Page:Japanese Gardens (Taylor).djvu/176

114 But although the perfection of each detail of the accessories of a well is so carefully looked after, each is only a part of the whole, and must be in keeping with it. And that whole, the well, is but a part of a greater whole, the garden, and the garden part of the country itself. There must be no jarring note.

I like to think that the wells, in their grounds, are more than places from which to draw water, more than picturesque adjuncts to their gardens, more than pretty foregrounds to a picture; that they are an expression of the whole national character. We are too apt to judge of these people hastily, and, because they are so charming on the surface, to think that they have no depths. I believe that, as deep in the heart of their gardens an eternal water springs, so in the hidden depths of their natures, charming, gay, polite, responsive, there lies the eternal fount of deep spiritual feeling; that the flowers of their gracefulness and tact and courtesy would wither, as those in their gardens would, if they were not watered and refreshed from the recesses of that deep and ever-bubbling well.

—Those beautiful and artistic objects for holding water, in the shape of bowls, basins, and vases, have so often excited envy in my heart that I approach the subject with some timidity. In these indispensable adjuncts to a Japanese garden, these people (than whom