The Art of Gardening 
grudge man’s skill its major share. In short, 
the landscape-gardener’s task is to produce 
beautiful pictures. Nature supplies him 
with his materials, always giving him vital- 
ity, light, atmosphere, color, and details, 
and often lovely or imposing forms in the 
conformation of the soil ; and she will see 
to the thorough finishing of his design. 
But the design is the main thing, and the 
design must be of his own conceiving. 
It is easy to see that this is true when 
formal, “architectural” garden-designing 
is in question. But it is just as true of nat- 
uralistic landscape - work. Nature seldom 
shows a large composition which an artist 
would wish to reproduce ; and if by chance 
she does, it is impossible for him to repro- 
duce it. Practical difficulties hedge him 
narrowly in, and appropriateness controls 
his efforts even more imperiously than those 
of other artists. His aim is never purely 
ideal ; he can never think of beauty, or even 
of fitness, in the abstract. He may practise 
with abstract problems on paper, but with 
each piece of his actual work Nature says to 
him : “ Here in this spot I have drawn a 
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