65-1 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



within that g-rove on the hill, and there is a full view, a grand picture, of 

 the sea, with its changing waters, and its rich effects of storm and calm, 

 moonlight and sunlight, now with broad and unbroken surface, and now all 

 alive with vessels under steam or sail. I have seen an arbor that Eve 

 might not scorn made in a couple of hours by cleaning out the interior of 

 a thicket of alders and young cedars, opening a lovely carpet of ground 

 pine under foot, and preparing the way for the woodbine, the clematis, and 

 the honey-suckle to run up the bushes of the encircling walls, and to cover 

 them with their rich and ever-varying festoons and arabesques. 



The proper application of tlie principles of perspective to any little 

 domain as simple as ours may not shame any painter's art, and what has 

 already been done there is enough to show that the pruning-knife is ally 

 to the pencil, and both may minister to the spirit of beauty. The element 

 of color, too, needs careful treatment, and is much under command of taste 

 and imagination. The hues of nature, indeed, we do not create; but we 

 find them, and not as the painter finds them, in parcels assorted and labeled 

 at his order, but in natural combination. The rose is not of a single red, 

 nor the pink or the violet of a single pink or violet shade. But there is 

 great choice in the selection and grouping of flowers, shrubs and trees, so 

 as to bring out the true melody and harmony of color. Wc may call color 

 the music of the light, and, as in music, we may find in color melody and 

 harmony. That rose, with drooping head and blushing cheek, has its own 

 native air or melody, like the song of the robin or bluebird; and that 

 fuchsia, with pendent and jeweled drops, seems to answer the rose's queenly 

 air with her own gentler tones. But group the whole array of plants of 

 color duly, and what harmony is the result! Sometimes different clusters 

 or beds of well-chosen flowers seem to answer each other like the respon- 

 sive choirs of the cathedral; and it may not be altogether conceit to say 

 that in a well-concerted garden you may have all voices of color music, 

 from the deep bass of the ruddy rose to the thrilling soprano of the violet. 

 We need to take account of all the changes of season and periods of vege- 

 tation to bring out the proper effects of color, and the good gardener will 

 sow his seed and arrange his flowers so as to leave no month uncheered 

 from the time when the bluebird pipes on the advanceguard of spring, and 

 pecks at the swelling buds of the maple, to .the time when the sere and 

 yellow leaf gives such glory to autumn, and the snow-bird is seen on his 

 way to summer skies. All the hues of nature, of course, should be made 

 to contribute their part to the pictured series of months, and great account 

 should be made of the constant features of the landscape, such as the ever- 

 greens and the mosses and the rocks that give such charm to winter when 

 summer life is no more. 



The vocal arts cannot fail to feel the power of the haunt thus prepared 

 for them in the landscape ; and music, poetry, the drama, and even elo- 

 quence, are ready to catch inspiration from the arts of rural architecture, 

 sculpture and painting. Nature surely gives us music enough to call out 

 our voices ; and it is no slight to the birds to practice their art on true 

 principles, and make their wild melodies the prelude to the finer melodies 

 and harmonies .of the voice, the flute, the harp, or piano. We hear of 

 chamber concerts and academy concerts. Why not h-ave garden concerts 



