A GARDEN DIARY 115 



creature. At the same time don't be too sure 

 that he may not make a sudden leap yet out 

 of your fingers ! Stranger things have hap- 

 pened." 



So many caricaturists, friendly and unfriendly, 

 have made capital out of this struggle of ours 

 that I rather wonder none of them seem to have 

 hit upon this familiar Teniers. That accuracy 

 that pertains to all genius is plainly visible, 

 moreover, as one looks at it, for the portraits 

 evidently they are portraits might be those of 

 any group of our worthy enemies to-day. As for 

 the old fellow at the table, it might be Oom Paul 

 himself in proper person ; the same air of some- 

 what sanctimonious rectitude ; the same broad 

 fleshy nose, the same protruding chin, the same 

 semicircular sweep of grizzled beard. It sets 

 one reflecting upon the persistency of national 

 types. Centuries rise, and grow, and fade away ; 

 wars are made and cease again, but probably 

 few things in this fluctuating world change so 

 little, or with such a snail-like slowness, as the 

 few broad lines upon which the characteristics 

 of any given race have once got themselves 

 legibly inscribed. 



