23 MARCH 1889, Page 15

POETRY.

" HE PURGETH IT."

NATIONS need sometime suffering : when our mood

Is soft, emasculate, and fearing pain ; When indolence and torpor chill the blood, And insolence and bluster fire the brain ; When, puny eons of mighty sires, we deem Our fathers' stature greater than our own, We cannot wear their armour ; and we dream Heroic dreams, the life heroic flown : Then, oh ! come loss, come suffering—only shame Be absent ! come, and to our souls discover, Ere the reluctant day of grace be over, Lost manhood's greatness, now inert and tame !

Virtue's foundation strong is to be bold ; The nobler metal iron is, not gold ! A. G. B.