LITTLE GARDENS 



When in doubt, use white. That is safe with 

 all colors. It does not make a harmony with 

 them, any more than green makes harmony. We 

 are to regard it rather as light. We can enjoy 

 the effect of marble statuary, balustrades, urns, 

 columns, stairs, curbs and walks in formal gar- 

 dens, and the white of this stone grows the softer, 

 yet the surer, for a backing or surrounding of 

 somber yews and rhododendrons. It is pure and 

 passionless and seems always to express engaging 

 innocence, whether we find it in the rose, the 

 hyacinth, the locust or the water-lily. I wish we 

 were not so frightened by the possibility of it in 

 our costumes, and did not confine it to varnished 

 shirts, tin collars and boiler-plate cuffs. Every 

 one looks well and younger in white, and nobody 

 looks well in black. So, in flowers, white may 

 not dazzle or surprise; It does not gratify the 

 barbaric fondness for show; it is not sensational; 

 but it is always welcome, always comforting; no 

 less than green it expresses serenity and health. 



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