THE AMATEUR GARDEN 



only a few days ago, "must always produce great 

 social inequalities. They are needed mainly by 

 and for those who see no need of them." 



I admitted that the need is as real, though not 

 so stern, as the need of inequalities in military 

 rank. 



"But," I said, "in the military relation you 

 must also vividly keep up, across all inequalities 

 of rank, a splendid sentiment of common inter- 

 est and devotion, mutual confidence and affec- 

 tion, or your army will be but a broken weapon, 

 a sword without a hilt." 



"Yes," he agreed, "and so in civilization; if 

 it would be of the highest it must draw across 

 its lines of social cleavage the bonds of civic fel- 

 lowship." 



It was what I had intended to say myself. 

 Social selection raises walls between us which 

 we all help to build, but they need not be 

 Chinese walls. They need not be so high that 

 civic fellowship, even at its most feminine 

 stature, may not look over them every now and 

 then to ask: 



"How does my neighbor's garden grow?" 



156 



