INTRODUCTION 
of humanity, lovers, “ Come into the garden,” has been 
a universal cry with them, until lovers without gardens 
or gardens without lovers are equally unimaginable; 
possibly each exists, but it must be in a halt, amor¬ 
phous fashion, pitiful to contemplate and tragic to 
endure. 
Stories of gardens have come to us from the re¬ 
motest times. The story of Eden is co-eval with the 
story of man himself, and many magic gardens have 
sent their spellbound legends down through the ages. 
The golden-appled gardens of Hesperides, the dim 
Elysian Fields where Orpheus sought his Euridice, 
Arabian places where strange fruit hangs on mysterious 
branches, with many another of fairy lore or folk tale. 
For it has always been the way of man to create in the 
region of the imagination a more perfect example of 
the earth-made, tangible thing he has been able to 
produce in the world of matter. Let him but love 
anything sufficiently and instantly he translates it to 
fairy-land, where it acquires an immortal loveliness, a 
consummate perfection beyond the reach of his earthly 
powers. Since gardens and mankind have always 
thus belonged together, it is no more than natural to 
suppose that they will continue in delicious proximity 
as long as eternity itself. And it is the sincere convic¬ 
tion of most that not only mansions, but gardens, are 
prepared for them in their future existence. 
Like many good things, gardens improve with age. 
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