Abstract
Hegel notes in passing that the art of horticulture creates a second external nature for the spirit. 'Second nature' is a term of art in Hegel's philosophy and I provide some background to show that his description of gardens as second nature is in line with his general use of the term. The philosophical sources informing Hegel's understanding of the expression are Aristotle's conception of ethical virtue and human nature on the one hand, and the distinctly modern notion of human development as estrangement from nature as elaborated by Hobbes and Rousseau.
Hegel uses the former to overcome the opposition of nature and culture essential to the latter. According to him, this is not brought about by aesthetic means, as the early Romantics envisaged.
Hegel's opposition to the view that art can be second nature makes him prefer the French art of horticulture to that of the English.