those that felt "All things that are, are
wrong" equalled in number those that felt "All things that are, are
right," It solemnly devised polygamy (all, be it said, in a spiritual way
of speaking); and to each male spirit crowing "All things that are, are
wrong" It decreed nine female spirits clucking "All things that are, are
right." The Cosmic Spirit, who was very much an artist, knew its work,
and had previously devised a quality called courage, and divided it in
three, naming the parts spiritual, moral, physical. To all the male-bird
spirits, but to no female (spiritually, not corporeally speaking), It
gave courage that was spiritual; to nearly all, both male and female, It
gave courage that was physical; to very many hen-bird spirits It gave
moral courage too. But, because It knew that if all the male-bird
spirits were complete, the proportion of male to female--one to
ten--would be too great, and cause upheavals, It so arranged that only
one in ten male-bird spirits should have all three kinds of courage; so
that the other nine, having spiritual courage, but lacking either in
moral or in physical, should fail in their extensions of the poultry-run.
And having started them upon these lines, it left them to get along as
best they might.

Thus, in the subdivision of the poultry-run that we call England, the
proportion of the others to the complete male-bird spirit, who, of
course, is not infrequently a woman, is ninety-nine to one; and with
every Island Pharisee, when he or she starts out in life, the interesting
question ought to be, "Am I that one?" Ninety very soon find out that
they are not, and, having found it out, lest others should discover, they
say they are. Nine of the other ten, blinded by their spiritual courage,
are harder to convince; but one by one they sink, still proclaiming their
virility. The hundredth Pharisee alone sits out the play.

Now, the journey of this young man Shelton, who is surely not the
hundredth Pharisee, is but a ragged effort to present the working of the
truth "All things that are, are wrong," upon the truth "All things that
are, are right."

The Institutions of this country, like the Institutions of all other
countries, are but half-truths; they are the working daily clothing of
the nation; no more the body's permanent dress than is a baby's frock.
Slowly but surely they wear out, or are outgrown; and in their fashion
they are always thirty years at least behind the fas