1 PROLEGOMENA. 13 



the plant world, opposes the same energy as it 

 works through the state of nature, but a similar 

 antagonism is everywhere manifest between the 

 artificial and the natural. Even in the state of 

 nature itself, what is the struggle for existence 

 but the antagonism of the results of the cosmic 

 process in the region of life, one to another? * 



IV. 



Not only is the state of nature hostile to the 

 state of art of the garden; but the principle of 

 the horticultural process, by which the latter is 

 created and maintained, is antithetic to that of the 

 cosmic process. The characteristic feature of the 

 latter is the intense and unceasing competition of 

 the struggle for existence. The characteristic of 

 the former is the elimination of that struggle, by 

 the removal of the conditions which give rise to 

 it. The tendency of the cosmic process is to bring 

 about the adjustment of the forms of plant life 

 to the current conditions; the tendency of the 

 horticultural process is the adjustment of the con- 

 ditions to the needs of the forms of plant life 

 which the gardener desires to raise. 



The cosmic process uses unrestricted multipli- 



* Or to put the case still more simply. When a man 

 lays hold of the two ends of a piece of string and pulls 

 them, with intent to break it, the right arm is certainly 

 exerted in antagonism to the left arm; yet both arms 

 derive their energy from the same original source. 



