34 Hints on Landscape Gardening 



its corollary that the purpose of a building must 

 be evidenf in its style. A Gothic house, for in- 

 stance, which is nothing else and has no other 

 significance, being built just for the sake of hav- 

 ing something Gothic on the grounds, produces 

 a feeling of dissatisfaction. It is a bars d'ceuvre^ 

 uncomfortable as a dwelling, and as a decoration 

 unrelated to its surroundings ; but if we see on a 

 distant hill the spires of a chapel rising above 

 the ancient trees, and we are told that this is the 

 burial-place of the family, or a temple actually 

 used for worship, then we feel satisfied, because 

 we find utility combined with fitting beauty. 



The same effect of dissatisfaction is produced 

 by an immense palace set on a small estate, sur- 

 rounded by the huts of poverty, or a vast park 

 with an insignificant cottage in the center. 



Buildings, then, must stand in appropriate re- 

 lation to their surroundings and should always 

 have a positive purpose. Hence, one should be 

 very careful in the matter of temples, which in 

 ancient times had a quite different, popular re- 

 ligious significance, and also with meaningless 

 monuments, if they are to leave a deeply moving 

 and not a trivial impression. The trite, incoher- 

 ent manner in which in these days mythology is 

 taken up, makes it desirable to abandon it en- 

 tirely, and similarly to refrain from the rule of 

 inscriptions which are intended in certain locali- 

 ties to arouse certain sentiments. Even were they 

 from Goethe himself, as in Weimar, these in- 

 dubitably find in his writings a better place. 



