VI 



THE EARLY IDEALS 



IT is not enough for us, in reconstructing, that we 

 should know what was done in the old gardens; 

 we must know why, as well. For the spirit of the an- 

 cient garden lies not in its outward form, by any 

 means, except in the sense that all outward form ex- 

 presses an inner. We shall not arrive at this inner, 

 however — this soul — ^unless we work from the with- 

 out back into the within, carefully and patiently. 

 And all efforts at building, here and to-day, a garden 

 in the old fashion that shall embody the charm which 

 rests within and upon old gardens — a charm apart 

 from the mellowing of Time — will come to nought 

 unless, through having done this, a sound and sym- 

 pathetic conception of the kind of living and thinking 

 which prevailed in the old days, and found expression 

 then in gardens and whatever men made, is first ac- 

 quired. We must get into the spirit of "then," in or- 

 der to create anything more than a blank form and a 

 lifeless shell. For a garden is the subtlest and most 



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