i8 LANDSCAPE DESIGN 



single arguments for their existence.* The designer should also have in 

 mind minor ethical considerations, and avoid in his design such arrange- 

 ments as might serve as temptation to ill-doing. But the ethical value 

 in landscape work is to be obtained only through the esthetic and eco- 

 nomic value of the objects created, and so ethical unity, while a moving 

 force, is seldom a directly governing consideration in landscape design. 

 Economic The great majority of the objects which man makes take their 



^'^^^y shapes, as they take their names, from their fitness to some economic 



purpose. It is difficult for man to refrain from attempting to invest 

 them with some beauty, but the first cause of their creation is their 

 use. The primary value of such objects is their ability to satisfy a 

 physical need ; they give a man warmth or light or shelter or whatever 

 one of the innumerable satisfactions he is for the instant engaged in 

 winning from the surrounding world. The well-considered fitness of 

 a thing to its use gives a pleasure beyond the pleasure of the use, beyond 

 the mere knowledge that this pleasure is possible : an intellectual 

 pleasure in the completeness of the organization of the thing itself. 

 Also, the completeness of physical organization which makes an ob- 

 ject serve well its economic purpose is very apt to manifest itself in 

 such a relation of part to part that the object gives also esthetic pleas- 

 ure.f No example of this is better than the often-quoted sailing ship.f 



* " . . . Every evil to which men are specially liable when living in towns, is likely 

 to be aggravated in the future, unless means are devised and adapted in advance to pre- 

 vent it." . . . 



" Is it doubtful that it does men good to come together ... in pure air and under 

 the light of heaven, or that it must have an influence directly counteractive to that of 

 the ordinary hard, hustling working hours of town life .?"... 



" The question remains whether the contemplation of beauty in natural scenery 

 is practically of much value in counteracting and alleviating these evils. ... I do 

 not propose to argue this question ... for if the object of parks is not that thus sug- 

 gested, I know of none which justifies their cost." 



F. L. Olmsted, Sr., Public Parks, 1902, pp. 32,40-41, 11 3-1 14. (See References.) 



t Cf. What would be fair must first be fit, reprinted in Charles Eliot, Landscape 

 Architect, pp. 549-553- (See References.) 



J Cited by F. L. Olmsted, Jr., as " an example used by my father in discussing 

 village improvement," in City Planning: an Introductory Address, pp. 31-32 in Pro- 

 ceedings of National Conference on City Planning, 1910. Also published separately 

 by the American Civic Association. 



