14 GARDEN-CRAFT. 



sibilities of perfection that have lain dormant in them 

 since the world began. 



An artist has been defined as one who reproduces 

 the world in his own image and likeness. The defi- 

 nition is perhaps a little high-flown, and may confer 

 an autobiographical value to an artist's performances 

 that would astonish none more than himself. Yet 

 if the thought can be truthfully applied anywhere, 

 it is where it occurred to Andrew Marvell in a 

 garden. 



" The mind, that ocean where each kind 

 Does straight its own resemblance find ; 

 Yet it creates, transcending these, 

 Far other worlds and other seas, 

 Annihilating all that's made 

 To a green thought in a green shade." 



And where can we find a more promising sphere 

 for artistic creation than a garden ? Do we boast of 

 fine ideas and perceptions of beauty and powers of 

 design ! Where can our faculties find a happier 

 medium of expression or a pleasanter field for dis- 

 play than the garden affords ? Nay, to have the 

 ideas, the faculties, and the chance of their exercise 

 and still to hold back were a sin ! For a garden is, 

 so to speak, the compliment a man of ideas owes to 

 Nature, to his friends, and to himself. 



Many are the inducements to gardening. Thus, 

 if I make a garden, I need not print a line, nor 

 conjure with the painter's tools, to prove myself an 

 artist. Again, a garden is the only form of artistic 

 creation that is bound by the nature of things to be 

 more lovely in realisation than in the designer's con- 



