Art Out-of-Doors 



Nature," writes Aristotle, has the will 

 but not the power to reahze perfection." 

 Turn the phrase the other way and it is 

 quite as true : she has the power but not 

 the will. In either reading it means that 

 man can aid and supplement her work. 

 The landscape-gardener can bend her will 

 in many ways to his own, although he must 

 have learned from her how to do it. He 

 cannot achieve things to which her power is 

 unequal, but he can liberate, assist, and di- 

 rect that power. He could even remove 

 her mountains if the result were worth the 

 effort ; and he can blot them out of his 

 landscape by the simplest of devices— by 

 planting a clump of trees and shrubs which 

 she will grow for him as cheerfully as though 

 she herself had sown their seeds. He can- 

 not make great rivers; but he can make 

 lakes from rivulets and cause water to dom- 

 inate in a view which Nature had spread 

 with green grass. He can even teach her to 

 create exquisite details scarcely hinted at 

 in her unassisted products. All florists' 

 roses," for example, are not beautiful; but 

 there are many in which Nature herself may 



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