Aims and Methods 



which we want to realize ; to dispose our 

 ground, and to choose and place our plants, 

 with the requirements of this picture before 

 us — this is to get the highest degree of pleas- 

 ure from our planting. Nor can it be ob- 

 jected that, when the picture is once ar- 

 ranged, our work and pleasure are over un- 

 less it can be perpetually tampered with and 

 disarranged. To the artist in gardening the 

 mutability of Nature is often a heavy cross, 

 since he knows that when his result is con- 

 sidered finished," he must leave it to 

 others who will permit it (even if they do 

 not aid it) to transform itself into something 

 very different. But the proprietor or gar- 

 dener who is trying on a modest scale to 

 emulate the artist, finds in this very muta- 

 bility an assurance of the permanence of his 

 pleasure. Day by day and year by year he 

 can watch the development of his picture, 

 guard against Nature's disfiguring touches, 

 welcome her happy accidents, and carefully 

 correct and retouch the result himself while 

 preserving its general integrity. And this 

 work will surely be pleasant, for to the sci- 

 entific satisfaction of the cultivator will be 



33 



