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

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."

The On stormy nights when wild north-westers rave, World of How proud a thing to fight with wind and wave!

Waters

The dripping sailor on the reeling mast

Exults to bear, and scorns to wish it past.

Where lies the land to which the ship would go?
Far, far ahead, is all her seamen know.
And where the land she travels from? Away,
Far, far behind, is all that they can say.

ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH.

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:

66

“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