A. P. Herbert Quotes
Greenfly, it's difficult to see Why God, who made the rose, made thee.
Herbert, A. P. "The Greenfly." Laughing Ann and Other Poems. T. F. Unwin, 1925.
Her distorted historical view of the intentions of the Founding Fathers contradicts just about everything most said and wrote at the constitutional convention and otherwise. There was a small minority of very fundamentalist Christians who had an established church model in mind but most had observed the disasters in England and the rest of Europe brought by religion in government, and also had the problematic history of early American colonies with religion and politics. Also, at the time there were already over a dozen different substantial religions in the colonies as well as a number of non-religious and dissenter colonists. Even though there was no established church or any of the aspects of religion in government as Ms. Harris prefers written in the original constitution, the American people wanted to be so sure of that separation that they required the First Amendment in order to obtain ratification. On the other hand Ms. Harris had one strong aspect to her argument. She knew what God wanted, while her opponents and most Americans did not have that insight.
She was often derided by critics for her frumpy appearance and her lack of sex appeal and most people would be sensitive about the subject. But she had a very thick skin and would often turn the tables on our critics with self effacing humor about herself.
Sir Alan Patrick Herbert CH, usually known as A. P. Herbert or simply A. P. H., was an English humorist, novelist, playwright and law reform activist, and an Independent Member of Parliament for Oxford University from 1935 until 1950, when university constituencies were abolished. Born in Ashtead, Surrey, Herbert attended Winchester College and New College, Oxford, graduating with a starred first in Jurisprudence in 1914. He joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as an ordinary seaman in World War I, later serving as an officer with the Royal Naval Division. He fought in Gallipoli and on the Western Front, becoming battalion adjutant in 1917, before injury excluded him from the front line. After the war, he published The Secret Battle and joined the staff of Punch in 1924. He also wrote librettos for musicals. Elected as Independent MP for Oxford University in the 1935 general election, Herbert campaigned for private member's rights, piloted the Matrimonial Causes Act 1937 through Parliament, opposed the Entertainments Duty, and campaigned against the Oxford Group. He joined the River Emergency Service in 1938 and served in World War II as a petty officer in the Royal Naval Auxiliary Patrol. He captained his river boat, the Water Gipsy, on the River Thames. In 1943, he joined a parliamentary commission to investigate the future of the Dominion of Newfoundland.
