'
'And I will tell you of something else to put at the beginning,' said
Elizabeth, 'a branch of laurel entwined with the beautiful white
bind-weed. One of our laurels was covered with wreaths of it last
year, and I thought it was a beautiful emblem of a pure-hearted hero.
The glaring sun, which withers the fair white spotless flower, is
like worldly prosperity spoiling the pure simple mind; and you know
how often it is despised and torn away from the laurel to which it is
so bright an ornament.'
'Yes,' said Anne, 'it clings more safely and fearlessly round the
simplest and most despised of plants. And would you call the little
pink bindweed childish innocence?'
'No, I do not think I should,' said Elizabeth, 'it is not
sufficiently stainless. But then innocence, from not seeing or
knowing what is wrong, is not like the guilelessness which can use
the world as not abusing it.'
'Yet Adam and Eve fell when they gained the knowledge of good and
evil,' said Anne.
'Yes, because they gained their knowledge by doing evil,' said
Elizabeth, 'but you must allow that what is tried and not found
wanting is superior to what has failed only because it has had no
trial.
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