10 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS I 



apparent, if the watchful supervision of the gar 

 dener were withdrawn, and the antagonistic influ 

 ences of the general cosmic process were no longer 

 sedulously warded off, or counteracted. The walls 

 and gates would decay ; quadrupedal and bipedal 

 intruders would devour and tread down the useful 

 and beautiful plants; birds, insects, blight, and 

 mildew would work their will; the seeds of the 

 native plants, carried by winds or other agencies, 

 would immigrate, and in virtue of their long- 

 earned special adaptation to the local conditions, 

 these despised native weeds would soon choke 

 their choice exotic rivals. A century or two 

 hence, little beyond the foundations of the wall 

 and of the houses and frames would be left, in 

 evidence of the victory of the cosmic powers at 

 work in the state of nature, over the temporary 

 obstacles to their supremacy, set up by the art of 

 the horticulturist. 



It will be admitted that the garden is as much 

 a work of art, 1 or artifice, as anything that can be 

 mentioned. The energy localised in certain human 

 bodies, directed by similarly localised intellects, 

 has produced a collocation of other material bodies 

 which could not be brought about in the state of 

 nature. The same proposition is true of all the 



1 The sense of the term "Art" is becoming narrowed; 

 " work of Art " to most people means a picture, a statue, or a 

 piece of bijouterie; by way of compensation "artist" has in 

 cluded in its wide embrace cooks and ballet girls, no less than 

 painters and sculptors. 



