THE LURE OF THE GARDEN 



bright, with the hope of better things to be won, and to 

 be bestowed. There is no old age where there is still 

 that promise it is eternal youth." 



And the following: 



" She grows as a flower grows, she will wither with- 

 out sun ; she will decay in her sheath as the hyacinth 

 does, if you do not give her air enough; she may fall, and 

 defile her head in dust if you leave her without help at 

 some moments of her life ; but you cannot fetter her ; she 

 must take her own fair form and way, if she take any 

 ... to be, within her gates, the center of order, the balm 

 of distress, the mirror of beauty. . . ." 



Gardens and gardening, in all their manifestations, 

 have from time immemorable aroused the philosophic 

 mind to pertinent musings, resembling in this the effect 

 of a softly glowing woodfire ; and it might be interesting 

 to trace the varieties of reverie excited by these different 

 means, as well as the relative value of the conclusions 

 attained by their aid. 



"My Summer in a Garden," by Charles Dudley 

 Warner, sums up a number of moralizings concerning 

 men and things, including woman, for most of which the 

 garden is responsible ; nor are they any the less wise for 

 being steeped in his warm humor, as were his beans and 

 squashes in the warm ardor of the sun. Among other 

 matters he decides that " perhaps, after all, it is not what 

 you get out of a garden, but what you put into it that is 

 the most remunerative. What is a man ? A question 



1 80 



