1 JUNE 1918, Page 10

SWINHURNIA_N FOREKNOWLEDGE.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]

SIR,—Among the many historical parallels suggested by the present war, these lines from Swinburne's " Memorial Verses on the Death of Karl Blind "—written in 1907 a propos of the Kaiser of 1870—are, I think, worthy of remark. It is not the only case where Swinburne has given us words which read as though they were newly minted for use today :-- "All this must all time know

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When glories forged in hell-fire fade, And warrior empires wither in the waste they made.

When all a forger's fame

Is shrivelled up in shame;

When all imperial notes of praise and prayer

Arid hoarse thanksgiving raised

To the abject god they praised

For murderous mercies, are but poisonous air; When Bismarck and his William lie Low even as he they warred on—damned too deep to die.

For how should history bid Their names go free, lie hid, Stand scathless of her Tacitean brand P

From their forgetfulness—

Too bright a boon to bless Crime deep as hell, withholds her healing hand."