THE AMATEUR GARDEN 



our own priceless individuality will gain, not 

 lose, thereby ? 



Or shall we make our plea to an "art im- 

 pulse"? No? Is the world already artificial 

 enough? Not by half, although it is full, 

 crammed, with the things the long-vanished 

 dead have done for it in every art, from cameos 

 to shade-trees; done for it because it was al- 

 ready so fair that, Hve long or die soon, they 

 could not hold themselves back from making it 

 fairer. 



Yet, all that aside, is not this concerted gar- 

 dening precisely such a work that young man- 

 hood and womanhood, however artificial or un- 

 artificial, anywhere, everywhere. Old World or 

 newest frontier, ought to take to naturally? 

 Adam and Eve did, and they — but we have 

 squeezed Adam and Eve dry enough. 



Patriotism ! Can you imagine a young man 

 or woman without it? And if you are young 

 and a lover of your country, do you not love 

 its physical aspects, "its rocks and rills, its 

 woods and templed hills"? And if so, do you 

 love only those parts of it which you never see 



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