I PROLEGOMENA 33 



dener treated all the weeds and slugs and birds 

 and trespassers as he would like to be treated, if 

 he were in their place ? 



XII 



Under the preceding heads, I have endeavoured 

 to represent in broad, but I hope faithful, outlines 

 the essential features of the state of nature and of 

 that cosmic process of which it is the outcome, so 

 far as was needful for my argument ; I have con 

 trasted with the state of nature the state of 

 art, produced by human intelligence and energy, 

 as it is exemplified by a garden ; and I have shown 

 that the state of art, here and elsewhere, can be 

 maintained only by the constant counteraction 

 of the hostile influences of the state of nature. 

 Further, I have pointed out that the " horticultural 

 process " which thus sets itself against the " cosmic 

 process " is opposed to the latter in principle, in so 

 far as it tends to arrest the struggle for existence, 

 by restraining the multiplication which is one 

 of the chief causes of that struggle, and by 

 creating artificial conditions of life, better adapted 

 to the cultivated plants than are the conditions of 

 the state of nature. And I have dwelt upon the 

 fact that, though the progressive modification, 

 which is the consequence of the struggle for 

 existence in the state of nature, is at an end. 

 such modification may still be effected by that 



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