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65
A child's intellect can appreciate the wild absurdity
of seeking at Peru what here runs to waste
beneath our pavements, of ripening only epidemic
disease with what might augment the food of the
people, of waiting like our ancestors to expiate the
neglected divinity of water in some bitter purgation
by fire.
But it needs the grasp of political mastership,
not uninformed by Science, to convert to practical
application these obvious elements of knowledge;
to recognise a great national object irrelevant to
the interests of party; to lift an universal requirement
from the sphere of professional jealousies,
and to found in immutable principles the sanitary
legislation of a people.
I have the honour to remain,
Gentlemen,
Your obedient humble Servant,
JOIIN SIMON.