quality to the landscape signaled by an eroding dike.
It is indeed ironic that at the time Watelet was putting the finishing touches to his garden essay he was facing bankruptcy. Worse, his health was failing. A little over a decade later he would be dead, and the Revolution would come and wipe out the society so dear to him. As for his Moulin Joli, what the Revolution did not destroy, time and commerce did. By the early nineteenth century, the island retreat was all but gone, its trees sold, its structures abandoned and in ruin, its contours washed away.
Oh, do not dismiss the worth of time,
For while the water rushes forth,
The wheel must meet its rapid beat.
So your days keep spinning on.
Enjoy, enjoy your allotted time.34
Essay on Gardens
Fortunatus et ille, deos qui novit agrestis.
(But happy, too, is he who knows the rural gods.)
Virgil, Georgics, book 2, line 493
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.
On Gardens
If, under the influence of their passions, men forsake the gentle pleasures of a tranquil existence, they also come to yearn, through an irresistible urge, for the peace and quiet that they have sacrificed. A need often awakens in their troubled souls to escape the painful commotion that increasingly marks all societies. Especially when the season of nature’s renewal returns, everything urges them to enjoy the gifts they are offered. That is when, lured outside the walls that enclose them, they scatter like escaped prisoners into wide and airy spaces. They can be seen wandering outside cities or climbing hillsides in search of air purer than they have breathed until now. Those most oppressed by their labors, those most chained to the yoke of their passions, rid themselves of their fetters or, if they are too weak and the effort is too great, drag their tether behind them while briefly forgetting its weight. Thus they obey nature’s command, for she smiles at them encouragingly and says:
“Come! Escape the turmoil that exhausts you; escape those impulsive passions that tire your soul, the whirlwind whose thick vapors wear you down. Come, come and breathe, come and receive the warm caress of that lovely star that restores your right to equality, since it casts its light and warmth not only on the powerful and rich, but on the weak and poor as well. Listen to my voice: Build yourselves retreats where, surrounded by your children, your wives, and some true friends, you may taste, at least for a while, the pleasures that I have in store for you.”
At the call of that soothing and persuasive voice, most city dwellers run off to find delight in the calm of the countryside. They build houses, endeavor to make them enjoyable, and seek peaceful tasks and pleasures in the care they bestow on them. Although their desires are still vague and their ideas unclear, their need for such pleasures is genuine. And since there is no man who has not entertained some fantasy stemming from his desires, there is no one, especially in the spring, who has not conceived the project of a country retreat. It is one of those “novels” every man composes for himself, just like the “novel” of his loves, his ambitions, or his fortune.
One should, no doubt, expect to find in these creative endeavors the same diversity that nature bestows on the individuals who undertake them. But while nature is careful to make each person different, the irresistible urge to imitate makes men resemble one another when they live side by side.
Imitation, subjecting everything to its power, imposes laws on trees, flowers, water, greenery. Most of the designs of our gardens, the shapes of our flower beds, the layouts of our groves, the ornaments we use, are borrowed or copied from one another.
There are, however, certain basic relations that exist between all these manifestations and man’s needs, abilities, and inclinations. And there are also those that arise from the progress of knowledge and from the influence the various arts exert on one another.
In order to explain these relations, I shall distinguish between utilitarian establishments and pleasure gardens.
As for city gardens, their layouts seem to me to belong more particularly to architecture than to the other arts. Indeed, public walks, even most of those that belong to royal households or to our princes and are accessible to everyone, must be regarded as places where people meet or congregate. Simplicity and symmetry suit them well, for in our country, order and custom demand that everything in them be readily accessible to the eye.
Utilitarian Establishments
Rural establishments, those that conform to the original intentions of nature, are also the oldest and the least susceptible to the inevitable changes that take place within societies.
People who live in the midst of fields either resist the whims of fashion or are ignorant of them. Changes in mores and the weight of public opinion have greater difficulty reaching them; the arts and social customs are slower to exert their influence. The purpose of such establishments is usefulness, often limited
