IN AN ALPINE GARDEN 139 



simplicity of Eden, content and capable in that 

 simplicity because he himself was simple ; that he 

 was as a lichen on a rock? That since then the 

 trend of his course has been, and is, towards a 

 return to Eden, where he will live and thrive 

 because of his new simplicity begot of thorough 

 complexity ; that he will have become as an Alpine 

 on a rock ? For whereas he was ignorantly simple, 

 he is becoming wisely simple. Through all luxuri- 

 ance, superabundance, and grossness, he is wending 

 his way : to end content and capable amid the 

 severity of Alpine conditions. Not clothless, 

 grubbing for nuts and lentils, as the complex 

 ' Simple Life ' of to-day would so much have him ; 

 but a gorgeously simple prince in a palace, rid of 

 all exaggeration and make-believe, devoid of all 

 untimeliness, entirely unsophisticated, utterly 

 natural Nature's wisest, richest, most splendid 

 ascetic. 



But there is something more than metaphysical 

 and other abstractions to be garnered from a visit 

 to an Alpine garden in the Alps ! There is much 

 of great practical worth to those who possess a 

 rockery at home, or who purpose building one. 

 For whatever a rock-garden may be elsewhere, 

 here in the Alps it is more than Mr. Eden Phill- 



