HO is the happy Warrior? Who is he
That every man in arms should wish to be?
—It is the generous Spirit, who, when brought
Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought
Upon the plan that pleased his boyish thought:
Whose high endeavours are an inward light
That makes the path before him always bright:
Who, with a natural instinct to discern
What knowledge can perform, is diligent to learn:
Abides by this resolve, and stops not there,
But makes his moral being his prime care;
Who, doomed to go in company with Pain,
And Fear, and Bloodshed, miserable train!
Turns his necessity to glorious gain;
In face of these doth exercise a power
Which is our human nature's highest dower ;
Controls them and subdues, transmutes, bereaves
Of their bad influence, and their good receives :
By objects, which might force the soul to abate
Her feeling, rendered more compassionate;
Is placable--because occasions rise
So often that demand such sacrifice;
More skilful in self knowledge, even more pure,
As tempted more; more able to endure,
As more exposed to suffering and distress;
Thence, also, more alive to tenderness.
'Tis he whose law is reason; who depends
Upon that law as on the best of friends;
Whence, in a state where men are tempted still
To evil for a guard against worse ill,
And what in quality or act is best
Doth seldom on a right foundation rest,
He labours good on good to fix, and owes
To virtue every triumph that he knows :
-Who, if he rise to station of command,
Rises by open means; and there will stand
On honourable terms, or else retire,
And in himself possess his own desire;
Who comprehends his trust, and to the same
Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim ;
And therefore does not stoop, nor lie in wait
For wealth, or honours, or for worldly state:
Whom they must follow; on whose head must fall,
Like showers of manna, if they come at all:
Whose powers shed round him in the common strife,
Or mild concerns of ordinary life,
A constant influence, a peculiar grace;
But who, if he be called upon to face
Some awful moment to which Heaven has joined
Great issues, good or bad for human kind,
Is happy as a Lover; and attired
With sudden brightness, like a Man inspired;
And, through the heat of conflict, keeps the law
In calmness made, and sees what he foresaw :
Or if an unexpected call succeed,
Come when it will, is equal to the need:
-He who, though thus endued as with a sense
And faculty for storm and turbulence,
Is yet a Soul whose master-bias leans
To homefelt pleasures and to gentle scenes;
Sweet images! which, wheresoe'er he be,
Are at his heart; and such fidelity
It is his darling passion to approve ;
More brave for this, that he hath much to love :-
'Tis, finally, the Man, who, lifted, high,
Conspicuous object in a Nation's eye,
Or left unthought-of in obscurity,—
Who, with a toward or untoward lot,
Prosperous or adverse, to his wish or not-
Plays, in the many games of life, that one
Where what he most doth value must be won :
Whom neither shape of danger can dismay,
Nor thought of tender happiness betray;
Who, not content that former worth stands fast,
Looks forward, persevering to the last,
From well to better, daily self-surpast :
Who, whether praise of him must walk the earth
For ever, and to noble deeds give birth,
Or he must fall, to sleep without his fame,
And leave a dead unprofitable name—
Finds comfort in himself and in his cause;
And, while the mortal mist is gathering, draws
His breath in confidence of Heaven's applause :
This is the happy Warrior; this is He
That every Man in arms should wish to be.
RING OUT WILD BELLS.
ING out wild bells to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go :
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease,
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold ; Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
ARNOLD, Matthew (born 1822), xl.
AUSTIN, John (1613-1669), ccxvii.
AYTOUN, William Edmonstoune (1813-1865), xx., clxxxii.
BARBAULD, Anna Letitia (1743—1825), ccxviii., ccxlvii.
BARNES, William, Rev. (born 1810), cxlvi., cxcix., ccxxvi.,
ccxxxiii., ccxlii., ccxlv.
BARTON, Bernard (1784-1849), lxix.
BAXTER, Richard (1615—1691), lxxxii.
BEAUMONT, Francis (1586—1616), cox.
BLAKE, William (1757-1827), cvii., cxlv,
BROWNING, Elizabeth Barrett (1809-1861), xi., lvi., cii., ccv.
BROWNING, Robert (born 1812), ii., xxxix., lxvi., lxxvii., clxxiv.
BRYANT, William Cullen, American (born 1797), iii., xliii.,
lxxii., cxxxvii., clxii.
BULL, John, Mus. Doc. (1563-1622), lxxxvii.
BULWER LYTTON, E. L., Sir (born 1805), lvii.
BURNS, Robert (1759—1796), lxxix., cxi., cxciii.
BYRON, George Gordon Noel, Lord (1788—1824), xxii., xxxv.,
lix., c., cxli.
CAMPBELL, Thomas (1777-1844), lxxxix., xcix., cxlviii., clxi.
CLOUGH, Arthur Hugh (1819-1861), cxxxviii., clxxv., cxci., cc.
COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor (1772-1834), cxxx., clxxvii.,
clxxxvii.
COLERIDGE, Hartley (1796-1849), xv.
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