102 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



STONE STEPS LEAD ENTICINGLY AWAY AND AWAY IN A MAZE OF BEAUTY. 



indelibly impressed on our own nerve 

 cells and on the corpuscles of our red 

 blood. When we plant our modern 

 shoe in the print of the moccasin, some 

 of the Indian's love for the out of 

 doors would make our brain tingle if 

 we did not resist it, suppress it and 

 stay in the house behind closed doors. 

 The modicum of primitive man in us 

 is calling, but we deliberately shut him 

 out. 



On the other hand the modern land- 

 scape gardener tells us that the formal 

 garden appeals to our appreciation of 

 regularity, neatness and symmetrical 

 beauty. The two seem to have few 

 points in common, yet we must not for- 

 get that all parts of the earth have their 

 antipodes, and the more completely 

 our natures become developed in a 

 love for the finest aesthetics the more 

 nearly do we approach the glory of the 

 full-blown rose and the delicate per- 

 fection of the original, primitive wild 

 rose from which its modern successor 

 has been developed- We often exper- 

 ience the homesickness of the stranger 

 in a strange land. We feel that the 

 human rose has traveled far from these 



tangled ravines and picturesque preci- 

 pices amid which it had its original 

 home. That spirit that impels a family 

 to abandon a palatial home in the city 

 and remove to the recesses of a wild 

 country is similar to the spirit that im- 

 pels one psychologically, I think, to 

 crave relief from the distinctively for- 

 mal with a return to the wild and the 

 picturesque. But when we go to that 

 primitive wildness only, we feel that 

 we are not doing justice to the modern 

 man. I know a beautiful estate where 

 a compromise has been attempted by 

 having on one side of the house a pri- 

 mitive wildne-s and on the other side 

 intense artificiality and formality. But 

 that does not wholly solve the problem. 

 The sudden transition is incongruous. 

 It is a shock. The primitive settlers 

 of America may have been content to 

 follow a sip of tea by a nibble of hard 

 sugar, but modern civilization says, 

 "No," to such primitive methods. We 

 prefer a proper blending. But I know 

 another equally beautiful estate in 

 which the wild and the cultivated, the 

 formal and the irregular, have been 

 mingled in a delightful blending. 



