House & Garden 
A WOOD-PATH IN THE GARDENS OF MON REPOS 
path has been cut, these trees have been 
planted by man , and to satisfy man’s needs 
and ideals. Perhaps no two of us could 
agree upon the intensity of pleasure derived 
from the contemplation of a great cathedral, 
on the one hand, or the majesty of a rock- 
ribbed mountain, or the boundless sea, upon 
the other, nor is it worth while that we should 
agree. To some of us, Nature appeals more 
than art, though I believe that to most of us 
each appeals with almost equal force, accord¬ 
ing to our varying moods. 
It follows, then, that if we are to arrive at 
the true sources of artistic enjoyment, we 
must cultivate and love and study, first of all, 
Nature ; and after that, man’s history, man’s 
ideals, all, in fact, that has led him to express 
his wants, his aspirations in physical form. 
This last is nothing more nor less than the 
study of architecture in its broadest sense. 
For all that man builds with an eye to use 
and beauty is architecture in the sense that it 
is governed by one system of principles and 
laws. From time immemorial man has built 
houses and temples and bridges, he has hewn 
roads and laid out gardens and has wrought 
whatever pleased him upon the face of the 
earth to satisfy his needs,material and spiritual. 
And from time immemorial it has pleased him, 
and it pleases us to-day and will always please 
our descendants, to follow certain methods, 
certain principles of dimension, direction and 
proportion in that which we lay out and build. 
These methods are, no doubt, deduced pri¬ 
marily from our innate sense of natural laws. 
But it is scarcely necessary to go into the source 
of them. Suffice it to say that it is an indis¬ 
putable truth that man prefers to set stones 
level, to build walls straight, or, at least, 
symmetrically curving, to make level places 
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