Take the English proverb, “Tenderden steeple is the cause of
Goodwin Sands.” We said, “How ignorant a population!” But, when
we went deeper into the history, we found that the proverb
was not meant for logic, but was meant for sarcasm. One of
the bishops had £50,000 given to him to build a breakwater to
save the Goodwin Sands from the advancing sea; but the good
bishop, instead of building the breakwater to keep out the sea,
simply built a steeple; and this proverb was sarcastic, and not
logical, that “Tenderden steeple was the cause of the Goodwin
Sands.” When you contemplate the motive, there was the closest
and best-welded logic in the proverb. So I think a large share
of our criticism of old legends and old statements will be found
in the end to be the ignorance that overleaps its own saddle and
falls on the other side.--WENDELL PHILLIPS.
(1994)
=Means and End=--See VALUES, STANDARD OF.