himself in a position in which, at any moment, he can obtain the
history, from childhood, of every living soul in his diocese, and of
its present state. Down in that back street, Bill, and Nancy,
knocking each other's teeth out!--Does the bishop know all about it?
Has he his eye upon them? Has he HAD his eye upon them? Can he
circumstantially explain to us how Bill got into the habit of
beating Nancy about the head? If he cannot, he is no bishop, though
he had a mitre as high as Salisbury steeple; he is no bishop,--he
has sought to be at the helm instead of the masthead; he has no
sight of things. "Nay," you say, "it is not his duty to look after
Bill in the back street." What! the fat sheep that have full
fleeces--you think it is only those he should look after while (go
back to your Milton) "the hungry sheep look up, and are not fed,
besides what the grim wolf, with privy paw" (bishops knowing nothing
about it), "daily devours apace, and nothing said"?

"But that's not our idea of a bishop." {7} Perhaps not; but it was
St. Paul's; and it was Milton's. They may be right, or we may be;
but we must not think we are reading either one or the other by
putting our meaning into their words.

I go on.


"But swoln with wind, and the rank mist they draw."


This is to meet the vulgar answer that "if the poor are not looked
after in their bodies, they are in their souls; they have spiritual
food."