82 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE. 



this, in saying that some of the problems involved can 

 only be approximately or conjecturally answered. The 

 art of town arrangement is one which has as yet had com- 

 paratively little opportunity of being reduced to fixed 

 laws, and the responsibility devolves upon us in connec- 

 tion with the work we have in hand, of developing those 

 laws and reducing them so far as may be to a system. 

 Ought we not to deem it a privilege that the oppor- 

 tunity is afforded us of establishing the principles of an 

 art, which in the application we are enabled by modern 

 science to make of its practice, should outrank in grandeur, 

 and capacity of sublime and beautiful combinations, the 

 utmost efforts of those which have heretofore monopolized 

 the title of fine arts ? For surely this is not claiming too 

 much for an art whose possible compass may include the 

 grandest features of natural scenery, and the noblest 

 specimens of architectural skill, as mere ingredients, the 

 harmonious blending of which for the development of their 

 best effects, is the province of the landscape architect. 



Certainly no people ever before possessed such facilities 

 as are placed in our hands for carrying through to a suc- 

 cessful result a pre-arranged plan of town construction, 

 and no people ever before had such control of all the 

 requisite material for the purpose. We have our choice 

 of sites in a virgin region, comprising every variety of soil, 

 climate, and topographical character. 



Wherever a railroad is opened all the labor-saving 

 machinery, and all the comforts, necessities, and luxuries 

 of civilized life may be at once introduced. Mills, shops, 

 factories, machinery and operatives, with houses for them 



