TREATMENT OF WATER. 317 



places. But in the grounds of a residence in the modern 

 style, nature, if possible, still more purified, as in the great 

 chefs-d'oeuvre of art, by an ideal standard, should be the 

 great aim of the Landscape Gardener. And with watei 

 especially, only beautiful when allowed to take its own 

 flowing forms and graceful motions, more than with any 

 other of our materials, all appearance of constraint and 

 formality should be avoided. If art be at all manifest, it 

 should discover itself only, as in the admirably painted 

 landscape, in the reproduction of nature in her choicest 

 developments. Indeed, many of the most celebrated 

 authors who have treated of this subject, appear to agree 

 that the productions of the artist in this branch are most 

 perfect as they approach most nearly to fac-similes of 

 nature herself: and though art should have formed the 

 whole, its employment must be nowhere discovered by the 

 spectator ; or as Tasso has more elegantly expressed the 

 idea : 



* L'ARTE CHE TUTTO FA, NULLA si SCOPRE." 



