64 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
owners a vast deal of trouble and money, without giving a 
tasteful mind a shadow of the beauty which it feels at the 
first glimpse of a neat cottage residence, with its simple, 
sylvan character of well kept lawn and trees. If the latter 
does not rank high in the scale of Landscape Gardening 
as an art, it embodies much of its essence as a source of 
enjoyment — the production of the Beautiful in country 
residences. 
Besides the beauties of form and expression in the differ- 
ent modes of laying out grounds, there are certain univer- 
sal and nherent beauties common to all styles, and, indeed, 
to every composition in the fine arts. Of these, we shall 
especially point out those growing out of the principles of 
UNITY, HARMONY, and VARIETY. 
Unity, or the production of a whole, is a leading 
principle of the highest importance, in every art of taste or 
design, without which no satisfactory result can be 
realized. This arises from the fact, that the mind can only 
attend, with pleasure and satisfaction, to one object, or one 
composite sensation, at the same time. If two distinct 
objects, or classes of objects, present themselves at once to 
us, we can only attend satisfactorily to one, by withdraw- 
ing our attention for the time from the other. Hence the 
necessity of a reference to this leading principle of unity. 
To illustrate the subject, let us suppose a building, 
partially built of wood, with square windows, and the 
remainder of brick or stone, with long and narrow 
windows. However well such a building may be con- 
structed, or however nicely the different proportions of the 
edifice may be adjusted, it is evident it can never form a 
satisfactory whole. The mind can only account for such 
an absurdity, by supposing it to have been built by two 
