No. 414. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25.

PLEASURES OF THE IMAGINATION.

"The works of nature more pleasing to the imagination than those of art. The works of nature still more pleasant the more they resemble those of art. The works of art more pleasant the more they resemble those of nature. Our English plantations and gardens considered in the foregoing light.'

-Alterius sic

Altera poscit opem res, et conjurat amice.

HOR. Ars Poet. 411.

But mutually they need each other's help.

ROSCOMMON.

If we consider the works of nature and art, as they are qualified to entertain the imagination, we shall find the last very defective, in comparison of the former; for though they may sometimes appear as beautiful or strange, they can have nothing in them of that vastness and immensity, which afford so great an art entertainment to the mind of the beholder. The one may be as polite and delicate as the other, but can never shew herself so august and magnificent in the design. There is something more bold and masterly in the rough careless strokes of nature, than in the nice touches and embellishments of art. The beauties of the most stately garden or palace lie in a narrow compass, the imagination immediately runs them over, and requires something else to gratify her; but, in the wide fields of nature, the sight wanders up and down without confinement, and is fed with an infinite variety of images, without any certain stint or number. For this reason we always find the poet in love with a country-life, where nature appears in the greatest perfection, and furnishes out all those scenes that are most apt to delight the imagination.

Scriptorum chorus omnis amat nemus, et fugit urbes.

HOR. Ep. 2. 1. 2. v. 77.

-To grottos and to groves we run,
To ease and silence ev'ry muse's son.

POPE

Hic secura quies, et nescia fallere vita,
Dives opum variarum; hic latis otia fundis,
Speluncæ, vivique lacus; hìc frigida Tempe,
Mugitusque boum, mollesque sub arbore somni.
VIRG. Georg. 1. 2. v. 447.

Here easy quiet, a secure retreat,

A harmless life that knows not how to cheat,
With home-bred plenty the rich owner bless,
And rural pleasures crown his happiness.
Unvex'd with quarrels, undisturb'd with noise,
The country king his peaceful realm enjoys:
Cool grots, and living lakes, the flow'ry pride
Of meads and steams that through the valley glide,
And shady groves that easy sleep invite,

And, after toilsome days, a sweet repose at night.

DRYDEN.

But though there are several of these wild scenes, that arej more delightful than any artificial shows; yet we find the works of nature still more pleasant, the more they resemble those of art: for in this case our pleasure rises from a double principle: from the agreeableness of the objects to the eye, and from their similitude to other objects: we are pleased as well with comparing their beauties, as with surveying them, and can represent them to our minds, either as copies or originals. Hence it is that we take delight in a prospect which is well laid out, and diversified with fields and meadows; woods and rivers; in those accidental landscapes of trees, clouds, and cities, that are sometimes found in the veins of marble; in the curious fret-work of rocks, and grottos; and, in a word, in any thing that hath such a variety or regularity as may seem the effect of design, in what we call the works of chance.

If the products of nature rise in value, according as they more
VOL. VI.-15

nature

Ryder,
Pope!

or less resemble those of art, we may be sure that artificial works
receive a greater advantage from their resemblance of such as are
natural; because here the similitude is not only pleasant, but the
pattern more perfect. The prettiest landscape I ever saw, was
one drawn on the walls of a dark room, which stood opposite on
one side to a navigable river, and on the other to a park. The
experiment is very common in optics. Here you might discover
the waves and fluctuations of the water in strong and proper
colours, with the picture of a ship entering at one end, and sailing
by degrees through the whole piece. On another there appeared
the
green shadows of trees, waving to and fro with the wind, and
herds of deer among them in miniature, leaping about upon the
wall. I must confess, the novelty of such a sight may be one
occasion of its pleasantness to the imagination, but certainly the
chief reason is its near resemblance to nature, as it does not only,
like other pictures, give the colour and figure, but the motion of
the things it represents.

We have before observed, that there is generally in nature something more grand and august, than what we meet with in the curiosities of art. When, therefore, we see this imitated in any measure, it gives us a nobler and more exalted kind of pleasure than what we receive from the nicer and more accurate productions of art. On this account our English gardens are not so entertaining to the fancy as those in France and Italy, where we see a large extent of ground covered over with an agreeable mixture of garden and forest, which represent every where an artificial rudeness, much more charming than that neatness and elegancy which we meet with in those of our own country. It might, indeed, be of ill consequence to the public, as well as un profitable to private persons, to alienate so much ground from

By means of the camera obscura, less known when Addison wrote than now.-G.

pasturage, and the plow, in many parts of a country that is so well peopled, and cultivated to a far greater advantage.' But why may not a whole estate be thrown into a kind of garden by frequent plantations, that may turn as much to the profit, as the pleasure of the owner? A marsh overgrown with willows, or a mountain shaded with oaks," are not only more beautiful, but more beneficial, than when they lie bare and unadorned. Fields of corn make a pleasant prospect, and if the walks were a little taken care of that lie between them, if the natural embroidery of the meadows were helpt and improved by some small additions of art, and the several rows of hedges set off by trees and flowers, that the soil was capable of receiving, a man might make a pretty landscape of his own possessions.

Writers, who have given us an account of China, tell us, the inhabitants of that country laugh at the plantations of our Europeans, which are lain out by the rule and line; because, they say, any one may place trees in equal rows and uniform figures. They chuse rather to shew a genius in works of this nature, and therefore always conceal the art by which they direct themselves. They have a word, it seems, in their language, by which they express the particular beauty of a plantation that thus strikes the imagination at first sight, without discovering what it is that has so agreeable an effect. Our British gardeners, on the contrary, instead of humouring nature, love to deviate from it as much as possible. Our trees rise in cones, globes, and pyramids. We see the marks of the scissars upon every plant and

'Addison would seem to have anticipated Goldsmith's complaint,-The man of wealth and pride

Takes up a place that many poor supplied, &c.

THE DESERTED VILLAGE.-G.

Alas! we are now enamoured of exotics, and flowering shrubs.-H.
It should be laid, the præterperfect participle, from lay. Lain is

from lie: it was formerly written licn.-H.

bush. I do not know whether I am singular in my opinion, but, for my own part, I would rather look upon a tree in all its luxuriancy and diffusion of boughs and branches, than when it is thus cut and trimmed into a mathematical figure; and cannot but fancy that an orchard in flower looks infinitely more delightful, than all the little labyrinths of the most finished parterre. But as our great modellers of gardens have their magazines of plants to dispose of, it is very natural for them to tear up all the beautiful plantations of fruit trees, and contrive a plan that may most turn to their own profit, in taking off their evergreens, and the like moveable plants, with which their shops are plentifully stocked."

0.

a Our present mode of gardening seems to have been formed on the hint delivered by Mr. Addison in this paper. It has been brought to great perfection in our time; but, is now, I doubt, degenerating into an over finical and effeminate delicacy, like all our other tastes. Nature may be outraged, as well as art: and the famous aphorism of Lord Bacon-"Natura nescit modum "-would, I think, be a proper motto for some gardens of this sort, that I have seen.-H.