"Envy’s harsh berries, and the chocking pool, Of the world’s scorn and hatred, are the right mother milk To the true, tough hearts that pioneer their kind." _*BOOK III*_ _*Oliver The Conqueror*_ *CHAPTER XI* *OLIVER PROTECTOR* "O heart heroic, England’s noblest son! At what a height thy shining spirit burns Starlike, and floods our souls with quickening fire." * * * * * "Fearful commenting is The leaden servitor to dull delay." The popular discontent with the rapid and radical reforms of the saints’ Parliament was not confined to the Royalists; the nation, without regard to party, was bitterly incensed and alarmed. Cromwell was no exception; the most conservative of men, he also grew angry and restless when he saw the reign of the saints beginning in earnest. "These godly men are going straight to the confusion of all things," he said to Israel Swaffham; "they forget they are assembled here by the people, and are assuming a direct power from the Lord. If we let them, they will bring us under the horridest arbitrariness in the world." There was reason enough for this fear. Not content with the changes in government, religion and law, Feake and Powell were urging social changes that would level all ranks and classes to an equality, and Cromwell abominated such ideas. Of equality, as we understand the word, he had no conception. He told the members plainly that England had known for hundreds of years, ranks and orders of men—nobles, gentlemen, yeomen—and that such ranks were a good interest to the nation, and a great one. "What is the purport," he asked, "to make the tenant as liberal a fortune as the landlord? If obtained, it would not last; the men of that principle, after they had served their own turns, would have cried up property fast enough." To the Fifth Monarchy men who held that the saints alone should rule the earth, he gave the sternest rebuke, telling them plainly that the carnal divisions among them were not symptoms of Christ’s Kingdom. "Truly," he added, "you will need to give clearer manifestations of God’s presence among you before wise men will submit to your conclusions."