138 A GARDEN DIARY 



MARCH 20, 1900 



"PROM the defence of Vanity, to the defence of 

 -*- England! "Attend to your transitions, my 

 boy," is said to have been the reply of a veteran 

 orator, when pressed by a junior for some axiom 

 that would sum up the whole art of oratory in 

 a sentence. Literature also, like oratory, has to 

 attend to her transitions, else dire confusion, 

 and the just indignation of her readers, is the re- 

 sult. The diarist stands upon a slightly different 

 footing. If there is such a being as a literary 

 libertine, or harmless law-breaker, he perhaps 

 is entitled to the name. His pages are filled 

 up according to no settled plan, and with an 

 eye to no particular convention. He claims to 

 be free as the wind upon the tree-tops, free 

 as all our unwritten moods, which are rarely 

 quite the same for many consecutive hours. 

 Such at least, is the claim of this particular 

 diarist. To-day, for instance, leaving the garden, 

 and all that relates to it, to take care of themselves, 

 he has wandered away upon the theme, of all 



