76 OLD-FASHIONED GARDENING 



which we designate as "individuality," along definite 

 lines. And these lines become the tracing of the form 

 of our individuality, in whatever we do, visible in a 

 thousand ways yet not discernible to any but the close 

 observer perhaps. Handwriting is the simplest illus- 

 tration of this truth; no two persons form a single let- 

 ter of the alphabet identically the same, and though 

 the letter may be perfectly legible in ten thousand 

 thousand examples, each will possess a tracing of the 

 individuality of the writer. 



What is true of the individual is true of races. So 

 it is literally and actually true to say that a certain 

 form of architecture, of speech, of art, of music, of 

 dancing, of design, of what not, is characteristic of a 

 race. It cannot be otherwise; whatever exists at all 

 has form — even so elusive a thing as the individuality 

 of man, and of men. 



So much for the theory; how does it provCj under 

 a test? Almost absurdly true in the case in hand. 

 Given a people of the Dutch type — a type that has 

 not changed appreciably within the time we are con- 

 sidering — strong, careful, patient, neat, exact, not par- 

 ticularly imaginative but gifted with an infinite ca- 

 pacity for taking pains, there is just one form within 

 our ken that corresponds exactly with their character. 

 That form is the square; four equal sides it has, and 

 four right angles — the embodiment of exactness, neat- 



