THE MODERN MEDUSA.

["The views and objects of the 'Commonweal' group of Anarchists are published in a journal called the Commonweal ... and by reference to which it appears that they applaud and justify the wholesale massacre of innocent persons as a legitimate method for the attainment of their ends."—Mr. Asquith.]

Gorgon Medusa of the snaky locks,

Whose loathly lair was 'midst the wave-washed rocks,

Thou wert less hideous than our monstrous, mad

Belated birth of Nemesis and Nox.

Gendered of vengeful hatred and blind wrath,

Crawling malign in Civilisation's path!

Venomous vermin, of relentless fang,

Foul spawn of wrong, oppression's aftermath.

Dark is the monstrous mystery of thy birth,

Sinister scourge of a time-wearied earth;

But all men's hands against thee must be raised,

Foe of all love and murderer of all mirth.

Negation of all progress, hope's chill blight,

Black bringer-back of Chaos and Old Night;

The one unfaltering foe of humankind [¹]

Which all that's human to the death, must fight.

With thee weak tenderness must make no truce,

Parley with thee were pity's mere abuse.

The hand that halts, the sword that shrinks or spares,

But lets the Gorgon's snaky offspring loose.

Gorgon or Demogorgon! "Dreaded name!"[²]

Yet dread of thee were but disastrous shame.

Fear is thy hope, and, fronting thee, to fear,

Is but to court disaster and disfame.

Thou crawling horror of the coward soul!

Thy snaking convolutions furtive roll.

To track thy trail, to face thy stony glare,

And smite and slay is general duty's goal.

Civilisation armed with trenchant Law

Must play the Perseus with thy monster maw,

And all mankind be banded in the quest

Of the worst enemy mankind e'er saw.

The massacre of innocents, the blind

Blasting of the best hopes of humankind;

Hate's indiscriminate earthquake, letting loose

Of all the fiends of blood, and fire, and wind:

Sheer wreck of hearth and altar, home and State,

Rending of reverenced ties, love desolate,

Order submerged; these are the Gorgon's hopes,

Which Law must frustrate ere 'tis all too late.

Smite Perseus! Wield the unhesitating brand

With steadfast heart and with unfaltering hand;

And from the grosser Gorgon of our day

Free, in Humanity's cause, each harried land!

[¹] "Hostis humani generis."

[²] "The dreaded name of Demogorgon."
Paradise Lost.