General Principles 69 



power. It is that for which man has a kind of innate and 

 insatiable thirst, to wliich nature is perpetually ministering. 

 Whoever saw the sky dappled or tinted in exactly the same 

 manner, or a plant or tree developing itself precisely, part 

 for part, as another does? No two natural landscapes could 

 ever be found aUke in all particulars. In stream, and forest, 

 and mountain, with all their shades of modification, and 

 minuteness of detail, there is a wonderful dearth of near 

 resemblances or more than general relations. It is the prov- 

 ince of art to consult and to weigh these indications of 

 nature and the corresponding tastes in man, and to derive 

 lessons from the one and endeavor to gratify the other. 



Variety may be partly obtained in gardens by curved 

 walks. If we observe from some elevation the course of a 

 small river with its numerous and varied meanderings, or 

 folio .V the devious track of a wild forest path, we shall soon 

 be convinced of this. It is the graceful contortion of line 

 that at once pleases the eye and stimulates the fancy, — 

 carries the observer onward, and continually rewards him 

 with fresh beauties. But as neither a small stream nor a 

 forest path will be nearly so alluring when a number of their 

 convolutions are spread out in one view, as they would be 

 were it necessary to pursue their course in order to discover 

 each particular turn and pry into its individual charms, so a 

 curved walk in vv^hich several of the curves are seen at once, 

 or where they very much resemble each other in sweep, loses 

 the chief and most engaging part of its variety. It is of 

 prime concern, therefore, that the curves in a walk should be 

 varied as much as they can be (fig. 15), and that they should 

 not be exposed to each other at any point. The views to be 

 caught from the numerous stages in the turns of such a walk 

 should embrace every good aspect of the house, the garden 

 itself, and the adjoining country. 



