made for contemplation and to search his own and other natures, may here best meditate the cause of Things, and, plac’d amidst the various scenes of Nature, may nearer view her Works.  O glorious Nature! supremely fair and sovereignly good!  All-loving and All-lovely All-Divine!  Whose looks are so becoming, and of such infinite grace, whose study brings such Wisdom, and whose contemplation such Delight....  Since by thee (O Sovereign mind!) I have been form’d such as I am, intelligent and rational; since the peculiar Dignity of my Nature is to know and contemplate Thee; permit that with due freedom I exert those Facultys with which thou hast adorn’d me.  Bear with my ventrous and bold approach.  And since not vain Curiosity, nor fond Conceit, nor Love of aught save Thee alone, inspires me with such thoughts as these, be thou my Assistant, and guide me in this Pursuit; whilst I venture thus to tread the Labyrinth of wide Nature, and endeavour to trace thee in thy Works.’]

[Footnote 9:  Comp.  Jacob von Falke, ‘Der englische Garten’ (Nord und Sued, Nov. 1884), and his Geschichte des modernen Geschmacks.]

[Footnote 10:  Dessins des edifices, meubles, habits, machines, et utensils des Chinois, 1757.]

CHAPTER X

[Footnote 1:  ‘Die Alpen im Lichte verschiedener Zeitalter,’ Sammlung wissenschaftlicher Vortraege, Virchow und Holtzendorff.  Berlin, 1877.]

[Footnote 2: 

  Geschaefte Zwang und Grillen Entweihn nicht diese Trift;
  Ich finde hier im Stillen Des Unmuts Gegengift. 
  Es webet, wallt, und spielet, Das Laub um jeden Strauch,
  Und jede Staude fuehlet Des lauen Zephyrs Hauch. 
  Was mir vor Augen schwebet Gefaellt und huepft und singt,
  Und alles, alles lebet, Und alles scheint verjuengt. 
  Ihr Thaeler und ihr Hoehen Die Lust und Sommer schmueckt! 
  Euch ungestoert zu sehen, Ist, was mein Herz erquickt. 
  Die Reizung freier Felder Beschaemt der Gaerten Pracht,
  Und in die offnen Waelder Wird ohne Zwang gelacht.... 
  In jaehrlich neuen Schaetzen zeigt sich des Landmanns Glueck,
  Und Freiheit und Ergoetzen Erheitern seinen Blick.... 
  Ihm prangt die fette Weide Und die betante Flur;
  Ihm gruenet Lust und Freude Ihm malet die Natur.’]

[Footnote 3:  Litteratur geschichte.]

[Footnote 4:  Saemtliche poetische Werke, J.P.  Uz.  Leipzig, 1786.]

[Footnote 5:  Saemtliche Werke.  Berlin, 1803.]

[Footnote 6:  Saemtliche Werke, J.G.  Jacobi, vol. viii.  Zurich, 1882.]

[Footnote 7:  He said of his garden at Freiburg, which was laid out in terraces on a slope, that all that Flora and Pomona could offer was gathered there.  It had a special Poet’s Corner on a hillock under a poplar, where a moss-covered seat was laid for him upon some limestone rock-work; white and yellow jasmine grew round, and laurels and myrtles hung down over his head.  Here he would rest when he walked in the sun; on his left was a mossy Ara, a little artificial stone altar on which he laid his book, and from here he could gaze across the visible bit of the distant Rhine to the Vosges, and give himself up undisturbed to his thoughts.]