DAFFODIL CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION. 



297 



bow the knee and lift up our hearts before the reigning beauty 

 of the springtide, under the auspices of this evergreen institu- 

 tion, the Koyal Horticultural Society of England. It is quite 

 sufficient for most of us, and indeed most satisfying, to know 

 that, in all their fresh young health and beauty, Queen Daffodil 

 and Prince Narcissus are victorious and happy before our very 

 eyes to-day. For once the illustrated book is vanquished, and 

 even the nurseryman's catalogue, attractive as it is with picture 

 or with the doings of the pen — for once, I say, they seem bare 

 and barren to us, because Nature herself, at her very best, is here 

 before our admiring eyes. This is a point I am anxious to 

 emphasise — books and book-lore of the best are goo.d, art or 

 artist's work of the best is better, but Nature and art at their 

 best, as we see them here to-day, are better than books or pic- 

 tures, indeed quite unapproachable, as all who see this noble 

 exhibition must allow. This is only another way of saying that 

 the best record is inferior always to the best things ; but how- 

 ever often before expressed, however well expressed before, it is 

 yet a truism that may and must be preached or said for all 

 time. 



In all the world's progress we see evidence of a twofold 

 motive power. First comes the poet, who as a prophet always 

 leads the thought of the rest of mankind. The poet is a 

 prophet because he instinctively feels what is right. He may be 

 a musical poet like Wagner, a rhythmical poet like Tennyson, 

 a prose poet like Ruskin, a pictorial poet like Turner or 

 Leighton, or a garden poet like Brown or Marnock, but the main 

 fact remains that the leading men now as of yore are the 

 bards, and certainly the leading poets of Greece, and Italy ? 

 and of England have been generous in their praises of the 

 Narcissus. 



But we must also have working followers of even the most 

 potent leaders, and here to-day is a gorgeous flower show made 

 entirely, or almost entirely, by gentlemen like Mr. Walker, Mr, 

 Ware, and Mr. Barr, men whose motto in life is "Work, not 

 words." But if you go to the very root of this question, you will 

 find a beautiful substratum of poetry in the lives and inner 

 thoughts of these so-called practical men ; and inasmuch as this 

 is true, so you will find is the real and permanent value of their 

 work. There are, of course, such things in theory as absolute 



