TREATMENT OF HO-ME GROUNDS. 65 



No such combination of purposes exists that has not the possi- 

 biUty of beauty; the beauty inherent in good proportions and in 

 well combined colors, textures and forms; and the beauty of a 

 certain expression or character arising out of these things and out 

 of the suggestions and associations called up in the mind by all of 

 them together. The kinds of beauty are infinite in number, and 

 in art it is not so much the kind of beauty you attempt that counts 

 as the success with which you attain the kind you aim at. 



First, find the general arrangement that is most serviceable; sec- 

 ond, see what kinds of beauty, what general character of pleasing 

 appearance, that arrangement suggests or most perfectly permits; 

 third, try to make the necessary details of the general arrangement 

 emphasize so far as possible and enhance the character thus selected 

 and obscure or minimize any necessary defects or inharmonious 

 elements in it; and finally, be sure that everything which may be 

 added 'by way of decoration contributes to the same end. No 

 matter how beautiful or how precious a thing may be in itself — 

 whether flower, shrub or tree, whether fountain, vase or pergola, 

 whether work of sculpture, architecture or gardening — it is a 

 blemish to the home grounds if its presence does not enhance the 

 eifect of the surroundings in which it is set. 



It is probable that a greater number of carefully tended home 

 grounds fall short of excellence through the crowding into them 

 of too many and too varied objects of decoration than from any 

 other cause, and perhaps in no other simple way could so much 

 be done for the improvement of their appearance as by the mere 

 elimination first, of those objects which are more or less distinctly 

 inharmonious with the dominant expression, and second, of those 

 which without being positively inharmonious are encumbering and 

 confusing. 



2. There should be a Recognition of Functional 

 Divisions. 



The home grounds are bound to consist of one or more principal 

 spaces or divisions, each having certain more or less definite pur- 

 poses to serve and a more or less definite character of appearance. 

 The boundaries of these divisions may be strongly and sharply 



