ABSTRACT
The thorough going truth and consistency of nature is what contributes, among other things, to making the sight of a beautiful landscape so exceedingly delightful. A beautiful view is therefore a mental cathartic, just as music, according to Aristotle, is an emotional cathartic, and one will think most accurately in its presence. On this rests the principle of English gardens, which is to conceal the art as much as possible, so that it may look as if nature has held free sway here. Not that all of this would appear in our distinct consciousness at the sight of the mountain range; but an obscure feeling of it becomes the basso continuo of our mood. The immense difference between English, or more accurately Chinese, gardens and the old French gardens that are now becoming ever more rare yet still exist in a few splendid specimens ultimately rests on the fact that the former are arranged in an objective.
