INTRODUCTION 



of humanity, lovers, "Come into the garden," has been 

 a universal cry with them, until lovers without gardens 

 or gardens without lovers are equally unimaginable; 

 possibly each exists, but it must be in a halt, amor- 

 phous fashion, pitiful to contemplate and tragic to 

 endure. 



Stories of gardens have come to us from the re- 

 motest times. The story of Eden is co-eval with the 

 story of man himself, and many magic gardens have 

 sent their spellbound legends down through the ages. 

 The golden-appled gardens of Hesperides, the dim 

 Elysian Fields where Orpheus sought his Euridice, 

 Arabian places where strange fruit hangs on mysterious 

 branches, with many another of fairy lore or folk tale. 

 For it has always been the way of man to create in the 

 region of the imagination a more perfect example of 

 the earth-made, tangible thing he has been able to 

 produce in the world of matter. Let him but love 

 anything sufficiently and instantly he translates it to 

 fairy-land, where it acquires an immortal loveliness, a 

 consummate perfection beyond the reach of his earthly 

 powers. Since gardens and mankind have always 

 thus belonged together, it is no more than natural to 

 suppose that they will continue in delicious proximity 

 as long as eternity itself. And it is the sincere convic- 

 tion of most that not only mansions, but gardens, are 

 prepared for them in their future existence. 



Like many good things, gardens improve with age. 



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