IN PRAISE OF BOTH. 207 



Nay, says Arnold, " It might seem that Nature not 

 only gave him the matter of his poem, but wrote his 

 poem for him" (" Essays in Criticism," p. 155). 



So much for Wordsworth upon Nature out of 

 doors ; now let us hear him upon Art in a garden, of 

 which he was fully entitled to speak, and we shall 

 see that the man is no less the poet of idealism upon 

 his own ground, than the poet of actuality in the 

 woodland world. 



Writing to his friend Sir Geo. Beaumont,* with 

 all the outspokenness of friendship and the simplicity 

 of a candid mind, he thus delivers himself upon the 

 Art of Gardening : " Laying out grounds, as it is 

 called, may be considered as a liberal Art, in some 

 sort like poetry and painting, and its object is, or 

 ought to be, to move the affections under the control 

 of good sense ; that is, those of the best and wisest ; 

 but, speaking with more precision, it is to assist Nature 

 in moving the affections of those who have the deepest 

 perception of the beauties of Nature, who have the most 

 valuable feelings, that is, the most permanent, the most 

 independent, the most ennobling with Nature and human 

 life." 



Hearken to Nature's own high priest, turned 

 laureate of the garden ! How can this thing be ? 

 Here is the man whose days had been spent at 

 Nature's feet, whose life's business seemed to be this 

 only, that he should extol her, interpret her, sing of 

 her, lift her as high in man's esteem as fine utter- 

 ance can affect the human soul. Yet when he has 



* See Myers' " Wordsworth," English Men of Letters Series, p. 67. 



