I PROLEGOMENA. 33 



dener treated all the weeds and slugs and birds 

 and trespassers as he would like to be treated, if 

 he were in their place? 



XII. 



Under the preceding heads, I have endeav- 

 oured to represent in broad, but I hope faithful, 

 outlines the essential features of the state of na- 

 ture and of that cosmic process of which it is the 

 outcome, so far as was needful for my argument; 

 I have contrasted with the state of nature the 

 state of art, produced by human intelligence and 

 energy, as it is exemplified by a garden; and I 

 have shown that the state of art, here and else- 

 where, can be maintained only by the constant 

 counteraction of the hostile influences of the state 

 of nature. Further, I have pointed out that the 

 " horticultural process," which thus sets itself 

 against the " cosmic process " is opposed to the 

 latter in principle, in so far as it tends to arrest the 

 struggle for existence, by restraining the multipli- 

 cation which is one of the chief causes of that 

 struggle, and by creating artificial conditions of 

 life, better adapted to the cultivated plants than 

 are the conditions of the state of nature. And I 

 have dwelt upon the fact that, though the pro- 

 gressive modification, which is the consequence of 

 the struggle for existence in the state of nature, is 

 at an end, such modification may still be effected 

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