Page:Dr Stiggins, His Views and Principles.pdf/52

 daisy another. On the contrary: we affirm that all good gifts are from below, we say that wisdom is to be found in great masses of people after due preparation by political agencies, that the ministerial functions are delegated by the populace. With all due reverence, we decline to consider the lilies; we prefer to consider the cabbages and the Spanish onions. Lilies are picturesque? I daresay they are; some people have found the monarchy and the papacy picturesque; but have these things benefited the people? We refuse then this analogy in toto, as we used to say at college; we declare that daisies make excellent timber, that the blossom of the potato surpasses the proudest blooms in aristocratic gardens, that the oak is a shameless and useless consumer of the soil. Yes; but with what heart can we go on preaching these truths while at the same time we allow our children to read the so-called History of England, which diametrically opposes every one of these conclusions? We might bear to read of the conquest of England, if it