What is it that we seek in the possession of a pleasure-garden? The art
of laying out gardens consists in an endeavor to combine cheerfulness of
aspect, luxuriance of growth, shade, solitude, and repose in such a
manner that the senses may be deluded by an imitation of rural nature.
Diversity, which is the main advantage of free landscape, must therefore
be sought in a judicious choice of soil, an alternation of chains of
hills and valleys, gorges, brooks, and lakes covered with aquatic
plants. Symmetry is wearying, and ennui and disgust will soon be excited
in a garden where every part betrays constraint and art.
LIEU-TSCHEN, _an ancient Chinese writer—taken from_ HUMBOLDT’S
“_Cosmos_.”