"In short, you would like the Heptarchy back again. Well, at any rate, I revoke what I said this morning--that you Milton people did not reverence the past. You are regular worshippers of Thor."
"If we do not reverence the past as you do in Oxford, it is because we want something which can apply to the present more directly. It is fine when the study of the past leads to a prophecy of the future. But to men groping in new circumstances, it would be finer if the words of experience could direct us how to act in what concerns us most intimately and immediately; which is full of difficulties to be encountered; and upon the mode in which they are met and conquered--not merely pushed aside for the time--depends our future. But no! People can speak of Utopia much more easily than of the next day's duty; and yet when that duty is all done by others, who so ready to cry, 'Fie, for shame!'"

'Well, at any rate, I revoke what I said this morning - that you Milton people did not reverence the past. You are regular worshippers of Thor.'
'If we do not reverence the past as you do in Oxford, it is because we want something which can apply to the present. It would be finer if the words of experience could direct us how to act in the difficulties that must be encountered. The way in which they are met and conquered - not merely pushed aside for the time - decides our future. Some people can speak of Utopia much more easily than of the next day's duty; and yet when that duty is all done by others, they are ready to cry, "Fie, for shame!"'
