64 LANDSCAPE GAKDENING. 



owners a vast deal of trouble and money, without giving a 

 tasteful mind a shadow of the beauty which it feels at the 

 first glimpse of a neat cottage residence, with its simple, 

 sylvan character of well kept lawn and trees. If the latter 

 does not rank high in the scale of Landscape Gardening 

 as an art, it embodies much of its essence as a source oi 

 enjoyment the production of the Beautiful in country 

 residences. 



Besides the beauties of form and expression in the differ- 

 ent modes of laying out grounds, there are certain univer- 

 sal and nherent beauties common to all styles, and, indeed, 

 to every composition in the fine arts. Of these, we shall 

 especially point out those growing out of the principles of 



UNITY, HARMONY, and VARIETY. 



UNITY, or the production of a whole, is a leading 

 principle of the highest importance, in every art of taste or 

 design, without which no satisfactory result can be 

 realized. This arises from the fact, that the mind can only 

 attend, with pleasure and satisfaction, to one object, or one 

 composite sensation, at the same time. If two distinct 

 objects, or classes of objects, present themselves at once to 

 us, we can only attend satisfactorily to one, by withdraw- 

 ing our attention for the time from the other. Hence the 

 necessity of a reference to this leading principle of unity. 



To illustrate the subject, let us suppose a building, 

 partially built of wood, with square windows, and the 

 remainder of brick or stone, with long and' narrow 

 windows. However well such a building may be con- 

 structed, or however nicely the different proportions of the 

 edifice may be adjusted, it is evident it can never form a 

 satisfactory whole. The mind can only account for such 

 an absurdity, by supposing it to have been built by two 



