THE ABUSE AND PROTECTION OF ALPINES 119 



his intelligence, when he commenced to cease 

 accepting things as they were, and started to impose 

 himself and his ideas upon Nature and prove him- 

 self in very deed her ' insurgent son ' — since those 

 dim and dawning days he has meddled and 

 muddled to such an extent that, do what he now 

 may, he is inextricably compromised. To make 

 life possible, to enjoy a modicum of peace and- to 

 reap a modicum of beauty, he must, with less and 

 less muddle, continue to meddle. Complications 

 of his own contriving will beset him and undo him 

 if he cease from strenuous meddling. Having put 

 his hand to the plough, there can be no question of 

 him loosing his hold or of turning back. On and 

 on must he plough, furrow after furrow, in every 

 direction, in every sort of ground, ever deeper, ever 

 further afield, and with no limit yet in sight to all 

 he has still to plough. Verily, 'The Eden of 

 modern progress is a kitchen-garden !' — ay, more 

 than that : a ' French ' kitchen-garden — a garden of 

 ' intensive culture ' ! A diagnosis of man's position 

 shows that it is not unhke that of 'Poor Mrs. 

 Somebody,' who 'swallowed a fly.' One thing 

 leads to another; one remedy calls for a further 

 remedy, usually upon a scale of rising importance, 

 until contingencies which at one time would have 



