94 SUBURBAN GARDENS 
mind that the garden statue will be fixed in its 
position through all the weather vagaries of the 
four seasons and during the garden barrenness 
of half the year. Any figure that approaches 
a representation of the altogether human 
therefore, if clothed or partially clothed, will 
not be pleasant to contemplate throughout the 
year, for the very good though perhaps childish 
reason that it will seem very cold and wet and 
suggest discomfort too keenly, in storm. Im- 
agination makes us childish very often; and 
even representations of the gods of the an- 
cients are not beyond thus impressing our hu- 
man and comfort-loving side — if they wear 
drapery or clothing. Nudes, however, do not 
have this effect; and of course satyrs and 
nymphs and the great god Pan come under this 
general exception. 
And then abstract conceptions rather than 
incident should be chosen; and no better nor 
more appropriate subjects can be found than 
mythology offers. Best of all to my mind, for 
general use, are Hermae — those graceful swell- 
ing pillars surmounted by heads of varying 
character, all representing the god Hermes 
originally, but now frequently the likeness of 
satyr or faun or nymph or just a fanciful head 
— that present lines so pleasing when thrown 
