Knowing no hearthstone, are content to roam,

"But drawing nearer God the man returns

And rears his household altar. In some quest

The feet may wander, but the heart still yearns

For the soft home-light and the quiet rest.

"Think yet again, good brother, is it not

From off such altar, whether it may glow

In princely palace or in lowliest cot,

That the true flame of country-love must flow?

While that enkindled by the flash of arms

Is a 'strange fire,' consuming while it charms.

"Lives Greece less nobly in her Parthenon,

In what her Solons wrote, her poets sang,

Than in the gastly pride of Marathon,

[Pg 11]

And kindred fields where victors' praises rang?

"And we, enriched thro' Commerce, Letters, Art,

Forgot our earlier grievances and scars,

Are we not ready for a better part?

Have we not now outgrown our need of wars?

 Prev. P 6/93 next