264 THE PRAISE OF GARDENS 



lived roses for that interval of full beatitude which the poet invites 

 his friend to snatch from reprieving fates. Their delight proves 

 the truth of my favourite aphorism — ' that our happiest moments 

 are those of which the memories are the most innocent.' — 

 Caxtoniana. 



DOUGLAS A SMx^LL quiet nook of a place nestled among trees, and carpeted 

 (iSo^^S"?) ^^^^ green around. And there a brook should murmur 



with a voice of out-door happiness ; and a little garden brim- 

 ming over with flowers should mark the days and weeks and 

 months, with bud and blossom ; and the worst injuries of time 

 be fallen leaves. And then, health in balm should come about 

 my path and my mind be as a part of every fragrant thing that 

 shone and grew around me. 



A garden is a beautiful book, writ by the finger of God ; every 

 flower and every leaf is a letter. You have only to learn them 

 — and he is a poor dunce that cannot, if he will, do that — to 

 learn them and join them, and then to go on reading and 

 reading, and you will find yourself carried away from the earth 

 to the skies by the beautiful story you are going through. You 

 do not know what beautiful thoughts — for they are nothing short 

 — grow out of the ground, and seem to talk to a man. And then 

 there are some flowers, they always seem to me like over-dutiful 

 children : tend them ever so little, and they come up and flourish, 

 and show, as I may say, their bright and happy faces to you. 



— WWv— 



GEORGE T E nouveau jardin vallonne et seme de corbeilles de fleurs 

 a8o^-?876) exotiques, c'est toujours, en somme, le petit Trianon de la 



decadence classique et le jardin anglais du commencement de ce 

 siecle, perfectionnes en ce sens qu'on en a multiplie les mouve- 

 ments et les accidents afin de reussir a realiser I'aspect du 

 paysage naturel dans un espace hmite. Rien de moins justifie, 

 selon nous, que ce titre de jardin paysager dont s'empare 



