272 Xan5scape Hrcbftecture 



Mr. Olmsted in the Mt. Royal Park Report again 

 follows out much the same line of thought : 



"The value of a city property is to depend on the 

 design in which it shall be adapted to attract citizens 

 to obtain needful exercise and cheerful mental occu- 

 pation in the open air, with the result of better health 

 and fitness in all respects for the trials and duties of 

 life ; with the result also necessarily of greater earn- 

 ing and taxpaying capacities so that in the end the 

 investment will be in this respect a commercially 

 profitable one to the city. " 



Mr. Olmsted also says in the Mt. Royal Park Report 

 that 



"The possession of charming natural scenery 

 is a form of wealth as practical as that of wholesome 

 air, pure water, or svmlight unobstructed by smoke or 

 fog, as practical as that of sewers, aqueducts, and 

 pavements." 



There is a more potent influence, however, than the 

 mere bodily one, valuable as that is, namely the re- 

 freshment and uplift of the spirit that come from the 

 poetical side of the nature of most men. Here is the 

 way that Mr. Olmsted explains and illustrates this 

 point: 



"Let us say that for the time being the charm of 

 natural scenery tends to make us poets. There is a 

 sensibility to poetic inspiration in every man of us, 

 and its utter suppression means a sadly morbid con- 



