The Artist 



of our countrymen had Emerson's cathohc 

 enthusiasm for beauty, if only because more 

 of them might then determine upon this 

 half-neglected art as the occupation of their 

 lives. 



But in the practice of no art can all be 

 poetry and pleasure, sentiment and a de- 

 light in beauty ; and this one means much 

 hard, practical, out-door work, and close ap- 

 plication to preparatory office-tasks. Nat- 

 ure fights in one way against her would-be 

 improver as vigorously as in another she 

 assists him, and human nature, in the shape 

 of the client, is even more prone to hamper 

 him than the architect ; for, while some 

 people realize that they know nothing of 

 architecture, very few will confess that they 

 know nothing of out-door beauty, even in 

 its artistic forms. 



The student of this art will never gain a 

 mastery of beauty if he does not begin with 

 very serious study of prosaic things. He 

 must learn about road-building and drainage, 

 about soils and exposures, about plants and 

 the growing of plants, about the useful and 



361 



