Neither rose-seed, therefore, nor embryo should be
expected to show signs of knowing that they know what they know--if they
showed such signs the fact of their knowing what they want, and how to
get it, might more reasonably be doubted."
Some of the passages already given in Chapter XXIII were obviously
inspired by the one just quoted. As I read it, in a reprint shown me by
a Professor who had edited much of the early literature on the subject, I
could not but remember the one in which our Lord tells His disciples to
consider the lilies of the field, who neither toil nor spin, but whose
raiment surpasses even that of Solomon in all his glory.
"They toil not, neither do they spin?" Is that so? "Toil not?" Perhaps
not, now that the method of procedure is so well known as to admit of no
further question--but it is not likely that lilies came to make
themselves so beautifully without having ever taken any pains about the
matter. "Neither do they spin?" Not with a spinning-wheel; but is there
no textile fabric in a leaf?
What would the lilies of the field say if they heard one of us declaring
that they neither toil nor spin? They would say, I take it, much what we
should if we were to hear of their preaching humility on the text of
Solomons, and saying, "Consider the Solomons in all their glory, they
toil not neither do they spin.
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