102 NATURE IN A CITY YARD 



manizing of nature. It depends on the 

 humanizer whether the process is quietly 

 submitted to or not. But I am glad to 

 see that parks and gardens are no longer 

 " slicked up " as they used to be. Vain 

 man has discovered that nature can do some 

 things well. For two thousand years we 

 have been influenced in matters of form 

 by the Greeks. The Greeks are a little 

 too perfect for some moods. Their work 

 has not enough in reserve. It is like Mo- 

 zart's music, all light and no shade. Let 

 us have some rudenesses and weaknesses. 

 Let us be grandly and gloomily Gothic, 

 once in a while. 



Yet the Parthenon has subtle and inten- 

 tional irregularities. There is not a line 

 in it which is mathematically straight. Its 

 architects must have studied the charm of 

 diversity and taken lessons from the flowers 

 and trees. Nothing exactly conforms to 

 rule, and sometimes rule is set at naught. 

 For instance, I have seen this summer a 

 double wild cherry two stones and one 

 stem a pear growing absolutely upright, 

 and flowers that freaked unaccountably in 



