FORMAL GARDENS 17 



over nature is only evading the real problem, viz., man's mastery 

 over himself. 



If, then, we know the proper spirit, what is the proper method? 

 I believe it is impossible to have a perfect formal garden without 

 expert advice. Yet if the expert has everything his own way 

 the result is likely to be cold and painful. How, then, can a 

 man put his personality into a garden, especially when he knows 

 nothing of design or of plant growth ? The only way is deliberately 

 to deny himself something, for the surest way to spoil a garden 

 is by creating the impression of unbridled desire. Some of our 

 pet ideas must be subordinated, others omitted. For every great 

 work of art must have some one dominant idea. And now, at 

 last, comes the method I spoke of. For the important thing is 

 to recognize that there are about a dozen types of formal garden, 

 each characterized by its dominant idea; that the wrong way for 

 a man to put the best of his personality into a garden is to try 

 to combine the good^Teatures of all, and the only right way is to 

 study the relative merits of these different types of garden until he 

 knows which best fits his own home life. 



Shall architecture be dominant? Yes, if the house be beau- 

 tiful and enduring, and if the formal gardening is to be confined 

 to the immediate surroundings of the house. No, if what one 

 really needs is a separate formal garden where one may shut out 

 the world and think. The Italian garden that is without flowers 

 is too cold, hard, foreign, and pretentious for a democratic country. 



Shall statuary be dominant? Yes, if confined to your one 

 exquisite piece which perfectly expresses your ideal of character 

 or achievement. No, if it is a mere foreign antique having no 

 connection with your real life. We make too many collections 

 of statuary that only serve to remind visitors of Fourth Avenue 



