was wrong in doing so; and that he should only
have carried the fiery cross his appointed leagues, and then given it
to another hand; and, for my own part, I mean these very letters to
close my political work for many a day; and I write them, not in any
hope of their being at present listened to, but to disburthen my heart
of the witness I have to bear, that I may be free to go back to my
garden lawns, and paint birds and flowers there.

70. For these same statutes which we are to consider to-day, have
indeed been in my mind now these fourteen years, ever since I wrote
the last volume of the 'Stones of Venice,' in which you will find, in
the long note on Modern Education, most of what I have been now in
detail writing to you, hinted in abstract; and, at the close of it,
this sentence, of which I solemnly now avouch (in thankfulness that I
was permitted to write it), every word: "Finally, I hold it for
indisputable, that the first duty of a State is to see that every
child born therein shall be well housed, clothed, fed, and educated,
till it attain years of discretion. But in order to the effecting this
the Government must have an authority over the people of which we now
do not so much as dream."

That authority I did not then endeavor to define, for I knew all such
assertions would be useless, and that the necessarily resultant outcry
would merely diminish my influence in other directions. But now I do
not care about influence any more, it being only my concern to say
truly that which I know, and, if it may be, get some quiet life, yet,
among the fields in the evening shadow.

71. There is, I suppose, no word which men are prouder of the right to
attach to their names, or more envious of others who bear it, when
they themselves may not, than the word "noble." Do you know what it
originally meant, and always, in the right use of it, means? It means
a "known" person; one who has risen far enough above others to draw
men's eyes to him, and to be known (honorably) for such and such an
one. "Ignoble," on the other hand, is derived from the same root as
the word "ignorance." It means an unknown, inglorious person. And no
more singular follies have been committed by weak human creatures than
those which have been caused by the instinct, pure and simple, of
escaping from this obscurity. Instinct, which, corrupted, will
hesitate at no means, good or evil, of satisfying itself with
notoriety--instinct, nevertheless, which, l