LITTLE GARDENS 



spire rising above the trees, this can be the focus : 

 the point toward which the lines of your garden 

 will tend. A picture has this dominant note of 

 form, light or color, and Its other parts are sub- 

 ordinate to this. If it is otherwise, the effect is 

 confusing, for Instead of a balance of light and 

 shade there will be a hundred little lights and 

 shades, each demanding the same attention as 

 the rest. Such a picture tires one after a little 

 while. There Is no repose in it. We may not 

 admire a street, for it may be shabby, crowded, 

 discordant in color; but the convergence of its 

 architectural lines toward the vanishing-point re- 

 duces it to a certain simplicity, which in itself 

 is dignity, and creates a subtle satisfaction. Far 

 finer are those vistas where the vanishing-point 

 is intercepted by some object of beauty, and 

 where the perspective is marked, not by build- 

 ings, but by trees, or hedges, or borders. The 

 view of St. Peter's from some of the Roman gar- 

 dens, the Pincian, for example, and the view 

 from the Soldiers' Home, at Washington, known 

 as Capitol Vista, both showing aisles and arches 

 of green that end in splendid domes, exemplify 

 this point. 



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