Page:Pontoppidan - Emanuel, or Children of the Soil (1896).djvu/279

 is all the better for a thorough cleaning from time to time; and I am sure it will do no harm to have the scrubbing brushes brought into play here … isn't that what you call that sort of thing, my dear?" turning to Miss Ragnhild, who answered with incredible shortness, "Very possibly."

"I am, by no means, making myself an advocate for any kind of impurity," said the Provst with unshaken gravity, and in a tone of rebuff. "There's an old-fashioned proverb which says you must be careful not to throw the child out with the bath-water … and in these days it might well be taken to heart. I honestly confess that I am, and all my life have been, a conservative, and I am utterly unable to bow down to these modern clean-sweeping principles. It can hardly be denied, that of late years many persons have started up in public life who will not be likely to do honour to their country. When education and accomplishments are no longer considered necessary for the public service, but are almost looked upon as evils; when every apprentice or serving-lad is to have just as much influence on the guidance of the state as men who have devoted their lives to the development of their intellectual powers, and widening their experience—such a people will soon decline, both intellectually and materially—there are plenty of examples in history for that."

The bishop, who had finished his lunch, was