r 54 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



ine all this almost in the heart of a city, 

 and you will readily perceive what an 

 offensive thing to a lover of nature is 

 this so-called improvement, as usually 

 practised. And yet, to look from the 

 other point of view, there must he im- 

 provement. Delightfully beautiful as is 

 some abandoned farm or old homestead 

 back in the country, much as we may 

 admire the neglected rusticity and in- 

 formal tangle of things in general, even 

 the most enthusiastic admirer of natural 

 beauty feels that some improvements 



the how." A hovel or a palace or any 

 grade between will show it. The 

 problem is not how much or how small 

 are one's possessions, but how well are 

 those possessions used. A close observ- 

 er may see here and there a hut whose 

 occupant knows how tastefully to min- 

 gle the artificial and the natural. It 

 takes only a background of shrubbery 

 and a few garden beds and a border of 

 flowers to show it all. Then one often 

 sees "magnificent" estates that should be 

 moved so that the North Pole might be 



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THIS WELL KEPT GARDEN SUGGESTED TO THE OWNER THAT A GARDEN OF 



WEEDS WOULD ALSO BE BEAUTIFUL. 



must be made. Otherwise the region 

 would not be habitable. A human be- 

 ing should be civilized ; he should be 

 unwilling to live like a wild animal. 

 Yet even our civilized nature retains 

 the call of the wild. It is evident that 

 there should be an improvement on na- 

 ture, but not annihilation. To what ex- 

 tent and by what methods, is the prob- 

 lem. In a drive or walk through the 

 country, one who is an observer as well 

 as a lover of nature and of civilization 

 may see all grades of "the extent and 



in the center — so icily formal is 'every- 

 thing. The owner may fancy that he 

 has a country residence, but he is mis- 

 taken. He has an enlarged section of a 

 Fifth Avenue sidewalk. There is a real 

 cause for worry when one walks 

 through a forest and hasn't entered it, 

 or when one travels for ten miles on a 

 country road and hasn't been on the 

 road. 



I should think it would be a great 

 trial for some owners of country estates 

 when thev discover that thev have not 



