BEAUTIFUL GARDENS IN AMERICA 
and yet again. Our unwritten motto is: “If others can, 
then why not we?’’ Even the man who “contends that 
God is not” shows all this wondrous reliance in the unseen 
force within his garden. 
With hands plunged into the cool earth we seem to 
bury in the magic soil all thoughts that jar till we almost 
feel ourselves a part of the garden plan; as much in har- 
mony with it as the note of the bird, the soft splash of the 
fountain, the tints of the flowers and their perfumes. 
This idea is better expressed in four lines found inscribed 
on an old garden seat: 
“ The kiss of the sun for pardon, 
The song of the birds for mirth, 
One is nearer God’s heart in a garden 
Than anywhere else on earth.” 
It is not a selfish life — the object in view is not a 
narrow one. How few would be content to create a beau- 
tiful garden if none could see ! And our pleasure is not 
complete until others have shared its sweetness with us. 
The gardener is developing nature in the simplest and 
truest way, following the thought of the first great Archi- 
tect and gladdening the hearts of men with the vision 
beautiful of the possibilities within plant life. In the flower 
garden the efforts are for upbuilding, for giving back some 
of the beauty intended in the Perfect Plan, too often de- 
faced by man’s heedlessness. 
Dating back their beginning some two hundred years in 
3 
