BEAUTIES AND PRINCIPLES OF THE ART. 
63 
character, and plants, builds, and embellishes, as he should, 
constantly aiming to elicit and strengthen it — will soon 
arrive at a far higher and more satisfactory result, than one 
who, in the common manner, works at random. The latter 
may succeed in producing pleasing grounds — he wall un- 
doubtedly add to the general beauty and tasteful appearance 
of the country, and we gladly accord him our thanks. But 
the improver who unites with pleasing forms an expres- 
sion of sentiment, will affect not only the common eye, but 
much more powerfully, the imagination, and the refined 
and delicate taste. 
But there are many persons with small cottage places, 
of little decided character, who have neither room, time 
nor income, to attempt the improvement of their grounds 
fully, after either of those two schools. How shall they 
render their places tasteful and agreeable, in the easiest 
manner ? We answer, by attempting only the simple and 
the natural ; and the unfailing way to secure this, is by 
employing as leading features only trees and grass. A 
soft verdant lawn, a few forest or ornamental trees 
well grouped, walks, and a few flowers, give universal 
pleasure ; they contain in themselves, in fact, the basis of 
all our agreeable sensations in a landscape garden (na- 
tural beauty, and the recognition of art) ; and they are 
the most enduring sources of enjoyment in any place. 
There are no country seats in the United States so unsa- 
tisfactory and tasteless, as those in which, without any 
definite, aim, everything is attempted; and a mixed jumble 
of discordant forms, materials, ornaments, and decorations, 
is assembled — a part in one style and a bit in another, 
without the least feeling of unity or congruity. These 
rural bedlams, full of all kinds of absurdities, without a 
leading character or expression of any sort, cost their 
