TREES IN MODERN PAINTING 257 



nature, and it is here before us again. May I, 

 making a by no means original attempt at a 

 solution of the difficulty, point out that Nature 

 — we will use the capital letter — does not plant 

 trees so as to provide us with ready-made 

 pictures ? She does not plant trees at all 

 chiefly with a view to the way in which they 

 will affect the mind and spirit of the human 

 spectator of them. She plants them in accord- 

 ance with the great purposes — if the word may 

 be used — of the evolution of tree-life. Man 

 sometimes plants trees with a view to the 

 picturesque ; and he will cut down trees with 

 the same end in view. The result, therefore, 

 is partly nature and partly art. I have already 

 ventured to say that man has made both the 

 town and the country out of materials provided 

 by nature. Is it permissible thus to alter the 

 facts, and must the artist be limited in his work 

 to a mere transcript of facts ? The demand is 

 an unreasonable one. It is also a foolish one. 

 It is a superstitious self-denying ordinance. 

 We might as well condemn ourselves to sit on 

 stones because Nature has not made chairs. 

 There are Eastern ascetics who do sit on one 

 stone for years together. It is better to sit on 

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