THE LANDSCAPE BEAUTIFUL 



without sympathy, sometimes with uncon- 

 cealed hostility. How, then, shzill we judge 

 the designer by the result? 



It is true that artists, like other people, 

 must be judged chiefly by results; and 

 the best landscape architects provide means 

 for overcoming or mitigating these diffi-.''^ 

 culties, just as they provide against other 

 technical difficulties in their work. Never- 

 theless, under the best of management 

 these difficulties exist in large measure, 

 and form a serious barrier to the progress 

 of criticism in the field of landscape 

 gardening art. 



We may here pass over the fact that 

 criticism in the field of landscape archi- 

 tecture has no traditions, no criteria, no 

 background of history. These defects are 

 real and serious, but they are not vital, 

 neither are they permanent. They belong 

 only to the infancy of our art, and will 

 be outgrown in due time. 



148 



