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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Information respecting character as developed is very small in comparison 

 to its immensity. There are continents, islands, and countries of beauties 

 that have not a single finger-post ; the arts of man's technical labours have 

 received far more of man's genius than any studies upon impressions. 

 Botanists have given wonderful and minute information of the world 

 Flora, creditable to man's efforts and beneficial to his wants ; but this 

 information has been gathered with the object in full view of man's bodily 

 wants. However just and praiseworthy this object may be, we require 

 from silent life something more than help to our bodies ; for although a 

 chicken may not be able to come forth without entering through a period 

 of shell life, still, however much it may respect the shell that is necessary 

 for its present life, it nevertheless must aim at other pursuits to become a 

 full-fledged bird. Thus it is with man : whatever time is required for 

 bodily development, there is necessity for the development of his thoughts 

 also. 



If a fair portion of the world's artistic thought were employed by the 

 powers that be upon the world's beauty, for its preservation and develop- 

 ment, the desolation that marks man's footsteps (such as is seen around 

 large towns in Europe and the railroads of America) would not con- 

 taminate man and his human senses as it does at the present moment. 



In observing the manner in which horticulturists have endeavoured to 

 embellish the soil, we find that in many instances, instead of assisting, 

 they have gone exactly counter to nature, and, to all appearances, have 

 been actuated by no appreciable canon of art. On the other hand, we find 

 cases where the arrangement is really beautiful, an instinctive feeling of 

 love for nature having unwittingly guided the operator's hand. In fact, 

 where good feeling and correct observation are the rule, results will follow 

 frequently much surpassing our expectations. 



Beauty is of the infinite, therefore it cannot be seen or understood by 

 mere materialists. Beauty is akin to the realness of human life — its 

 spiritual existence. It is the breath of pure impressions to our souls, and 

 belongs to the " still small voice " that cannot be transmuted into words, 

 although in its results it is more potent than thunder or the roar of many 

 cannon. It is of the innate being of God-like man ; he sees and lives in 

 its heaven, by the inner sight and the grasp of life, according to his 

 developed being. 



The object of beauty is man's development ; character gives to man 

 the objects of beauty, and in character rests the art of arrangement to 

 move the human impulses. When natural principles and laws of develop- 

 ment are known, all arrangement becomes the development of character. 

 Man uses the same eyes to see every subject, and the same aspirations to 

 satisfy, knowingly or unknowingly. Man's aspirations require the satis- 

 faction of all his wants, and, to gain this end, nothing less will do than 

 the edification of man himself. To be above mere animal life is the 

 natural innate desire of all men. The raising of man's life above animal 

 life is the development of his ideal — namely, that all things affecting his 

 development of the higher life should develop infinite impressions — so 

 that when one arranges silent life for buildings, parks, gardens, farms, 

 streets, roads, &c, one gives each style its proper character ; but in all 



