254 COME INTO THE GARDEN 



portant — at least it is less often possible, since 

 natural disposition of a terrain is essential to it, 

 therefore it is rare; and rarity gives importance. 

 Of it there is first of all this to be said: it is 

 above all the result of making the best of things, 

 of accepting and adapting to difficulties instead 

 of seeking to overcome them. Or this is what it 

 seems to be ! Actually a true rock garden results 

 from seizing a wonderful opportunity and using 

 all the cunning of which man is capable not to 

 impair in the slightest degree its advantages, 

 while at the same time further ones are created 

 so artfully that they seem also to have happened 

 quite by the accidents of nature. 



No people in the world perhaps equal the 

 Japanese in work of this sort (but let me say 

 right here, and emphatically, that in general the 

 so-called Japanese gardens seen in this country 

 are not examples of this work, nor an exposition 

 of the consummate garden art of Japan!), which 

 requires the closest observation of natural forms 

 and of minutest detail, coupled with the pa- 

 tience and the skill in handling both rocks and 

 plants that reproduces these forms absolutely. 

 Unless we are willing to carry the work of imi- 

 tation to the same high degree of perfection 

 reached by the Japanese gardener, who gathers 

 the mosses from around a bowlder when he is 



