'Munera Pulveris,' Sec. 134, that the whole play of 'The Tempest' is an
allegorical representation of the powers of true, and therefore
spiritual, Liberty, as opposed to true, and therefore carnal and
brutal Slavery. There is not a sentence nor a rhyme, sung or uttered
by Ariel or Caliban, throughout the play, which has not this
under-meaning.

168. Now the fulfilment of all human liberty is in the peaceful
inheritance of the earth, with its "herb yielding seed, and fruit tree
yielding fruit" after his kind; the pasture, or arable, land, and the
blossoming, or wooded and fruited, land uniting the final elements of
life and peace, for body and soul. Therefore, we have the two great
Hebrew forms of benediction, "His eyes shall be red with wine, and his
teeth white with milk," and again, "Butter and honey shall he eat,
that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good." And as the
work of war and sin has always been the devastation of this blossoming
earth, whether by spoil or idleness, so the work of peace and virtue
is also that of the first day of Paradise, to "Dress it and to keep
it." And that will always be the song of perfectly accomplished
Liberty, in her industry, and rest, and shelter from troubled thoughts
in the calm of the fields, and gaining, by migration, the long
summer's day from the shortening twilight:--

"Where the bee sucks, there lurk I;
In a cowslip's bell I lie;
There I couch when owls do cry.
On the bat's back I do fly
After summer merrily:
Merrily, merrily, shall I live now
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough."

And the security of this treasure to all the poor, and not the ravage
of it down the valleys of the Shenandoah, is indeed the true warrior's
work. But, that they may be able to restrain vice rightly, soldiers
must themselves be first in virtue; and that they may be able to
compel labor sternly, they must themselves be first in toil, and their
spears, like Jonathan's at Bethaven, enlighteners of the eyes.

LETTER XXV.

OF INEVITABLE DISTINCTION OF RANK, AND NECESSARY SUBMISSION TO
AUTHORITY. THE MEANING OF PURE-HEARTEDNESS. CONCLUSION.

169. I was interrupted yesterday, just as I was going to set my
soldiers to work; and to-day, here comes the pamphlet you promised me,
containing the Debates about Church-going, in which I find so
interesting a text for my concluding letter that I must still let my
soldiers stand at ease for a little while. Look