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524 LIFE
stony, and bare, and has assumed a repulsive and frightful aspect; the
soil is impoverished, and the population, which for two centuries has been
diminishing, has partially relapsed into barbarism. The small birds are
well avenged.
Even in our own days, and among nations the most advanced in civilization, numbers of the works of man have been attended with the fatal
result of impoverishing the soil and disfiguring the face of nature. Taken
as a whole, mankind has not yet emerged from his primitive barbarism.
The work of deterioration assumes a different aspect among different nations, according to their systems of agriculture, the variety of climates, and
the diversity of manners and of national character. Arabs, Spaniards, and
Spanish-Americans completely fell the trees, and leave the face ofthe country to dry up and become yellow in the sun; Italians and Germans, on the
other hand, scandalously mutilate the trees which they do not cut down,
and give them the aspect of posts or broomsticks; the French divide their
land into innumerable parcels, producing different kinds of crops, which,
looked at from a distance on the hill-sides, resemble many-colored draperies spread upon the soil. In the United States the land is cut up into
geometrical squares, all uniform and with sirnilar bearings, in spite of the
undulations and risings of the ground. Lastly, in some countries the proprietors of land, either poor peasants or great lords, surround their domains with defensive walls and hem them in with ditches, as if they were
besieged fortresses. This is done even by the miserable Irishman, the
poorest among men, who incloses with a high earthen bank his bit of garden-ground containing nothing but ill-growing plants. How many countries there are in Europe through which one may travel for whole hours
without finding a single spot on which an artist's glance might rest with
any degree of satisfaction !
There are others besides the "rough tiller of th'e soil," so jealous of his
patrimonial landmarks, and so pre-eminently eager to obtain abundant
products, who are often at work in disfiguring tlfe aspect of the land in
which they live; indeed, some of those who profess the greatest admiration for nature are in the habit of systematically degrading the most
beautiful sites. In the environs of towns, the districts supposed to be
country are cut up into inclosures, and are only represented by closely
shorn shrubs and beds of flowers, of which a glimpse may be obtained
through iron railings. Many of the German princelings, vitiated by a
foolish sentimentalism, have defaced the most charming landscapes by
carving pedantic inscriptions on the rocks, by adorning their lawns with
fanciful tombs, and by making their soldiers mount guard in front of the
points of view which they desire to point out to strangers: Multitudes
of French bourgeois, in their mean love for a cramped and symmetrical
style, have gone so far as to check the rise of the sap in the trunks, in order to create dwarf varieties, and to give to trees geometrical forms or
the fantastic appearance of monsters and demons. The grave Dutch
merchants of the last century were not satisfied with their garden-walks
| Title | The ocean, atmosphere, and life |
| Creator | Reclus, Elisée |
| Publisher | Harper |
| Place of Publication | New York |
| Date | 1873 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000581 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | 524 LIFE stony, and bare, and has assumed a repulsive and frightful aspect; the soil is impoverished, and the population, which for two centuries has been diminishing, has partially relapsed into barbarism. The small birds are well avenged. Even in our own days, and among nations the most advanced in civilization, numbers of the works of man have been attended with the fatal result of impoverishing the soil and disfiguring the face of nature. Taken as a whole, mankind has not yet emerged from his primitive barbarism. The work of deterioration assumes a different aspect among different nations, according to their systems of agriculture, the variety of climates, and the diversity of manners and of national character. Arabs, Spaniards, and Spanish-Americans completely fell the trees, and leave the face ofthe country to dry up and become yellow in the sun; Italians and Germans, on the other hand, scandalously mutilate the trees which they do not cut down, and give them the aspect of posts or broomsticks; the French divide their land into innumerable parcels, producing different kinds of crops, which, looked at from a distance on the hill-sides, resemble many-colored draperies spread upon the soil. In the United States the land is cut up into geometrical squares, all uniform and with sirnilar bearings, in spite of the undulations and risings of the ground. Lastly, in some countries the proprietors of land, either poor peasants or great lords, surround their domains with defensive walls and hem them in with ditches, as if they were besieged fortresses. This is done even by the miserable Irishman, the poorest among men, who incloses with a high earthen bank his bit of garden-ground containing nothing but ill-growing plants. How many countries there are in Europe through which one may travel for whole hours without finding a single spot on which an artist's glance might rest with any degree of satisfaction ! There are others besides the "rough tiller of th'e soil," so jealous of his patrimonial landmarks, and so pre-eminently eager to obtain abundant products, who are often at work in disfiguring tlfe aspect of the land in which they live; indeed, some of those who profess the greatest admiration for nature are in the habit of systematically degrading the most beautiful sites. In the environs of towns, the districts supposed to be country are cut up into inclosures, and are only represented by closely shorn shrubs and beds of flowers, of which a glimpse may be obtained through iron railings. Many of the German princelings, vitiated by a foolish sentimentalism, have defaced the most charming landscapes by carving pedantic inscriptions on the rocks, by adorning their lawns with fanciful tombs, and by making their soldiers mount guard in front of the points of view which they desire to point out to strangers: Multitudes of French bourgeois, in their mean love for a cramped and symmetrical style, have gone so far as to check the rise of the sap in the trunks, in order to create dwarf varieties, and to give to trees geometrical forms or the fantastic appearance of monsters and demons. The grave Dutch merchants of the last century were not satisfied with their garden-walks |
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