The ideal Japanese garden being therefore, before all, a retreat for secluded ease and meditation, it should be in accord with the temperament, sentiments, and occupation of the owner. The garden of the priest or poet may be designed to express a character of dignified solitude, virtue, and self denial; that of the samurai should be of bold, martial character. Other sentiments, such as peaceful retirement, modesty, prosperity, old age, and connubial felicity, have been attributed to famous historical examples. Fanciful as such theories at first thought appear, they can be shown to be not incapable of practical application. Nature in her changing moods,�placid, gay, savage, or solitary,�arouses in the soul of man emotions of varied shades, according to his temperament and culture. Traditional and historical associations also assist in conveying such impressions. Like the symbols of medi�val art, many of the motives of Japanese decoration have become in themselves expressive of moral virtues. In the horticultural art, the Elysian Isle, the lotus-covered lake, the pine tree, the plum tree, the bamboo, the suggested shapes of tortoise and crane, and even the antique well, have all an art-language of their own helping to convey some familiar sentiment.
