Page:Crotchet Castle - Peacock (1831).djvu/183



No, sir. They could come honestly by beef and ale, while they were left to their simple industry. When oppression interfered with them in that, then they stood on the defensive, and fought for what they were not permitted to come by quietly.

If A., being aggrieved by B., knocks down C., do you call that standing on the defensive?

That depends on who or what C. is.

Gentlemen, you will never settle this controversy, till you have first settled what is good for man in this world; the great question, de finibus, which has puzzled all philosophers. If the enchanter has represented the twelfth century too brightly for one, and