ADDISON AND POPE 29 
the reach of the art itself. We run into sculpture, and 
are yet better pleased to have our trees in the most 
awkward figures of men and animals, than in the most 
regular of their own. 
‘¢ ¢ Here interwoven branches form a wall, 
And from the living fence green turrets rise ; 
There ships of myrtle sail in seas of box; 
A green encampment yonder meets the eye, 
And loaded citrons bearing shields and spears.’ 
‘<I believe it is no wrong observation, that persons of 
genius, and those who are most capable of Art, are 
always most fond of Nature: as such are chiefly sensible, 
that all art consists in the imitation and study of nature. 
On the contrary, people of the common level of under- 
standing are principally delighted with the little niceties 
and fantastical operations of Art, and constantly think 
that finest which is the least natural. A citizen is no 
sooner proprietor of a couple of yews, but he entertains 
thoughts of erecting them into giants, like those of the 
Guildhall. I know an eminent cook, who beautified his 
country seat with a coronation dinner in greens; where 
you see the champion flourishing on horseback at one 
end of the table, and the queen in perpetual youth at 
the other.” | 
‘For the benefit of all my loving countrymen of this 
curious taste, I shall here publish a catalogue of greens 
to be disposed of by an eminent town gardener, who 
has lately applied to me upon this head. He repre- 
sents, that for the advancement of a polite sort of 
ornament in the villas and gardens adjacent to this great 
city, and in order to distinguish those places from the 
mere barbarous countries of gross Nature, the world 
stands much in need of a virtuoso gardener who has a 
turn to sculpture, and is thereby capable of improving 
upon the ancients of his profession in the imagery 
of evergreens. My correspondent is arrived to such 
