THE FRUIT GIFT. 163 



16. And, lastly, let my readers be assured, the economy of 

 blossom and fruit, with the distribution of water, will be found 

 hereafter the most accurate test of wise national government. 



For example of the action of a national government, rightly 

 so called, in these matters, I refer the student to the Marie- 

 golas of Venice^ translated in Fors Clavigera ; and I close this 

 chapter, and this first volume of Proserpina, not without pride, 

 in the words I wrote on this same matter eighteen years ago. 

 " So far as the labourer's immediate profit is concerned, it 

 matters not an iron-filing whether I employ him in growing a 

 peach, or in forging a bombshell. But the difference to him 

 is final, whether, when his child is ill, I walk into his cottage, 

 and give it the peach, or drop the shell down his chimney, 

 and blow his roof off." 



