[Illustration: AN OFFICIAL DINNER IN THE COUNTRY (painting by) BENJAMIN
VAUTIER]
From this German sylvan liberty which peeps forth so strangely from
amidst our other modern conditions, flows a deeper influence upon the
manners and character of every class of the people than is dreamed of
by many a stay-at-home. On the other hand, in a thousand different
characteristics in the life of our great cities we perceive how far the
real forest has withdrawn from these cities, how alienated from the
forest their inhabitants have grown to be. One sees, of late, much more
green in our large German cities; walks on the ramparts and municipal
parks and public gardens have been laid out; open squares, too, have
been decorated with grass plots, bushes and flowers. In no former age
has the art of gardening done so much to enhance the picturesque charm
of our cities as at the present day. I do not by any means wish to
underestimate the high value of such public grounds, but they are
something entirely different from the free forest; they cannot possibly
form any equivalent for it, and the forest unhappily withdraws farther
and farther away from the city. Art and nature have both an equally just
claim upon us; but art can never make up to us for the loss of nature,
not even though it were an art which takes nature itself as the material
upon which to work, like the art of gardening.
Pages:
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568