224 A GARDEN DIARY 
AUGUST I0, I900 
IFE; Life the indomitable, the multifarious ; 
Life, as it rises in the scale, becoming con- 
scious of itself—the thought of this recurs again 
and again to one’s mind, and each time with a 
greater sense of power, and of a sort of conso- 
lation. What limit need be assigned, one asks 
oneself, to its capabilities, to the endless trans- 
formations, to the possibilities, as yet unguessed 
at, which may have been destined for it by its 
Inventor from the beginning of things? If the 
mere personal consciousness, the precarious per- 
sonal life, is rarely without an element of dis- 
comfort, in this larger sense that personal life all 
but disappears, and with the loss of it comes— 
not perhaps actual joy, that could hardly be 
looked for—but at least a great exhilaration, 
an extraordinary sense of width, of serenity, 
and of detachment. 
As the mind descends deeper and deeper into 
that serene abyss it seems to shake itself free for 
the time being from all that confused, battling, 
