VII. THE PARABLE OF JOTHAM. 1 3 5 



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 con- 

 sider also otherwise than botanically. For all these 

 lower organisms suffer and perish, or are gladdened 

 and flourish, under conditions which are in utter 

 precision symbolical, and in utter fidelity represen- 

 tative, 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 Distress ? The first, the Thorn, 

 is the type of distress caused by crime, changing the 

 soft and breathing leaf into inflexible and wound- 

 ing 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 outreddens all voluptuous 

 garden roses. 



9. It is strange that, after much hunting, I cannot 

 find authentic note of the day when Scotland took 

 the thistle for her emblem ; and I have no space 

 (in this chapter at least) for tradition ; but, with 



