Gardener's Faith 



I will not argue. They shall be led round the 

 garden and made to admire and smell every flower 

 separately, and if Elisabeth becomes restive, she 

 shall be presented with facts and figures of the 

 cheapness of it all, and she cannot help but appre- 

 ciate that. 



Economy does not mean thrift. Economy, I 

 take it, means getting twenty shillingsworth for 

 every pound, and with skill and knowledge it is 

 possible to make a sovereign carry the purchasing 

 power of a five-pound note. The only valid rule 

 of economy is this : " You cannot both eat your 

 cake and have it." 



Strict observance of this rule puts money in 

 your purse and leads you almost automatically to 

 the selection of the right and best sort of cake : 

 with the result that energy, which is the only real 

 capital and wealth, is economised and waste is 

 reduced to a minimum. 



" Energy," I find in the dictionary, defined as 

 " Interest, power, vigour, spirit, life." 



When that is considered and digested, it will be 

 seen that to translate energy into terms of pounds, 

 shillings and pence, is to go round two sides of a 

 triangle instead of from point to point. Economy 

 in money is impossible without economy of energy ; 

 and here we touch the root of Elisabeth's fallacy, 



179 



