Blomfield, Reginald Theodore; Thomas, Francis Inigo [Ill.]: The formal garden in England (London, 1892)

IV.

THE LANDSCAPE SCHOOL

8 i

Addison began the attack in The Spectator,1 with
the following extraordinary argument :—We
may assume, he says, that works of nature rise
in value according to the degree of their resem-
blance to works of art. Therefore works of
art rise in value according to the degree of their
resemblance to nature. Gardens are works of
art. Therefore they rise in value according to
the degree of their resemblance to nature.
Therefore in laying out a garden we are to copy
nature as much as possible. This is a concise
statement of the whole fallacy of the landscape
gardener. In this curious argument the first
half of the major premiss begs the question ;
we do not value nature by the standard of art ;
but even if this was true, the deduction from it
of the second proposition is an inference from
what is true under conditions to what is.true
absolutely, and the entire argument based on
this amounts to a fallacy of the ambiguous middle,
for the term " work of art " is used here both
for "works of art" in the ordinary sense and
for work which is artificial, that is made by man
as distinct from nature. Pope, the most arti-
ficial of writers, followed suit in The Guardian ~
with a witty catalogue of objects cut in yew-
trees, supposed to be for sale, which included
"a St. George in box, his arm scarce long
enough, but will be in a condition to stab

1 The Spectator, No. 414, 25th June 1712.

- The Guardian, No. 173, 1712.

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