Each soul can but have patience,

Each heart can only break!

Hushed is all party clamour;

One thought in every heart, One dread in every household, Has bid such strife depart. England has called her children; Long silent-the word came That lit the smouldering ashes Through all the land to flame.

O you who toil and suffer,
You gladly heard the call;
But those you sometimes envy
Have they not given their all?

O you who rule the nation,

Take now the toil-worn hand

Brothers you are in sorrow,
In duty to your land.

Learn but this noble lesson

Ere Peace returns again,

And the life-blood of Old England Will not be shed in vain!

THE TWO SPIRITS.

(1855.)

AST night, when weary silence fell on all,
And starless skies arose so dim and vast,

I heard the Spirit of the Present call

Upon the sleeping Spirit of the Past.

Far off and near, I saw their radiance shine,
And listened while they spoke of deeds divine.

The Spirit of the Past.

My deeds are writ in iron;
My glory stands alone;

A veil of shadowy honour
Upon my tombs is thrown;

The great names of my heroes
Like gems in history lie;

To live they deemed ignoble,

Had they the chance to die!

The Spirit of the Present. My children, too, are honoured; Dear shall their memory be

To the proud lands that own them; Dearer than thine to thee;

For, though they hold that sacred Is God's great gift of life,

At the first call of duty

They rush into the strife!

The Spirit of the Past.

Then, with all valiant precepts

Woman's soft heart was fraught;

"Death, not dishonour," echoed

The war-cry she had taught. Fearless and glad, those mothers, At bloody deaths elate,

Cried out they bore their children Only for such a fate!

The Spirit of the Present.

Though such stern laws of honour

Are faded now away,

Yet many a mourning mother,

With nobler grief than they, Bows down in sad submission: The heroes of the fight

Learnt at her knee the lesson, "For God and for the Right!"

The Spirit of the Past.

No voice there spake of sorrow:
They saw the noblest fall

With no repining murmur;

Stern Fate was lord of all!

And when the loved ones perished,

One cry alone arose,

Waking the startled echoes,

"Vengeance upon our foes!"

The Spirit of the Present.

Grief dwells in France and England

For many a noble son;

Yet louder than the sorrow,

66

Thy will, O God, be done!"

From desolate homes is rising

One

prayer,

"Let

carnage cease !

On friends and foes have mercy,

O Lord, and give us peace!"

The Spirit of the Past.
Then, every hearth was honoured
That sent its children forth,
To spread their country's glory,
And gain her south or north.
Then, little recked they numbers,
No band would ever fly,

But stern and resolute they stood
To conquer or to die.