32 THROUGH LIBRARY WINDOWS 



aim is never ideal, but real, ever to idealize the 

 real is in the power of the true garden artist. 

 Hence the imagination is very important to 

 bring into unity the elements of use and beauty. 



We do not claim the mastery of the gar- 

 dener's art, not even assuming the name; we 

 are garden lovers and workers, but the pleasure 

 of study and scheming in combinations has 

 broadened our conceptions of Nature's possi- 

 bilities and brought us into closer sympathy 

 with her in all her moods and tenses. 



The old gardens are the melodies of earth 

 and time and heart. They live only in recol- 

 lection, but to some of us how they do live! 

 The dear old people who worked them, and 

 plucked their flowers and gathered their fruits 

 have turned aside and passed on. So has the 

 garden of to-day grown away from the old 

 order, just as society has grown away from the 

 old spindle-wheels and bake-ovens and shoe- 

 buckles and figured waistcoats. Occasionally 

 we find shreds and patches of the old garden 

 days, some of its old-fashioned flowers, its 

 hollyhocks and honeysuckles, larkspurs and 

 bachelor buttons, lady slippers and poppies, 

 daffodils and marigolds, bits of old box-hedges 

 as prim as a Puritan pastor — yes, the old will 

 linger a little because deserving, but we cannot 



