A GARDEN DIARY 231 
be antecedent, not alone to itself, but to the 
whole social warp and woof, of which it is an 
outcome. Just as the trees in one wood seem, 
to anyone who wanders often in it, to have ac- 
quired a sort of identity, so two who have walked 
for some time very closely together, though they 
may differ as widely as an ash does from a pine, 
as an oak does from a hornbeam, acquire a sort 
of similarity, due to the same sunshine having 
warmed, the same storms having shaken and 
darkened both. It is well to speak a good word 
now and then of a personage whom one habitu- 
ally abuses, so let it be recorded in favour of that 
odd compound of good and ill which we call 
our existence that, if it has thwarted our desires, 
dwarfed our ambitions, nipped in our joys, chilled 
back our aspirations, cut down our hopes, and 
not infrequently wrung our hearts, at least 
it has given us our friends! 
