<A  MONTHLY.  I> 
Vol.  XV. 
COLOMBO,  MAY  ist,  iSg6. 
[No.  11. 
THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  ARBOPI- 
CULTUHE  AND  LANDSCAPE 
GARDENING. 
Bv  Rev.  J.  G.  Macvicar,  A.M.,  D.D. 
(liepiinted  from  Transactions  of  the  Scottish  Arhon- 
cultural  Societi/,  Vol.  IV.  ) 
(Concluded  from  page  661.) 
UCH,  then,  are  the  principles, 
or  rather,  such  is  the  principle 
of  beauty,  when  regarded  in 
the  largest  and  most  general 
point  of  view  in  the  landscape, 
and  in  everything.  It  is  unity 
in  variety.  And,  with  regard 
to  the  beauty  of  the  theorems 
to  be  more  explicit.  But  with  such  objects  we  have 
nothing  to  do  here.  It  will  be  satisfactory  to  you 
to  know,  however,  that  this  principle  of  unity  in 
variety  covers  all  ideal  compositions  that  ai’e  beauti- 
ful, and  e.xplain  their  beauty.  The  development  of 
beauty  is  the  felicitous  treatment  of  some  central 
unity,  often  for  a time  concealed  and  forgotten,  but 
coming  in  at  the  close  in  the  midst  of  a rich  and 
abounding  variety.  To  s irh  a state  of  things  a good 
novel,  no  less  than  a fine  mathematical  proposition, 
owes  all  its  charms  as  a composition. 
But  it  is  with  visible  objects  alone  that  we  have 
here  to  do,  and  with  regard  to  them  it  is  possible 
to  be  more  explicit.  Thus,  we  can  say  that  when 
irnity  in  variety  has  been  most  completely  established 
in  any  composition,  then  there  is  an  exquisite  sym- 
metry in  that  composition.  Thus,  as  the  secret  of 
thesimp'est  kind  of  beauty,— that  kind,  namely, 
which  bespeaks  the  repose  of  intelligence,  while  it 
flatters  the  eye  and  permits  mental  play  upon  it, 
but  which  does  not  tend  to  awake  thought  and 
feeling, — we  have  symmetry.  And  hence  the  uni- 
versally acknowledged  beauty  of  flowers  and  of  well- 
designed  gtrometrical  gardens,  which  may  be  said 
to  be  imitations  of  flowers.  They  owe  it  all  to  the 
symmetry  which  they  display.  This  kind  of  beauty 
jpay  be  called  kaleidoscopic  beauty. 
But  my  readers  will,  I doubt  not,  have  already 
detected  a seeming  fallacy  into  which  I have  fallen 
or  rather,  indeed,  a piece  of  seeming  self-contradic. 
tion.  I set  out  with  the  theory  that  nature  is  the 
grand  storehouse  of  beauty,  and  that  the  laws  of 
nature  are  the  principles  of  beauty,  whereas  I have 
now  represented  beauty  as  depending  on  the  make 
of  the  mind  of  the  beholder,  his  love  of  unity  in 
variety,  and  consequently  of  symmetry.  Now  here 
there  certainly  seems  to  be  a contradiction;  but 
the  contradiction  is  only  seeming.  Though  mental 
action  and  intellect  be  not  material  uaturo,  yet 
material  nature  is  a creation  of  intellect ; it  reflects 
intellect,  and  the  laws  of  material  nature  werk 
towards  unity  in  variety  also  just  as  intellect  does. 
The  laws  of  nature,  consequently,  work  '^■owards 
symmetry  also.  Nay,  so  true  is  this,  that  when 
they  have  established  symmetry  their  Work  is  done, 
and  they  are  at  rest.  The  proper  expression  of  the 
beauty  of  symmetry,  therefore,  ought  to  be  that  of 
a balance  of  forces,  or  repose.  The  spectacle  of  a 
perfect  syinraetrj  ought,  therefore,  not  to  animate 
the  beholder,  but  merely  to  p'ease  him,  so  as  to 
induce  him  to  prolong  his  gaze.  Now,  is  not  this 
precisely  the  sta'e  of  mind  which  the  beholding  of 
a very  symmetrical  composition  tends  to  induce  ? 
The  discussion  of  symmetry,  therefore,  cannot  be 
the  close  of  our  theory  of  the  Beautiful.  No  ; if 
the  work  of  the  forces  of  nature  were  done,  if  all 
were  symmetrical,  all  nature  would  be  motionless, 
stereotype,  dead.  But  this  would  never  do  for  the 
busy  mind.  Plainly,  the  exhibition  to  the  living 
mind  of  any  extensive  production  of  nature  in  which 
symmetry  rules  must  be  disappointing,  deadening  ; 
for  the  living  soul,  active  within  herself,  is  ever 
seeking  for  the  manifestation  of  life  and  action  all 
around.  And  hence  the  great  secret  of  the  lands- 
cape-gardener. It  is  to  maintain  unity  in  variety 
strong,  without  allowing  symmetry  to  show.  In  the 
Very  proportion  in  which  he  can  succeed  in  awaking 
the  idea  of  forces  in  which  still  acting  and  pre- 
venting the  forms  of  nature  from  falling  into  a 
regular  symmetry,  towards  which  they  tend,  he 
Succeeds  in  the  creation  of  the  picturesque  and  the 
