For Home and Country

"Such is the patriot's boast, where'er we roam,
His first, best country ever is at home.'

This is the proud claim of Goldsmith's "Traveller," and the same passionate loyalty to the soil inspires all these poems of Fatherland. The Scotsman's heart is in the Highlands, the birthplace of valor, the country of worth; the English warrior boasts of his country:

"And o'er one-sixth of all the earth, and over all the main,

Like some good Fairy, Freedom marks and blesses her domain;"

the Irish Minstrel-boy tears the chords of his faithful harp asunder lest they sound in the service of the foe, while the quick, alarming Yankee drum in Bret Harte's "Reveille" calls upon each freeman to defend the land of the pilgrim's pride, land where his fathers died. Religion, war, and glory were the three souls of a perfect Christian knight, says Lamartine, and if Death's couriers, Fame and Honor, summon us to the field,

"Our business is like men to fight

And hero-like to die.'

In Kipling's" Recessional" and Lowell's " Fatherland " we hear a note as valiant, but more spiritual. The one makes us remember that

"The tumult and the shouting dies-
The captains and the kings depart―
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,

An humble and a contrite heart."

The other leads us to still higher levels of thought, reminding us that wherever a single soul doth pine, or one man may help another, that spot of earth is thine and mine-that is the world-wide fatherland.

X

FOR HOME AND COUNTRY

The First, Best Country

BUT where to find the happiest spot below,
Who can direct, when all pretend to know?
The shuddering tenant of the frigid zone
Boldly proclaims that happiest spot his own;
Extols the treasures of his stormy seas,
And his long nights of revelry and ease;
The naked negro, panting at the line,
Boasts of his golden sands and palmy wine,
Basks in the glare, or stems the tepid wave,
And thanks his gods for all the goods they gave.
Such is the patriot's boast, where'er we roam,
His first, best country ever is at home.
And yet perhaps, if countries we compare,
And estimate the blessings which they share,
Though patriots flatter, still shall wisdom find
An equal portion dealt to all mankind;
As different good, by art or nature given,
To different nations makes their blessings even.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH.

From "The Traveller."

For Home and

Country

My Native Land

Breathes there the man with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,

"This is my own-my native land!" Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned, As home his footsteps he hath turned,

From wandering on a foreign strand?
If such there breathe, go, mark him well!
For him no minstrel's raptures swell.
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim,—
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living shall forfeit fair renown,

And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonored, and unsung.

66

SIR WALTER SCOTT.

From The Lay of the Last Minstrel.”

Loyalty

Hame, hame, hame! oh hame I fain wad be,
O hame, hame, hame, to my ain countrie!
When the flower is i' the bud and the leaf is on

the tree,

The lark shall sing me hame in my ain countrie;

Hame, hame, hame! oh hame I fain wad be,
O hame, hame, hame, to my ain countrie!

The green leaf o' loyaltie's begun for to fa',
The bonnie white rose it is withering an' a';
But I'll water 't wi' the blude of usurping
tyrannie,

An' green it will grow in my ain countrie.
Hame, hame, hame! oh hame I fain wad be,
O hame, hame, hame, to my ain countrie!

The great now are gane, wha attempted to save;
The new grass is springing on the tap o' their
grave:

But the sun thro' the mirk blinks blythe in my e'e,
"I'll shine on ye yet in yere ain countrie."
Hame, hame, hame! oh hame I fain wad be,
Hame, hame, hame, to my ain countrie!
ALLAN CUNNINGHAM.

For Home

and Country

My Heart's in the Highlands

My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here;
My heart's in the Highlands a-chasing the deer;
Chasing the wild deer, and following the roe,
My heart's in the Highlands wherever I go.
Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North,
The birthplace of valor, the country of worth;