130 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE PARABLE OF JOTHAM. 



i. DO not know if my readers were checked, 



*~ as I wished them to be, at least for a 

 moment, in the close of the last chapter, by my 

 talking of thistles and dandelions changing into 

 seaweed, by gradation of which, doubtless, Mr. 

 Darwin can furnish us with specious and sufficient 

 instances. But the two groups will not be con- 

 templated in our Oxford system as in any parental 

 relations whatsoever. 



We shall, however, find some very notable re- 

 lations existing between the two groups of the 

 wild flowers of dry land, which represent, in the 

 widest extent, and the distinctest opposition, the 

 two characters of material serviceableness and un- 

 serviceableness ; the groups which in our English 

 classification will be easily remembered as those of 

 the Thyme, and the Daisy. 



The one, scented as with incense— medicinal — 

 and in all gentle and humble ways, useful. The 

 other, scentless — helpless for ministry to the body ; 



