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began to be regarded and to be maintained with reference, more than 

 any thing else, to the convenient accommodation of numbers of peo- 

 ple, desirous of moving for recreation among scenes that should be 

 gratifying to their taste or imagination. 



In the present century, not only have the old parks been thus 

 maintained, but many new parks have been formed with these pur- 

 poses exclusively in view, especially within and adjoining consider- 

 able towns, and it is upon our knowledge of these latter that our 

 simplest conception of a town park is founded. It is from experience 

 in these that all our ideas of parks must spring. 



This experience shows that the great advantage which a town 

 finds in a park, lies in the addition to the health, strength and moral- 

 ity which comes from it to its people, an advantage which is not only 

 in itself very great and positive, but which as certainly results in an 

 increase of material wealth as good harvests or active commerce. 

 And the reason is obvious : all wealth is the result of labor, and 

 every man's individual wealth is, on the whole, increased by the labor 

 of every other in the community, supposing it to be wisely and 

 honestly applied ; but as there cannot be the slightest use of the will, 

 of choice between two actions or two words, nor the slightest exer- 

 cise of skill of any kind, without the expenditure of force, it follows 

 that, without recuperation and recreation of force, the power of each 

 individual to labor wisely and honestly is soon lost, and that, with 

 out the recuperation of force, the power of each individual to add to 

 the wealth of the community is, as a necessary consequence, also 

 soon lost. 



But to this process of recuperation a condition is necessary, 

 known since the days of ^Esop, as the unbending of the faculties 

 which have been tasked, and this unbending of the faculties we find 

 is impossible, except by the occupation of the imagination with 

 objections and reflections of a quite different character from those 

 which are associated with their bent condition. To secure such a 

 diversion of the imagination, the best possible stimulus is found to 

 be the presentation of a class of objects to the perceptive organs, 

 which shall be as agreeable as possible to the taste, and at the same 

 time entirely different from the objects connected with those occupa- 

 tions by which the faculties have been tasked. And this is what is 

 found by townspeople in a park. 



If now we ask further, what the qualities of a park are which fit 

 it to meet this requirement 1 we find two circumstances, common to 

 all parks, in distinction from other places in towns, namely, scenery 

 offering the most agreeable contrast to that of the rest of the town, 



