Page:Japanese Gardens (Taylor).djvu/197

Rh her fall indicates the decline of the country.’ The statement brings out the truth that gardening is the product of peaceful and luxurious life.”

Where an effect of Nature was the first consideration always, even the degeneration into what the Chinese considered an effect of Nature could not permanently injure the art. It was, in this, as when in our day modern artists imitate the ‘Colourists,’ the ‘Impressionists,’ men who, whatever their faults, are thinking and working from their own ideas. So long as Monet and Manet, and half a dozen others, paint Nature as they see her, all is well. Even when the ‘little men’ paint Nature as they think Monet would see her, not much harm is done, for he who imitates can hardly himself become a prophet. Thus, all who are worthy go back to the original source. The decline would come if the imitation of imitation set in, when a vicious arithmetical progression to the debasement of art would ensue—an inconceivable state of affairs with the great Teacher, Nature, always before us! So also the landscape artist in Japan, whatever restrictions and classic formulæ he has had laid upon him, has first, and last, and all the time, the direct command to consult Nature. So obligatory is this rule, that, as I have frequently had occasion to say in these pages, very often, even to the initiated,