Art Out-of-Doors 



his place ; all his careful energy ; all his 

 wide botanical knowledge and practical ac- 

 quaintance with the needs of trees and 

 shrubs and grass and flowers, would not 

 have helped him to his beautiful results had 

 he not had the vision of an artist. 



This means that he had seen Nature with a 

 particularly keen eye, had studied her details 

 and effects with unwonted enthusiasm as 

 well as knowledge, had loved best her most 

 beautiful products, and had discovered, 

 therefore, that the noblest of all beauties is 

 organized beauty — beauty of general effect. 

 Acting on this feeling, patiently and cau- 

 tiously, yet boldly too, he has made of his 

 domain a series of luxuriant pictures more 

 perfect than any which Nature herself could 

 paint. For, as I have said, no natural scene 

 can fittingly surround the home of highly 

 civilized people ; and, moreover, every nat- 

 ural scene is marked by certain accidental 

 blemishes — by signs of death and decay at 

 the very least — which detract from the pur- 

 ity, if not from the impressiveness, of its 

 charm. Here, on the contrary, human 

 comfort and convenience have been fully 



38 



