210 GARDEN-CRAFT. 



terraces, are one Nature. These things breathe one 

 breath, they sing one music, they share one heart be- 

 tween them ; the difference between the dressed and 

 the undressed is only superficial. The art of garden- 

 ing is not intended to supersede Nature, but only " to 

 assist Nature in moving the affections of those who 

 have the deepest perceptions of the beauties of 

 Nature, who have the most valuable feelings, . . , 

 the most ennobling with Nature and human life." 



One need not, if Wordsworth's example prove 

 anything, be less the child of the present (but 

 rather the more) because one can both appreciate 

 the realities of rude Nature, and that deliberately- 

 contrived, purpose-made, piece of human handicraft,, 

 a well-equipped garden. One need not be less sus- 

 ceptible to the black forebodings of this contention- 

 tost, modern world, nor need one's ear be less alert 

 to Nature's correspondence to 



" The still, sad music of humanity," 



because one experiences, with old Mountaine, "a 

 jucunditie of minde " in a fair garden. There is an 

 unerring Tightness both in rude Nature and in 

 garden grace, in the chartered liberty of the one, and 

 the unchartered freedom of unadjusted things in the 

 other. Blessed be both ! 



It is worth something to have mastered truth, 

 which, however simple and elementary it seem, is 

 really vital to the proper understanding of the rela- 

 tion of Art to Nature. It helps one to appraise at 

 their proper value the denunciations of the disciples of 



