[Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley]@TWC D-Link bookMadam How and Lady Why CHAPTER X--FIELD AND WILD 28/40
But Lady Why, who does think about consequences, is her mistress, and orders her about for ever.
And Lady Why is, I believe, as loving as she is wise; and therefore we must trust that she guides this great war between living things, and takes care that Madam How kills nothing which ought not to die, and takes nothing away without putting something more beautiful and something more useful in its place; and that even if England were, which God forbid, overrun once more with forests and bramble-brakes, that too would be of use somehow, somewhere, somewhen, in the long ages which are to come hereafter. And you must remember, too, that since men came into the world with rational heads on their shoulders, Lady Why has been handing over more and more of Madam How's work to them, and some of her own work too: and bids them to put beautiful and useful things in the place of ugly and useless ones; so that now it is men's own fault if they do not use their wits, and do by all the world what they have done by these pastures--change it from a barren moor into a rich hay-field, by copying the laws of Madam How, and making grass compete against heath.
But you look thoughtful: what is it you want to know? Why, you say all living things must fight and scramble for what they can get from each other: and must not I too? For I am a living thing. Ah, that is the old question, which our Lord answered long ago, and said, "Be not anxious what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, or wherewithal you shall be clothed.
For after all these things do the heathen seek, and your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." A few, very few, people have taken that advice.
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