THE PRIVATE GARDEN 



a charming result out of what our judges de- 

 scribed as "particularly forlorn conditions." 



Does this seem hardly fair to the first garden ? 

 But to spread the gardening contagion and to 

 instigate a wise copying after the right gar- 

 deners — these are what our prizes and honors 

 are for. Progress first, perfection afterward, is 

 our maxim. We value and reward originality, 

 nevertheless, and only count it a stronger neces- 

 sity to see not merely that no talented or hap- 

 pily circumstanced few, but that not even any 

 one or two fortunate neighborhoods, shall pres- 

 ently be capturing all the prizes. Hence the 

 rules already cited, which a prompt discovery 

 of this tendency forced upon us. 



About this copying: no art is more inoffen- 

 sively imitated than gardening but unluckily 

 none is more easily, or more absurdly, mis- 

 copied. A safe way is to copy the gardener 

 rather than the garden. To copy any perform- 

 ance in a way to do it honor we must discern 

 and adapt its art without mimicking its act. 

 To miscopy is far easier — we have only to mimic 

 the act and murder the art. I once heard a 



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