162 ALPINE FLOWERS AND GARDENS 



and mark how that 'the earned loaf eats the 

 sweetest.' It is well to see how, in spite of all that 

 Man may do to imitate and even to create, he 

 cannot equal, much less rival, Nature. It is well 

 to note, by contrast, the worth and quality of his 

 * creations ' : to see how his originality obliges him 

 to imitate, and how wondrously original ofttimes 

 are his imitations ! It is well to note all this — to 

 see how Nature obtains her gracious and triumphant 

 effects, and how the exigencies of a garden (as we 

 at present mostly understand a garden) oblige our 

 best and loveliest endeavours to take but a back 

 and distant seat. To those who have not seen 

 these things side by side amid the grand and 

 glorious setting of the Alps no wish of ours could 

 be more friendly than that they may have speedy 

 occasion to ' look in the sky to find the moon, not 

 in the pool.' 



