GARDEN ACCESSORIES 101 



First of all, for instance, it must be kept in 

 mind that the garden statue will be fixed in its 

 position through all the weather vagaries of the 

 four seasons and during the garden barrenness 

 of half the year. Any figure that approaches a 

 representation of the altogether human, there- 

 fore, if clothed or partially clothed, will not be 

 pleasant to contemplate throughout the year, 

 for the very good though perhaps childish reason 

 that it will seem very cold and wet and suggest 

 discomfort too keenly, in storm. Imagination 

 makes us childish very often; and even repre- 

 sentations of the gods of the ancients are not 

 beyond thus impressing our human and com- 

 fort-loving side — if they wear drapery or cloth- 

 ing. Nudes, however, do not have this effect; 

 and of course satyrs and nymphs and the great 

 god Pan come under this general exception. 



And then abstract conceptions rather than 

 incident should be chosen; and no better nor 

 more appropriate subjects can be found than 

 mythology offers. Best of all to my mind, for 

 general use, are Hermae — those graceful swelling 

 pillars surmounted by heads of varying charac- 

 ter, all representing the god Hermes originally, 

 but now frequently the likeness of satyr or faun 

 or nymph or just a fanciful head — that present 

 lines so pleasing when thrown into clear relief 



