44 Landscape Gardening 



walks, and a few flowers, give universal pleasure; they con- 

 tain in themselves, in fact, the basis of all our agreeable 

 sensations in a landscape garden (natural beauty, and the 

 recognition of art); and they are the most enduring sources 

 of enjoyment in any place. There are no country seats in 

 the United States so unsatisfactory and tasteless, as those 

 in which, without any definite aim, everything is attempted; 

 and a mixed jumble of discordant forms, materials, orna- 

 ments, and decorations, is assembled- -a part in one style 

 and a bit in another, without the least feeling of unity or 

 congruity. These rural bedlams, full of all kinds of ab- 

 surdities, without a leading character or expression of any 

 sort, cost their owners a vast deal of trouble and money, 

 without giving a tasteful mind a shadow of the beauty which 

 it feels at the first glimpse of a neat cottage residence, with 

 its simple, sylvan character of well kept lawn and trees. If 

 the latter does not rank high in the scale of Landscape 

 Gardening as an art, it embodies much of its essence as a 

 source of enjoyment - - the production of the Beautiful in 

 country residences. 



Besides the beauties of form and expression in the differ- 

 ent modes of laying out grounds, there are certain universal 

 and inherent beauties common to all styles, and, indeed, to 

 every composition in the fine arts. Of these, we shall 

 especially point out those growing out of the principles of 

 unity, harmony, and variety. 



i'niti), or the production of a whole, is a leading principle 

 of the highest importance, in every art of taste or design, 

 without which no satisfactory result can be realized. This 

 arises from the fact, that the mind can only attend, with 

 pleasure and satisfaction, to one object, or one composite 

 sensation, at the same time. If two distinct objects, or 

 classes of objects, present themselves at once to us, we can 

 only attend satisfactorily to one, by withdrawing our atten- 

 tion for the time from the other. Hence the necessity of a 

 reference to this leading principle of unity. 



To illustrate the subject, let us suppose a building, par- 

 tially built of wood, with square windows, and the remain- 



