A GARDEN DIARY 73 



The wisdom of the ages has hitherto declined to 

 answer that question, a fact which probably proves 

 its wisdom. Better or not, one thing is at least 

 certain, and that is that they are extremely different. 

 " Men descend to meet," says Emerson, and he 

 may be right. I am inclined myself however to 

 think that that profundity, that peculiar mental 

 greatness of which, like others, I am perfectly 

 conscious when I am alone, is less a solid than a 

 gaseous greatness ; a sort of exaltation, dependent 

 for the most part upon the fact of there being 

 no one to contradict me. We are all of us at 

 all times microcosms, but never are we so com- 

 pletely microcosms as when we are quite by 

 ourselves. Then we seem to swell into a per- 

 fectly multitudinous host, all the members of 

 which exhibit a singular unanimity, and moreover 

 a touching desire to endorse our own views, how- 

 ever often these may contradict one another ! 



Like many other honest-minded civilians, my 

 thoughts have of late been considerably taken up 

 with schemes of amateur strategy. The plans of 

 campaign that I have formulated in the course 

 of the last two months would have puzzled 

 Von Moltke, and might even have gone far to 

 surprise Napoleon ! If I have not forwarded 

 any of them to our 'Generals in South Africa it 

 has been mainly because I felt that it might be 

 kinder to allow them to go on in their own way 

 without any assistance of mine. I heard lately 



