Flowers and Gardens 



above all things, scorn nothing. Never 

 fear to admire old-fashioned flowers because 

 they are spoken of with contempt. Never 

 fear to look for yourself; to form, and 

 slowly, if necessary, your own opinion. 

 Scorn, in fact, of anything save moral evil, 

 is perhaps the basest passion known to 

 man. Nothing is further removed from 

 the character of a true-hearted Christian 

 gentleman (and two sorts of gentlemen 

 can hardly be said to exist), or to use a 

 vulgar phrase, there is nothing in the 

 world so snobbish. There are many wide 

 differences betwixt the prince and the 

 peasant, but in whatever rank you meet a 

 snob, habitual scorn of others, or of any of 

 the works of God, is the infallible mark 

 by which you know him. 1 



Perhaps you will say that my disparage- 

 ment of double flowers is the result of my 

 being a botanist, Well, and what if this 

 be true ? The botanist chooses his pursuit 

 from strong instinctive love for flowers, 

 and so is surely more likely to judge 



1 [With this fine denunciation of the scorner we may 

 join Daudet's account : " Mes amis, ne meprisons per- 

 sonne. Le mepris est la ressource des parvenus, des 

 poseurs, des laiderons et des sots, le masque ou s'abrite 

 la nullite, quelquefois la gredinerie, et que, dispense 

 d'esprit, de jugement, de bonte. Tous les bossus sont 

 meprisants ; tous les nez tors se froncent, et dedaignent 

 quand ils rencontrent un nez droit." Tartarin sur les 

 Alpes, c. i. //. N. .] 



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