A GARDEN DIARY 239 
from greatness. Greatness, like genius, is de- 
pendent upon no such trumpery circumstances, 
but is a self-existent quality, not to be concealed 
though it were hidden under all the rocks 
of Mount Ararat, or had every wave in the 
Atlantic piled upon its head. Let us then assert, 
roundly assert, that no pursuit—certainly no 
natural pursuit—can with any accuracy be called 
petty. It is, moreover, the great advantage of 
all such out-of-door pursuits that they enable 
their followers to confer with Nature at first 
hand, and not through any intermediary. This 
is recognised in the case of what are called the 
higher natural pursuits, but it is equally true of 
all. Like many other potentates Nature has her 
unpleasant, even her very dangerous aspects, 
but it is one of her best points that she is 
no respecter of persons. She is an autocrat, 
and an autocrat in whose eyes all subjects stand 
upon precisely the same level. At her court 
there is no superior, and no inferior. Geologist, 
botanist, zoologist, horticulturist—beetle-hunter, 
stone-breaker, weed-picker, crab-catcher—it 
matters not what we call ourselves, or what 
others call us, so long as it is herself alone 
we follow, she receives us all alike. Within 
those imperial and open-doored halls of hers 
all rapidly find their own level; all may speak 
to her on occasion face to face ; all present their 
own credentials, and all are accepted by her with 
