The Partnership between Nature and Art 5 



and, with the inner eye alone, see the finished picture which 

 may be actually completed by his silent partner long after 

 he himself has turned to dust. Art is long and life is short 

 indeed, too short, perhaps, for the realisation of even the simplest 

 of his ideals. He rarely lives to enjoy the mature majesty of the 

 oak he has planted; yet, from its acorn babyhood onward, through 

 every stage of its growth, he sees clearly in his mind's eye its 

 ultimate aspect. 



Nature waited patiently through the ages for a partner like 

 Luther Burbank to select, hybridise and bring to perfection her 

 fruits and flowers. Without the help of the trained scientist her 

 own latent possibilities would never have been realised. "Nature," 

 said Aristotle, "has the will but not the power to realise perfection." 

 That ideal is left for man to realise only by working in partnership 

 with her, in harmony with her eternal laws. At last we begin to 

 understand the paradox: she is commanded only by obeying her. 

 Where nature and the scientific horticulturist leave off, the artistic 

 imagination of the gardener takes up their work and composes 

 pictures that are an emphasised revelation of natural beauty 

 to eyes that have not the gift of the seer; living pictures of 

 nature in perfecto which, but for his art, would never have 

 found expression. 



But unbridled imagination, without a true sense of propor- 

 tion to hold it in check, might easily run away with his greatest 

 opportunity. In his student days especially, and indeed through- 

 out his life, he cannot study nature too closely; yet it may be that 

 he will never find a single scene, however lovely in itself, that could 

 be copied exactly and fit in with any of his plans. Detached 

 from its large environment its beauty might be lost, its proportion 

 destroyed by other surroundings; or the cost of reproducing it 



