was willing to assail it in any way or with any weapon that promised to hurt it. Why, in my own former day — in remote centuries not yet stirring in the womb of time — there were old Englishmen who imagined that they had been born in a free country: a “free” country with the Corporation Act and the Test still in force in it — timbers propped against men’s liberties and dishonored consciences to shore up an Established Anachronism with.

My missionaries were taught to spell out the gilt signs on their tabards — the showy gilding was a neat idea, I could have got the king to wear a bulletin-board for the sake of that barbaric splendor — they were to spell out these signs and then explain to the lords and ladies what soap was; and if the lords and ladies were afraid of it, get them to try it on a dog.