168 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



In considering all questions bearing upon " life " and its 

 activities it is useful, and indeed necessary, to observe and pre- 

 serve a proper balance ; in other words, everything must proceed 

 in relationship to its surroundings, and in a well-ordered state 

 as in a well-ordered life, or vice versa, right advancement depends 

 upon right relationship — upon a properly maintained balance. 

 If by any chance one section of circumstance or one set of cir- 

 cumstances should receive over-attention, and be forced unduly 

 out of place, the reaction is the more extreme and the rebound 

 the more serious. The great law of average will not be despised, 

 and in the evolution of the world this law acts as an unperceived 

 safety-valve on the one hand, and as an impelling force on the 

 other. Thus we are constantly compelled to remind ourselves of 

 a right relationship between theory and practice ; between science 

 and art ; between what is roughly (but probably incorrectly) 

 called capital and labour; and within the sciences the "ologies" 

 must keep due place side by side with each other. So 

 following this line of thought into the practical field of bodily 

 need and human requirements for the daily life, we find the pro- 

 duction of honey, the preservation of fruit, by bottled process, 

 by crystallisation, and by evaporation, not only finding a place in 

 the programme of the annual exhibitions of the Royal Horticul- 

 tural and Royal Agricultural Societies, but practical demonstra- 

 tions are given in these departments and in other departments 

 more or less closely connected with domestic arrangements, and 

 with household economy. And these have proved features of 

 interest and instruction, adding emphasis, in a field so practical, 

 to the great axiom in art principles — testifying to the unity of 

 art over the wide area of its varied range and the complexities 

 of its adaptation in the phrase "Art is one." 



It is perfectly right to assist education in the matter of pro- 

 duction in all its varying aspects, for though Nature is helpful 

 and beneficent, her laws are inexorable, and the successful 

 culturist must, with his operations, assist, and not attempt to 

 defeat, her beneficent aims ; yet, after all, it will be found 

 necessary in turn to assist production, or rather the producer, by 

 turning our thoughts and attention away from the direct question 

 of practical production itself to that necessary aspect which 

 produce demands namely, " distribution " ; for the accumula- 

 tion of perishable produce necessarily compels the provision of 



