THEORT OF LANDSCAPE DESIGN 17 



complete submission of all aspects of an act to a moral purpose; or 

 in the field of economics, in which case it is called usefulness, that is, 

 complete and organized fitness of all the qualities of an object to a 

 definite use; or in the field of esthetics, in which case it is called 

 beauty. 



We can justly speak of judging of the truth of a design, when we Logical 

 determine the truth of the designer's underlying ideas, when we com- ^"">' 

 pare his methods of organization or synthesis with what we consider to 

 be fundamental and correct logical methods. Where our observation 

 of another person's design leads us to the conclusion that the designer 

 has based his work on premises which we consider to be contrary to 

 fact, or on reasoning which we consider illogical, our displeasure may be 

 said to be due to a perception of the lack of truth of the designer's 

 ideas; but much more frequently our displeasure falls not upon the 

 false ideas, but upon some of their ill-contrived or ugly concrete results. 

 For example, the fidelity of a landscape architect to the natural char- 

 acter of a landscape which he is preserving might be commended as 

 truthful expression in his design. If he introduced an object discord- 

 ant with this character, he would probably be blamed for the ugliness 

 of his design, but the cause of the ugliness would be the falsity of his 

 esthetic conception. Sincerity in design, the obvious whole-souled 

 logical carr}'ing-out of a given premise to its conclusion, commonly 

 gives intellectual pleasure in the "truth" of the designer's treatment 

 ' even though the observer does not agree with the premises. What is 

 most commonly spoken of as lack of truth in design is the case where 

 the designer endeavors to make a thing appear what it is not, where he 

 paints imitation stonework on a board fence or constructs for decoration 

 a door which cannot be opened. Attempts of this kind range from 

 puerile or cheap deceits to perfectly legitimate effects, such as dimin- 

 ishing the scale of the farther part of a design, that the whole design 

 may seem larger. This aspect of the subject we shall discuss more at 

 length in Chapter \TI. 



The moral consideration has a place when one judges the result on Ethical Unity 

 the community of the completed work of the designer. Parks have a 

 positive ethical value, that is, their existence may greatly promote the 

 moral welfare of the community, and indeed this is one of the strongest 



