4 
their houses and grounds for their own satisfaction, 
and it may seem paradoxical to assert that they do 
no such thing. This is, however, apparently the fact. 
Sometimes a man lays out his grounds without think- 
ing at all of where he shall put his house. Usually, 
however, he goes so far right as to fix upon a_build- 
ing place. Now this place he selects mainly with 
reference to the public road; and he then proceeds 
to lay out his grounds also with reference to the said 
road. In short, the whole place is made not to be 
looked from, but to be looked at. It is astonishing 
what inconveniences men, not otherwise remarkable 
for their self-denial, will submit to, in order to present 
what they consider a good appearance from the 
street. Often the best aspect is occupied by the 
kitchen-yard, the stable and out-houses, while the 
family, from a forlorn, sunless drawing-room, perched 
in the air, in order that the house may look imposing 
to passers by, peer through their scattered trees over 
the dusty road at their neighbors’ houses, built like 
their own, in strict observance of this hideous archi- 
tectural etiquette. Now if such a man would only 
stop and think of how very, very little importance it 
isto the rest of the world where or how he builds 
his house and arranges his grounds, and, on the 
other hand, how all important it is to himself, he 
might avoid that fruitful source of irretrievable mis- 
chief — the false point of view. 
We may next consider the erroneous idea of com- 
bating nature. A writer in the Aélantic Monthly 
