MOVED BY AN IDEAL 153 



must have within it the ideal of the rose to be. 

 Each particle will act on its own initiative, but all 

 will act under the mutual influence of one another, 

 and in their togetherness will make up the rose- 

 spirit, being informed by the ideal of the rose which 

 in its turn will suffuse the whole. And this rose- 

 spirit — this rose-disposition — as it gives itself play, 

 so controls and directs their movements that 

 eventually the full-blown rose comes into being. 



What happens is, we may imagine, much the 

 same as what happened in the case of Australia. 

 A handful of settlers from the mother-country 

 formed the germ-seed from which the Australia of 

 to-day has grown up. There was no external despot 

 ordering each individual Australian to do this, that, 

 and the other — to come this way and go that, and 

 to stop in one place this year and in another place 

 the next. Each Australian acting on his own 

 initiative, and all in their togetherness, created the 

 Australian spirit, which again reacting upon each 

 Australian induced him to act in accordance with 

 that spirit. And so in time Australia, assimilating 

 individuals from outside and absorbing them into 

 its texture, and imbuing them with the Australian 

 spirit, grew up into manhood in the Great War 

 and astonished the world by its strong individuality, 

 its character, intelligence, determination, and good 

 comradeship. 



In the same way these particles of the rose-seed, 

 each acting of itself, in their collectivity formed the 

 rose-spirit. And each was in turn imbued by the 

 rose-spirit. ' They had in them unconsciously the 

 ideal of the rose-bush with its roots, stem, branches, 



