SUMMER IN THE ALPS 77 



slope over there, the invasion appears as much 

 vegetable and insect as human ! 



Once again, then, we catch a glimpse of the 

 difficulty, and even, strictly speaking, the impossi- 

 bility of drawing sharp, dogmatic lines anywhere in 

 circumstance. The so-called hard-and-fast principle 

 of * each country for its countrymen ' is merely the 

 relative principle of a season. Men may raise and 

 maintain vast fleets and armies for the protection 

 and imposition of this principle, but the inevitable 

 trend of things is towards ' share and share alike.' 

 Men may attempt to resist this trend of things 

 they may make all strenuous efforts to negative it 

 but in the end their efforts are so many efforts in 

 its favour. The trend is, in spite of all, for nation 

 to absorb nation. And are there no indications of 

 this trend in other creations than Man ? May it 

 not be that the goal of brotherhood is not for him 

 alone ? May it not be that evolution is diminishing 

 disabilities and extending adaptability in other 

 directions besides that of the human species ? Have 

 we to suppose that, apart from Man, the last word 

 upon the tendency to relative ubiquity is expressed 

 to-day by the Horse, the Sparrow, the House-fly, 

 or the Nettle ? There is much temptation to think 

 that we have not ; there seems much to indicate 



