The Natural Style in Landscape Gardening 



be described aside from the physical forms and phe- 

 nomena through which they are expressed. So 

 poor are we in the nomenclature of the spirit. 



This poverty of language, sad as it is, is no new 

 matter, and it need not detain us now if we only 

 understand that the absence of words does not mean 

 a lack of facts. The spiritual portion of the world 

 is still there, just as truly as the physical portion. 

 Probably it is more powerful, more significant and 

 much longer lived. 



Before men became civihzed into their present 

 infidelity and materialism, our landscape was in- 

 habited by wild Indians — the "savage" aborigines. 

 These simple citizens lived much nearer to nature 

 than we do and understood her a great deal better. 

 It is a curious fact that their thought of nature 

 was an extravagant spiritualism, almost as extreme, 

 though never as crude, as our modem materialism. 

 But there is every reason to suppose that they were 

 nearer right than we are. 



Any direct attempt to capture the spirit of the 

 landscape hardly promises success. Yet, beginning 

 with this clear understanding of the existence of 



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