Note 24 — Chapter V
Reading edition
The priests reckoned wrong in this, for, as Sewell justly observed, it fared with the early Friends as with trees, which grow best when most lopped. “Duris ut ilex tonsa bipennibus, per damna, per cædes, ab ipso, ducit opes animumque ferre.”
“As by the lopping axe, the sturdy oak
Improves her shade, and thrives beneath the stroke:
Tho’ present loss and wounds severe she feel,
She draws fresh vigour from the invading steel.”