDEALS, STTLE, CHARACTER 27 



In actually judging a work of landscape design or of nature, the 

 critic seldom consciously applies the laws of balance, rhythm, repeti- 

 tion, and so on, directly, and considers the thing good or bad accord- 

 ing as it does or does not submit itself to these laws ; rather does the 

 critic use his knowledge of these laws to differentiate and group his 

 memories of experience so that the vital part of each experience as it 

 relates to visual beauty shall remain in his mind. His actual judg- 

 ments of objects are made in the light of this experience, to be sure, but 

 rather esthetically and, as it were, automatically than with conscious 

 logic. In this way the critic judges by trained feeling, but in explain- 

 ing his judgments he must give the logical relations of the causes of his 

 feeling. 



In deciding upon his design, the landscape architect submits the Self-criticism 

 product of his imagination to his own criticism. He may be able in **^ Design 

 some sort to express his tentative decisions graphically, and so give 

 himself something visible to consider, but for the most part he must 

 call up his projected design before his mind's eye, and accept, discard, 

 modify, recast, until the result is the nearest approach to perfection 

 which he can compass. 



In approaching his problem the choice among ideals to be expressed Choice of 

 is the first choice which he must make. The determination of his ideal ^"'^^''^ 

 for any particular design may well be a result of various apparently 

 conflicting considerations of use and appearance and the desires of the 

 designer. He may for instance be obliged to choose an ideal more 

 modest than that which he would have taken if no financial considera- 

 tions had intervened ; but it is as absolute an artistic triumph to work 

 out a good design for the informal surroundings of a cottage as for the 

 terrace gardens of a palace. The designer may be obliged to make 



ans — co-exist, and have, to some extent, always co-existed, although it is correct 

 to view them as representing successive stages in time. The true critic must combine 

 all three types in himself, and hold the balance by his sense of their reciprocal rela- 

 tions. He cannot abnegate the right to judge ; he cannot divest himself of subjective 

 tastes which colour his judgment ; but it is his supreme duty to train his faculty of 

 judgment and to temper his subjectivity by the study of things in their historical 

 connection's," 



J. A. Symonds, Essays Speculative and Suggestive. From the essay, On Some 

 Principles of Criticism. 



