The Art of Gardening 



of the moment as best he may. He will 

 conceive his general idea in deference to the 

 local commands of Nature; develop his gen- 

 eral scheme as artistic fitness counsels j dis- 

 cover the special features which are needed 

 to complete it (considering which Nature 

 will permit among those he might desire) ; 

 and then, half unconsciously perhaps, search 

 for memories of natural results which may 

 teach him how to achieve his own. In edu- 

 cating himself he w^ill have tried less to re- 

 member definitely this and that particular 

 natural result than to understand how Nat- 

 ure goes to work to produce beautiful re- 

 sults. He will have tried to permeate him- 

 self with her spirit, to comprehend her aims, 

 to learn what she means by variety in unity, 

 by effective simplicity, by harmonious con- 

 trasts, by fitnes-s of feature and detail, by 

 beauty of line and color, by distinctness of 

 expression — in a word, by composition. 

 He will have tried to train his memory for 

 general rather than for particular truths, and 

 chiefly to purify his taste and stimulate his 

 imagination ; for he will have known that 

 while, in some ways, he is Nature's favorite 



17 



