Chambers, William: A Dissertation On Oriental Gardening (London: Griffin [u.a.], 1773)

AmONGST the Chinese, Gardening is held in much
higher esteem, than it is in Europe: they rank a perfed:
work in that Art, with the great productions os the
human understanding; and say, that its efficacy in moving
the passions, yields to that of few other arts whatever.
Their Gardeners are not only Botanists, but also Painter®
and Philosophers; having a thorough knowledge of the
human mind, and of the arts by which its strongesE
feelings are excited. It is not in China, as in Italy and
France, where every petty Architect is a Gardener;
neither is it as in another famous country, where peasants
emerge from the melon grounds to take the periwig, and
turn professors j as Sganarelle, the faggot-maker,, quitted
his hatchet, and commenced phyRcian. In China,,.
Gardening is a distinCt prosession, requiring an extensive
Rudy 5 to the perfection of which few arrive. The
Gardeners