Such a person may be a powerful
minister, but he is no more a great statesman than the man who
gets up behind a carriage is a great whip. Both are disciples of
progress; both perhaps may get a good place. But how far the
original momentum is indebted to their powers, and how far their
guiding prudence regulates the lash or the rein, it is not
necessary for me to notice.
THE EMPIRE
[Rudyard Kipling's long poem "A Song of the English," and the
shorter, "White Man's Burden," may be read in connection with
this topic; but nothing better asserts the imperial idea than the
lines written by Tennyson at the request of the Prince of Wales
(Edward VII.) for the opening of the Indian and Colonial
Exhibition in 1886.]
I
Welcome, welcome with one voice!
In your welfare we rejoice,
Sons and brothers that have sent,
From isle and cape and continent,
Produce of your field and flood,
Mount and mine and primal wood;
Works of subtle brain and hand,
And splendors of the morning land,
Gifts from every British zone;
Britons, hold your own!
II
May we find, as ages run,
The mother featured in the son;
And may yours forever be
That old strength and constancy
Which has made your fathers great
In our ancient island state;
And wherever her flag fly,
Glorying between sea and sky,
Makes the might of Britain known,
Britons, hold your own!
III
Britain fought her sons of yore--
Britain failed; and nevermore,
Careless of our growing kin,
Shall we sin our fathers' sin;
Men that in a narrower day--
Unprophetic rulers they--
Drove from out the mother's nest
That young eagle of the West
To forage for herself alone;
Britons, hold your own!
IV
Sharers of our glorious past,
Brothers, must we part at last?
Shall we not thro' good and ill
Cleave to one another still?
Britain's myriad voices call,
"Sons, be welded, each and all,
Into one imperial whole,
One with Britain, heart and soul!
One life, one flag, one fleet, one throne;
Britons, hold your own!
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, TEN ENGLISHMEN OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY ***
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