VI 
THE EARLY IDEALS 
I T is not enough for us, in reconstructing, that we 
should know what was done in the old gardens; 
we must know why, as well. For the spirit of the an¬ 
cient garden lies not in its outward form, by any 
means, except in the sense that all outward form ex¬ 
presses an inner. We shall not arrive at this inner, 
however—this soul—unless we work from the with¬ 
out back into the within, carefully and patiently. 
And all efforts at building, here and to-day, a garden 
in the old fashion that shall embody the charm which 
rests within and upon old gardens—a charm apart 
from the mellowing of Time—will come to nought 
unless, through having done this, a sound and sym¬ 
pathetic conception of the kind of living and thinking 
which prevailed in the old days, and found expression 
then in gardens and whatever men made, is first ac¬ 
quired. We must get into the spirit of “then,” in or¬ 
der to create anything more than a blank form and a 
lifeless shell. For a garden is the subtlest and most 
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