Flowers and Gardens 



haired lady of the garden. To what 

 pitch of degradation must that man's 

 taste have sunk who could reject and 

 despise so elegant a tree as this ! 



Note 2 



But why should we not receive the 

 garden as a pure creation of the gar- 

 dener, feel that it is beautiful, and be 

 satisfied with that, without looking any 

 further ? The question is implicitly an- 

 swered in the last chapter. Because in 

 such a manner we shall never gain a 

 strong interest in the individual flowers. 

 Unfortunately, this easy course is the 

 very one which most people prefer to 

 take, and which the gardeners desire that 

 they should take. But to feel deep de- 

 light in plants, and yet think little about 

 them — to love, and not wish to know 

 intimately the object loved — is a palpable 

 impossibility. When people act in this 

 way, their feelings cannot be worth much. 

 Besides, to an unspoiled taste the beauty 

 of our modern gardens is in many re- 

 spects unpleasing, and we greatly miss 

 the higher kind of beauty of which it is 

 depriving us. 



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