Читать книгу Essay on Gardens - Claude-Henri Watelet - Страница 9

Foreword

Society today shows greater interest than ever before in the intelligent enjoyment of the agreeable arts.¹ This leads them to multiply and divide into an infinity of branches, and to show steady advancement. As a result, the “mechanical”² aspect of these arts has progressed almost as much as it can, driven by wealth, imitation, and industry. We now seem to require, however, that the “liberal” side also contribute to the agreeable arts all the attention they deserve. In other words, we wish not only that both the materials of artistic creations and their uses bring pleasure to the senses, but also that the mind and the soul in turn be touched and stirred by their appeal. That is the natural progress followed by an alert mind when its desires are stimulated, and also by the soul which, if active, strives to grow and flourish.

I shall not on this occasion examine such questions as whether this general activity, greater in our country than it would be in societies less populous and less filled with idle men, is more harmful to our national glory than it is beneficial; nor shall I attempt to determine whether these branches of secondary arts, which we are so eager to multiply by grafting them, so to speak, onto one another, rob the more fundamental arts of part of their substance. Such general questions are surely interesting, but this is perhaps not the right moment to discuss them, and we should appear quite harsh if we resolved them at this time to the detriment of a great number of people among us who are almost exclusively concerned with their personal satisfaction.

I am more indulgent than that and only wish at this time to pass along a few observations I made while I was landscaping my garden, in order to assist those who find pleasure in embellishing theirs.³ If these remarks turn out not to be disappointing, they will perhaps be followed by a more extensive collection that will consider the different arts in relation to one another from simple and elementary points of view. But in order to please some friends who are interested in the subject, I first offer this essay on gardens.⁴

In ancient times garlands were offered to benevolent divinities. This small book, in which flowers abound, is a garland I present to friendship.

To you, my friends, whom friendship guides and attracts to this pleasant retreat⁵ where together we may taste those pleasures so dear to gentle and sensitive souls; to you, who come here occasionally to find the solitary peace so favorable to literature and the arts, the consolation of wise men; and, finally, to you, who, although born in palaces where hereditary virtues are preserved, do not disdain the huts where such virtues are honored, it is to you that I present this tribute. The offering is quite small, but the simple and true feeling that accompanies it may at least prove worthy of you.