“ Whom they well might own for brethren, breast to breast in close embrace—
Those staunch darers of the waters who first broke the giant force
That would rule man's free convictions as the rider guides his horse;
Struggling and despairing never, till at length they gained the war—
Spain, the hope of priest-led tyrants; Holland, freedom's polar star.
Lo! such union of such nations! Gaze into the future's scope,
Not in vain name these their country land of soul-exalting hope!
Knowledge see they ever widening, man no longer scorning man ”

“ And a far fiercer fight must by his blade be won:
⁠The battle of the Press. Full sore
⁠The rain of blows he bore!
⁠Fainting with wounds he quits the well-fought field,
But not before the shout telling the foemen yield.
⁠And yet again with gleaming brand,
⁠One of a hero-band,
⁠The world beholds him: on Oppression's grave
His hand doth plant the Hag that frees the trembling slave.
⁠Hard seems the fate that once again
⁠Forbids the knight to drain
⁠The cup, to feast and grace the board with song,—
Death beckons him: he glides from that illustrious throng. ”

“ Man seems a waif cast on the stream of time,
That bears him onward to the unknown shore;
That longed for, fearéd, dread, mysterious clime,
Toward which all hasten—to return no more.
Yet not so helpless is he as he seems,
Nor void of power to guide life's barque aright,
If Faith sits at the helm, and Hope's bright beams
Shine o'er the troubled waters when 'tis night,
Guiding and cheering like a beacon light,
Till peace is gained and life's cares gone like dreams. ”

“ And the keel rushes up on Creation's last strand.
Oh! why am I tortured while watching thy course?
Why the fierce longing? and why the remorse?
Ah! why the remorse? O'er the purple ravine
I see thee ascending by pathways unseen,
Nor feel a reproach for not striving to scale
By footholds of sapphire: then why that I fail
To advance by the more inaccessible way
Of sun-sprinkled Space to the Gates of the Day?
O Desire! art thou prophet or friend? Wherefore stand
Solemnly pointing with eloquent hand
Mortals (whose feet are on burial sod!)
Up to the Infinite, up to a God? ”

“ Rays that calmly shining from him reach the weary sufferer's breast,
Warm once more the frozen feelings, bringing ease to his unrest;
Rays whose widely-beaming brilliance shows all men one brotherhood,
Man then only rightly human when he yearns for human good.
Mighty nations then most glorious when their world-wide cherished name
Is a succour to the helpless,—unto tyrants fear and shame!
When their deeds have been of justice, mercies done and wisdom spread,
Waking noble aspirations where the human soul seemed dead ”

“ Or foul the calm that marks her mild control;
With one strong will confronting all mischance,—
Her peace sure warrant for the world's advance.
⁠For strong and staunch and true,
⁠Strongest in peril, true to loftiest ends,
⁠For freedom and for right,
⁠She the world's champion grew,
⁠And still the freeman's cause defends;
While all the storied Past's resplendent night,
'Mid thrilling echoes of the world's acclaim,
Glows with the starry wonder of her fame. ”

“ THE SPIRIT OF HIDDEN PLACES. [1]
Over the mountain's shoulder, round the unweathered cape,
In lands beyond the sky-line, there hides a nameless shape,—
Whether of fiend or goddess no mortal well may know;
But when she speaks—with flushing cheeks, they one by one must go.
To men in far old cities, scanning the curious chart,
Her voice would sound at midnight, like music in the heart;
Across the wrinkled parchment a glory seemed to fall,
And pageants pass like shapes in glass along the pictured wall. ”

“ The Sovereign Power unshaken stands, like truth o'er passing dreams,
And, lit with glory from on high, above the shadow gleams,—
Gleams as th' eternal starlight gleams over earth's cloudy floor,—
Crowns as the steadfast rainbow crowns the cataract's varying roar.
Therefore our hundred million souls join heart, and mind, and voice,
Therefore, all strife and discord hushed, one triumph we rejoice:
And through the Empire's earth-wide bounds, joy's emblems we display,
The King and Queen of all our realms are throned and crowned to-day. ”

“ Labour and action try the pioneer,
But not the heart-ache easier dreamers know;
Else had he never built and founded so,
Nor we, who follow, traced his footsteps here.
Strange temple! where the savage horde of old
Reared their round huts, and cleared their tilling-place:
Now thou hast rest and slumber to enfold
Those of another race.
Does peace come never till the pulse be cold?
Here, surely, could the living find her too.
Yet must we win her; there is much to do,
And this land's charter still but half unrolled.
Lo! evening falls ”

“ And freed from lingering languors of the night,
By the delicious chill of dim-lit depths,
I stand awhile upon its reedy brink,
And with an eager and awakened gaze
Watch how the cloudless morn like some fair flower
Unfolds its splendours.
⁠Autumn's lagging sun
Still lingers to o'ertop the wooded slope
Behind me, leaving undisturbed awhile
The slumb'rous dusk of the beshadowed pool;
But half the bush-grown hill that mounts beyond
Is mellowed with a mantling garb of gold,
And o'er its rock-strewn summit's soaring ridge
Expands the sunlit azure, pale and pure. ”

“ The waves are mighty, and know their might.
"Never have we been vanquished in fight!
We kiss the sands of the yielding shore,
We rend the rock in his pride of power:
Be it soon, be it late, thy fate is sealed;
Be it soon, be it late, thou shalt surely yield!"
And it yields at last: with a headlong leap
It buries its shame in the foaming deep.
And the waves toss high their plumy spray,
As they dance triumphant around their prey. ”

“ The freedom that can burst the spirit's bonds,
The light that leads that spirit up to heaven,—
These are thy charge, and for the wide world's weal,
Be faithful to thy trust, thou honour'd Isle!
Thou hast a glorious mission to the nations.
Hold fast to the truth of God with strong right hand ”

“ For thou hast gemmed its skies with lavish hand,
With rarest stars and constellations bright.
Shines not its vestal moon with purer light?
Hath not its galaxy more lustrous hue,
While star-clouds, set in heavens more deeply blue,
Still gladden ours, as erst Magellan's sight?
O would that while the old grey mountains sleep
There might be silence in the which to find
Grand music! But if joyous creatures keep
Perpetual chorus, shall my captious mind
Object? Creation's harmonies lie deep,
But to the soul attuned the parts are well combined. ”

“ With firm hand grasping, steer the nation's bark
Through storms of strife to honour and to peace.
⁠And royalty's proud dust lies mouldering there,
'Neath sculptured marbles, or midst gilded shrines:
While high o'erhead the ancient banners droop.—
Monarchs of other days—of other ages,
Successive generations of the great,
Who ruled the realm of England as she grew
From isolate obscurity to greatness
That with a fame undying fills the world. ”

“ But my sweetheart here, in the brown earth's breast,
Is dearer far to me.
⁠Then hurrah for the glittering gold!
⁠Hurrah for the wealth untold!
⁠We'll win it, we'll spend it, we'll drink it, we'll lend it,
⁠We'll live for the glittering gold. ”

“ The sportive waves, that tossed their spray erewhile,
Displume their crests in reverence for the hour,
And all is calm around.
⁠The curtain cloud
That hung o'er all the west throws wide its folds,
And in the clear blue ether far away
Bright islands of the blest seem floating, free
From the rough cares that fret this lower world,
And radiant in a glory all divine.
Rev. H. H. Dugmore. ”

“ Flow to mingle with thy tide;
Burning thoughts from lips that falter,
As I wander by thy side,
⁠I can tell thee;
Tell to thee, and none beside.
Art thou ruthless in destroying?
Time is yet a wilder sea ”

“ A crucifix he bore.
"My heart is black with sin!" he cried,
"My soul can find no rest;
Extend Thine arms of mercy wide
And take me to Thy breast.
Canst Thou deny one soul relief
For whom Thy blood was shed? ”

“ These entreaties, however, could not be listened to for one moment, and as a last trial his daughter, Amakeya, the beauty of Kaffirland, made her way to the tent of Colonel Campbell, 91st Regiment, who, totally unprepared for her appearance, was yet more astonished at the sacrifice she offered if her father's sentence of banishment might be rescinded. She made her strange offer in all the consciousness and pride of beauty; and, with her finely-moulded arms folded before her, she spoke without hesitation, for she was guided by motives worthy a lofty cause. ”

“ Bent still, the good Lord helping them, the Indian coast to hail.
Rounding the sea-girt Cape, whose crest rose high above the mast;
Rounding L'Agulhas' sandy point, seen from the mast at last;
Keeping all closely to the shore, for fear of surge and tide,
The little bark clung to her course, that cruel coast beside. ”

“ From land to land the cry shall ring!
Peace shall her spell impose no longer,
Honour than gain shall prove the stronger.
Fealty and faith, our strength of yore,
Shall fearless face a world once more ”

“ Leads forth the twilight dim, that he may glide
Like panther to the prey. With freeborn pride
He scorns the herdsman, nor regards the scar
Of recent wound, but burnishes for war
His assegai and targe of buffalo hide.
He is a robber? True; it is a strife
Between the black-skinned bandit and the white.
A savage? Yes; though loth to aim at life,
Evil for evil fierce he doth requite. ”

“ Where the aspens drooping grow,
Where the young birds chirp and sing—
I am weary, let me go.
I have striven hard and long
In the world's unequal fight
Always to resist the wrong,
Always to maintain the right ”

“ Borne from the bush, the wood-dove's crooning note
Hints of a hidden peace surpassing speech,
And the gay pipe and thrill of many a bird
Lends utterance to the joyance of the hour!
O, miracle of morning! ever new,
As on the first sweet dawn in Paradise;
O glad tranquillity, whose healing thrill
No other hour in weary hearts can wake!
Soft steals the golden sunlight down the slope,
As it would catch the dark pool unaware. ”

“ Since there is always time to spare, so long as a man's alive?—
The world may come, and the world may go, and the world may whistle by,
But the pace of the ox is steady and slow, and life is a lullaby. ”

“ When the sorrows of life the soul o'ercast,
And, sick of the Present, I cling to the Past;
When the eye is suffused with regretful tears,
From the fond recollections of former years;
And shadows of things that have long since fled,
Flit over the brain, like the ghosts of the dead:
Bright visions of glory—that vanished too soon ”

“ Land of the lion and fleet gazelle;
Land where the summer never dies,
Cape of Good Hope, we love thee well.
Land where the birds in gorgeous plume
Flit through the bush or their love-song tell ”

“ Might bring back verdure to each withered bough.
And now the leader of the shining herd
Sets a shy foot upon the crumbling bank,
And straight the leaden water is bespread
With a swift dawn and flush of wavering light
That weaves a smile across its sullen front,
Like Hope surprising some despairing soul.
Spread, sunshine! o'er the gladdened waters spread,
Until each lurking shadow is displaced ”

“ She trod with footsteps bold;
For ever westward trending,
A track of heaving gold.
At last, with travel drooping,
She sought her crimson bed,
And forth the stars came trooping
To watch the world instead. ”

“ Heard in earthquake, flame, or stillness, aught more holy than the truth
Echoed by our mother Nature from her dawn of early youth
Through all ages—"Man is God-like—weak and erring, suffering man,—
God-like in the thoughts he thinketh, God-like in the deeds he can." ”

“ Of her unpassing hour,
For Time in this retreat seems wing-bereft.
The world is all apart—far, far away
The eyes scarce catch the shapes of Bluff and Bay,
Where tree and gable leave an opening cleft. ”

“ The Sceptre from Victoria's hands comes weighted with the gold
Of honour and unselfish grace, of duty manifold.
Not for himself our King ascends the steps of Britain's throne.
The people's suffrage with him goes; the glory is our own. ”

“ Dipping its tiny bosom in the deep,
Then instantly uprises blithe and high,
Even as the heart unthralled by earthly things
Will walk this troubled earth, yet ever keep
Its dearest home up in the azure sky. ”

“ From its sun-smitten surface.⁠Come at last
Where I that sing of thee stand, and through my frame
Strike a quick ecstasy of sensuous bliss.
Strike through the flesh and reach my inmost soul,
And slay its shadows with thy glorious light! ”

“ Then, turning to his child,
He laid his hand upon her head,
And said in accents mild,
"Poor Amakeya! dost thou hear?
In vain, in vain, we crave;
We have no home! come, let us go
And seek some unknown grave!" ”

“ They chant one anthem from creation's birth,
Still testifying—to the eternal sun:
"For power and for glory we are one."
⁠Firm-rooted thrives the oak;
⁠In goodly fellowship its parts endure,
⁠Each minister to each ”

“ SONNET.
Slow fades the sunlight from each lonely hill,
And the pale half-moon paints with shadowy hue
The sleeping earth; how soon doth night renew
Watch o'er a world—so passionless, so still! ”