A PLEA FOR LANDSCAPE-GARDENING 



THE intelligent traveler observes one very striking difference 

 between Europe and America. 



In Europe he sees almost everywhere evidences of a sense of 

 beauty. In America, almost everywhere he is struck by the 

 want of it. In Europe, and in Asia too, the work of man adds 

 to the beauty of the picturesqueness of scenery. In America, it 

 usually makes a blot upon it. I do not conclude from this 

 that the American people have no sense of beauty, but only 

 that in the mass it has not been cultivated. The mass is igno- 

 rant of beauty. In this new country of ours the struggle for 

 existence has been intense, and the practical side of life has 

 been developed while the aesthetic side has lain dormant. 



To awaken this great nation to a love of the beauties of na- 

 ture is, therefore, a mission of the first importance, and the 

 time is ripe for the work. Signs of awakening are to be seen 

 on every side, but much depends on the direction to be given 

 to these new impulses of a people still in the main groping in 

 the dark. Where shall we look for this direction ? Obviously, 

 I think, to Landscape-Gardening. 



Landscape-Gardening is one of the rarest and greatest of the 

 fine arts, but the one which has been least understood or appre- 

 ciated. If it is an art to paint a landscape on a small canvas 

 with brushes and paints, is it less an art to make a picture on 

 broad acres, using for material God's own earth, grass, trees, 

 shrubs, and flowers ? As a nation we have yet to learn that 

 such an art exists. 



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