TEXTBOOK OF LANDSCAPE GARDENING 
These distinctions, however, are somewhat abstruse and hardly 
necessary to the work of the beginner. The young student may 
safely speak of formal gardening and of the natural style because 
these terms are in common use even though they are slightly illogical. 
Fic. 2. Tae Format StyLbe— Catirornia. Photograph by John W. Gregg 
Utility and Beauty 
Another phrase in our definition should have a short examin- 
ation. We have said that our object in landscape gardening is to 
secure the maximum of utility combined with the maximum of 
beauty. It is sometimes assumed that utility and beauty are con- 
flicting qualities and that beauty is necessarily marred whenever 
we intrude anything “practical” or merely useful. This idea is 
absolutely wrong and mischievous. The fundamental truth is the 
exact opposite, viz. that the maximum of beauty can be realized 
only when practical requirements have been fully met. So radical 
is this principle that some of the great philosophers have held that 
this satisfaction of practical utilities is the sole foundation of beauty. 
In common experience we certainly do find many instances in 
which practical utilities are far from beautiful. A steel smokestack, 
an iron bridge, a wooden silo are almost certain to be ugly. But 
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