The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 2Poe, Edgar Allan
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The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 2
Poe, Edgar Allan
American fiction -- 19th century; Fantasy fiction; Horror tales, American; Short stories
“There are properly but two styles of landscape-gardening, the
natural and the artificial. One seeks to recall the original
beauty of the country, by adapting its means to the surrounding
scenery, cultivating trees in harmony with the hills or plain of
the neighboring land; detecting and bringing into practice those
nice relations of size, proportion, and color which, hid from the
common observer, are revealed everywhere to the experienced
student of nature. The result of the natural style of gardening,
is seen rather in the absence of all defects and incongruities—in
the prevalence of a healthy harmony and order—than in the
creation of any special wonders or miracles. The artificial style
has as many varieties as there are different tastes to gratify.
It has a certain general relation to the various styles of
building. There are the stately avenues and retirements of
Versailles; Italian terraces; and a various mixed old English
style, which bears some relation to the domestic Gothic or
English Elizabethan architecture. Whatever may be said against
the abuses of the artificial landscape-gardening, a mixture of
pure art in a garden scene adds to it a great beauty. This is
partly pleasing to the eye, by the show of order and design, and
partly moral. A terrace, with an old moss-covered balustrade,
calls up at once to the eye the fair forms that have passed there
in other days. The slightest exhibition of art is an evidence of
care and human interest.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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