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THE TIDE MILL
Richard Herley
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- Richard Herley
THE TIDE MILL
Copyright (c) Richard Herley 2008
The Author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
First published by Richard Herley, 2008
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales Licence. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/uk/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California 94105, USA.
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For Lesley
THE TIDE MILL
It is not by chance that the word "grinding" is associated with hardship and poverty. Among the curses heaped by God on Adam, in the third chapter of Genesis, is this, the most terrible of all: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground".
Thus were we condemned, in the Garden of Eden, to grind corn. The quern-stone is our eternal tyrant. No sooner is one harvest made into flour than we must sow another, all the years of our lives. Before the serpent tempted Eve, mankind lived free of the sickle, of chaff, of dust and the grindstone. We were not men, but children.
Now what manner of thing are me