VH. THE PARABLE OE JOTHAM. 121 



leaves of the Herb-Robert and orbed clusters of its com- 

 panion overflowed every rent in the rude crags with liv- 

 ing balm ; there was scarcely a place left by the tender- 

 ness of the happy things, where one might not lay down 

 one's forehead on their warm softness, and sleep. But in 

 the waste and distressed ground, the distress had changed 

 itself to cruelty. The leaves had all perished, and the 

 bending saplings, and the wood of trust; but the thorns 

 were there, immortal, and the gnarled and sapless roots, 

 and the dusty treacheries of decay. 



7. Of which things you will find it good to consider also 

 otherwise than botanically. For all these lower organisms 

 suffer and perish, or are gladdened and flourish, under con- 

 ditions which are in utter precision symbolical, and in 

 utter fidelity representative, of the conditions which induce 

 adversity and prosperity in the kingdoms of men: and 

 the Eternal Demeter, Mother, and Judge, brings forth, 

 as the herb yielding seed, so also the thorn and the thistle, 

 not to herself, but to thee. 



8. You have read the words of the great Law often 

 enough ; have you ever thought enough of them to know 

 the difference between these two appointed means of Dis- 

 tress? The first, the Thorn, is the type of distress caused 

 by crime, changing the soft and breathing leaf into in- 

 flexible and wounding stubbornness. The second is the 

 distress appointed to be the means and herald of good, 

 Thou shalt see the stubborn thistle bursting, into glossy 



purple, which outredden, all voluptuous garden roses. 

 6 



