182 FLOWER-FIELDS OF ALPINE SWITZERLAND 



to Nature. Gardening touches well-springs of being, 

 and helps materially towards the moral advance- 

 ment of a race. It is affected by the same funda- 

 mental "psychic" influence as is painting, or, 

 indeed, any other of our kindred enthusiasms. In 

 it we are striving, not so much to express Nature, 

 as to express ourselves through Nature ; not so 

 much to transcribe Nature line for line, as to 

 translate — as creatures who consider ourselves so 

 much apart from, so much above, Nature — what 

 we think we feel, perhaps see, and almost certainly 

 dream in her. And far be it from me to aver 

 that we are not striving even to supplant Nature — 

 seemingly a mad ambition, for in the end, do as 

 we will, Nature, and nothing but Nature, has found 

 expression. Yet it is not quite as mad an ambition 

 as a first inspection would lead us to suppose. 

 Indeed, it is good, if not actually great ; for it is 

 the biggest of the many bunches of carrots dang- 

 ling in front of the human animal's nose, inducing 

 him to keep " pegging away." 



Independent and original as we may consider 

 ourselves, we yet from time to time have to turn 

 and take our cue from Nature. She, after all, 

 is the source at which we must refresh our jaded 

 imaginations; she is the storehouse from which 



