SPANISH GARDENS 21 



the seas; as it had always been understood by all races 

 of men, up to the beginning of the eighteenth century, 

 when Dufresnoy succeeded Le Notre as director of 

 the royal gardens at Versailles. 



The changes that have been wrought by man in his 

 advance over the earth mark corresponding changes 

 in man himself; and in no particular is this more evi- 

 dent than it is in garden making. When the world 

 was a wilderness, ranged by wild beasts and men less 

 tame than the gardeners, defensive boundaries were 

 a necessity; and within these boundaries, upon this 

 bit of earth which each thus claimed for himself, no 

 hint of the wilderness could be tolerated. For it was 

 a foe and harbored foes — and no honest husbandman 

 could possibly have temporized with it for an instant. 



This I think explains the careful exclusion of any 

 suggestion of Nature in the old designs; the love of 

 artificial forms; the stiff lines; the unyielding repres- 

 sion; the straight, clipped walls of sternly disciplined 

 growth. And it is a perfectly natural taste, considered 

 in this light. For it is only by contrast that we com- 

 prehend, and comprehending, enjoy; thus the gardens 

 that were made while the struggle against Nature and 

 the wilderness was going on, were designed instinct- 

 ively to afford the greatest possible contrast to Nature 

 and the wilderness. While those that have come later, 

 as earth has gradually grown to be more and more 



