It needs not to speak of the impurity, of the ugliness. Left
unmentioned, unforbidden, who knows how soon they might die out of men's
lives, perhaps even from the earth's surface? Men hedging gardens have for
centuries set plants under that "letter of law" which "killeth," until the
very word hedge has become a pain and an offence; and all the while there
have been standing in every wild country graceful walls of unhindered
brier and berry, to which the apostles of beauty have been silently
pointing. By degrees gardeners have learned something. The best of them
now call themselves "landscape gardeners;" and that is a concession, if it
means, as I suppose it does, that they will try to copy Nature's
landscapes in their enclosures. I have seen also of late that on rich
men's estates tangled growths of native bushes are being more let alone,
and hedges seem to have had some of the weights and harness taken off of
them.
This is but one little matter among millions with which the Apostle of
Beauty has to do; but it serves for instance of the first requisite he
demands, which is freedom.
Pages:
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157