POEMS ON WAR.*
PROFESSOR KNIGHT, who in 1901 published a volume entitled Pro Patties at .Regina on behalf of the Soldiers and Sailors Fund, has just published a second volume on behalf of the Belgian Relief Fund, entitled Pro Patria at Bege. He has collected poems on war, its characteristics and results, from English and American sources, beginning with Shakespeare, and coming ;down to the present time. The book will have more than contemporary value, for while he has reprinted some of the best war poems that have been inspired by the present crisis, the Professor has laid the great standard writers of the past, from Shakespeare downwards, under con- tribution, and has written an illuminating preface on the probable results to civilization and moral character of this terrific) European struggle. In that preface he quotes from the memorable letter that Wordsworth wrote to Captain Pasley in the year 1812—the letter which has so often been quoted and referred to in these columns. The words are so timely that we shall make no apology for once more placing them before our readers :— " As far as regards ourselves and our security, I do not think a wide space of conquered country is desirable and, as a patriot, I have no wish for it.... Holding these notions, it is natural—highly as I rate the importance of military power, and deeply as I feel its necessity for the protection of every excellence and virtue—that I should rest my hopes with respect to the emancipation of Europe more upon moral influences and the wishes and opinions of the people of the respective nations.... But the spirit of conquest, and the ambition of the sword, never can confer glory and happiness upon a nation that has attained power sufficient to protect itself. . . . Woe be to that country whose military power is irresistible. I deprecate such an event for Great Britain scarcely less than for any other land. . . . If a nation have nothing to oppose or fear without, it cannot escape decay and concussion within. . . . Indefinite progress undoubtedly there ought to be somewhere but let that be in knowledge, in science, in civilisation, in the increase of the numbers of the people, and in the augmentation of their virtue and happiness but progress in conquest cannot be . . . a fit object for the exertions of a people.. . My prayer as a patriot is that we may always have, somewhere or other, enemies capable of resisting us, and keeping us at arm's length?'
It is surely a good thing, when the darkness of the horror of war, made darker by German "frightfulness," is upon us, to realize that there is a nobler side to the shield, and this Professor Knight has shown to us by his collection. One misses the ballad of "The Revenge," but one could not have everything in a volume which, though well got up and pleasant to hold in the hand, is published at the popular price of 2e. fid. net. The book is dedicated to the late Lord Roberts.
Previous page
