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Neither in these, nor in gifts, nor attainments, nor requirements.
However noble the dream of equality, mark you, Philip,
Nowhere equality reigns in God's sublime creations,
Star is not equal to star, nor blossom the same as blossom;
Herb is not equal to herb, any more than planet to planet.
True, that the plant should be rooted in earth, I granted you wholly,
And that the daisy in earth surpasses the cut carnation,
Only, the rooted carnation surpasses the rooted daisy:
There is one glory of daisies, another of carnations;
Foolish were budding carnation, in gay parterre by greenhouse,
Should it decline to accept the nurture the gardener gives it,
Should it refuse to expand to sun and genial summer,
Simply because the field-daisy, that grows in the grass-plat beside it,
Cannot, for some cause or other, develope and be a carnation.
Would not the daisy itself petition its scrupulous neighbour?
Up, grow, bloom, and forget me; be beautiful even to proudness,
E'en for the sake of myself and other poor daisies like me.
Rooted in earth should it be, carnation alike or daisy,
That I grant, and refer you to Shakespeare on gillyflowers,
Where in the Winter's Tale Leontes Perdita questions.
Education and manners, accomplishments, refinements,
Waltz, pandventure, and polka, the knowledge of music and drawing,
All these things are Nature's, to Nature dear and precious.
We must all do something, man, woman alike, I own it;
Yes, but woman-and-man in lady-and-gentleman is not
Lost, extinct; it lives; if not, God help them, change them!
We must all do something, and in my judgment do it
In our station; independent of it, but not regardless;
Holding it, not for enjoyment, but because we cannot change it.
All! replied Philip, Alas! the noted phrase of the prayer book,
Doing our duty in that state of life to which God has called us,
Seems to me always to mean, when the little rich boys say it,
Standing in velvet frock by mama's brocaded flounces,
Eying her gold-fastened book and the chain and watch at her bosom,
Seems to me always to mean, Eat, drink, and never mind others.
Nay, replied Adam, smiling, so far your economy leads me,
Velvet and gold and brocade are unwise to my fancy;
Benefit of trade, I see, is mockery vile and delusion.
Nay, he added, believe me, I like luxurious living
Even as little as you, and grieve in my soul not seldom,
