PROLEGOMENA 69 



XII. 



Under the preceding heads, I have endeavoured to 

 represent in broad, but I hope faithful, outlines the 

 essential features of the state of nature and of that cos- 

 mic 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 counter- 

 action of the hostile influences of the state of nature. 

 Further, I have pointed out that the "horticultural proc- 

 ess," 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 mul- 

 tiplication which is one of the chief causes of that strug- 

 gle, 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 progressive 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 by that selection, in view of an ideal of useful- 

 ness, or of pleasantness, to man, of which the state of 

 nature knows nothing. 



I have proceeded to show that a colony, set down in 

 a country in the state of nature, presents close analogies 

 with a garden ; and I have indicated the course of action 

 which an administrator, able and willing to carry out 

 horticultural principles, would adopt, in order to secure 

 the success of such a newly formed polity, supposing it to 

 be capable of indefinite expansion. In the contrary case, 

 I have shown that difficulties must arise; that the un- 

 limited increase of the population over a limited area 



