European and Japanese Gardens 
That it was well-nigh insurmountable we know. But the 
instinct of Le Notre for the peculiar beauty of gardens, united 
with a clear imagination, enabled him to free himself, to a 
remarkable degree always, and in some instances absolutely, 
from the cruel hampering of conventional materials of study; 
and at Versailles, probably his finest work, certainly the finest 
that has been preserved to our day, his spirit seems to have 
risen entirely superior to ordinary limitations, and has pro- 
PLAN OF THE GARDENS OF THE LUXEMBOURG 
PARIS 
duced a work as perfect in its complex simplicity, and in every 
detail of its effect as adequate and as just, as it is impressive. 
Le Notre possessed in preeminent degree what his race 
calls “the sense of the beautiful in space”; and in like degree 
he had, to quote one of his biographers, “the sense of elegance 
in majesty and regularity.” He was especially fortunate in 
his patron. Louis XIV was an ideal client for a designer like 
le Notre. While he seems not to have been the actual discov¬ 
erer of his gardener’s talent, he at any rate gave him his 
noblest opportunities, took him literally into his heart, and 
heaped benefits and honors upon him. I fancy, from the 
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