CHAPTER XXVIII. 



" Vous travaillez pour ainsi dire a cote de Dieu, vous netes que les 

 collaborateurs de la lot divine de la vegetation. Dieu, dans ses ceuvres 

 inimitable, ne se prete pas a nos chimeres ; la nature n'a pas de com- 

 plaisance pour nos faux systemes. Elle est souveraine, absolue comme 

 son Auteur. Elle resiste a nos tentatives folles ; elle dejoue, et 

 quelquefois rudement, nos illusions. Elle nous seconde, elle nous aide, 

 elle nous recompense, si nous touchons juste et si nous travaillons 

 dans son sens vrai ; mais si nous nous trompons, si nous voulons 

 la violenter^ la contraindre, la fausser, elle nous donne a f instant 

 meme des dementis eclatants en faits par la sterilite, par le 

 deperissement, par la mort de tout ce que nous avons voulu creer 

 en depit delle et a ^inverse de ses lots." LAMARTINE, DlSCOURS 

 AUX JARDINIERS. 



CLIPPING EVERGREEN AND OTHER TREES. 



THE Yew in its natural form is the most beautiful evergreen of 

 our western world finer than the Cedar in its feathery branching, 

 and more beautiful than any Cedar in the colour of its stem. In 

 our own day we see trees of the same great order as the Yew 

 gathered from a thousand hills from British Columbia, through 

 North America and Europe to the Atlas Mountains, and not one of 

 them has yet proved to be so beautiful as our native Yew when 

 undipped root or branch. But in gardens the quest for the 

 exotic is so active that few give a fair chance to the Yew as a 

 tree, while in graveyards, where it is so often seen in a very- 

 old state, the cutting of the roots hurts the growth, though there 

 are Yews in our churchyards that have seen a thousand winters. 

 It is not my own idea only that I urge here, but that of all who 

 have ever thought of the beauty of trees, foremost among whom 

 we must place artists who have the happiness of always drawing 

 natural forms. Let any one stand near the Cedar-like Yews by 

 the Pilgrim's Way on the North Downs, and, comparing them 

 with trees cut into fantastic shapes, consider what the difference 

 means to the artist who seeks beauty of tree form ! 



What right have we to deform things so lovely in form? No 

 cramming of Chinese feet into impossible shoes is half so foolish 



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