A GARDEN DIARY 239 



from greatness. Greatness, like genius, is de- 

 pendent upon no such trumpery circumstances, 

 but is a self-existent quality, not to be concealed 

 though it were hidden under all the rocks 

 of Mount Ararat, or had every wave in the 

 Atlantic piled upon its head. Let us then assert, 

 roundly assert, that no pursuit certainly no 

 natural pursuit can with any accuracy be called 

 petty. It is, moreover, the great advantage of 

 all such out-of-door pursuits that they enable 

 their followers to confer with Nature at first 

 hand, and not through any intermediary. This 

 is recognised in the case of what are called the 

 higher natural pursuits, but it is equally true of 

 all. Like many other potentates Nature has her 

 unpleasant, even her very dangerous aspects, 

 but it is one of her best points that she is 

 no respecter of persons. She is an autocrat, 

 and an autocrat in whose eyes all subjects stand 

 upon precisely the same level. At her court 

 there is no superior, and no inferior. Geologist, 

 botanist, zoologist, horticulturist beetle-hunter, 

 stone - breaker, weed -picker, crab -catcher it 

 matters not what we call ourselves, or what 

 others call us, so long as it is herself alone 

 we follow, she receives us all alike. Within 

 those imperial and open-doored halls of hers 

 all rapidly find their own level ; all may speak 

 to her on occasion face to face ; all present their 

 own credentials, and all are accepted by her with 



