Ten Englishmen of the Nineteenth Century

by James Richard Joy

"For all day the wheels are droning, turning;
Their wind comes in our faces,
Till our hearts turn, our heads with pulses burning,
And the walls turn in their places;
Turns the sky in high window blank and reeling,
Turns the long light that drops adown the wall,
Turn the black flies that crawl along the ceiling,
All are turning, all the day, and we with all;
And all day the iron wheels are droning
And sometimes we could pray,
'O, ye wheels' (breaking out in mad moaning)
'Stop! be silent for to-day!'"

Aye, be silent! Let them hear each other breathing
For a moment mouth to mouth!
Let them touch each other's hands in a fresh wreathing
Of their tender human youth!
Let them feel that this cold metallic motion
Is not all the life God fashions or reveals!
Let them prove their living souls against the notion
That they live in you, or under you, O wheels!
Still, all day the iron wheels go onward,
Grinding life down from its mark;
And the children's souls which God is calling sunward
Spin on blindly in the dark.

Now, tell the poor young children, Oh, my brothers,
To look up to Him and pray;
So the blessed One who blesseth all the others,
Will bless them another day.
They answer, "Who is God that he should hear us,
While the rushing of the iron wheels is stirr'd?
When we sob aloud the human creatures near us
Pass by, hearing not, or answer not, a word.
And we hear not (for the wheels in their resounding)
Strangers speaking at the door;
Is it likely God, with angels singing round him,
Hears our weeping any more?

"Two words, indeed, of praying we remember,
And at midnight's hour of harm,
'Our Father,' looking upward in the chamber,
We say softly for a charm.
We know no other words except 'Our Father,'
And we think that, in some pause of the angels' song,
God may pluck them with the silence sweet to gather,
And hold both within his right hand which is strong.
'Our Father!' If he heard us he would surely
(For they call him good and mild)
Answer, smiling" down the steep world very purely,
'Come and rest with me, my child.'"

"But no!" say the children, weeping faster,
"He is speechless as a stone;
And they tell us, of his image is the master
Who commands us to work on.
Go to," say the children, "up in heaven,
Dark, wheel-like turning clouds are all we find.
Do not mock us; grief has made us unbelieving;
We look up for God, but tears have made us blind."
Do you hear the children weeping and disproving,
Oh, my brothers, what ye preach?
For God's possible is taught by his world's loving,
And the children doubt of each.

And well may the children weep before you!
They are weary ere they run;
They have never seen the sunshine, nor the glory
Which is brighter than the sun.
They know the grief of man without its wisdom;
They sink in man's despair without its calm;
Are slaves, without the liberty in Christendom;
Are martyrs, by the pang without the palm;
Are worn as if with age, yet unretrievingly
The harvest of its memories cannot reap-
Are orphans of the earthly love and heavenly
Let them weep! Let them weep!
They look up with their pale and sunken faces
And their look is dread to see,
For they mind you of their angels in high places
With eyes turned on Deity.
"How long," they say, "How long, O cruel nation,
Will you stand to move the world, on a child's heart—
Stifle down with a mailed heel its palpitation,
And tread onward to your throne amid the mark?
Our blood splashes upward, O gold-heaper,
And your purple shows your path!
But the child's sob in the silence curses deeper
Than the strong man in his wrath.

VIII

LORD PALMERSTON THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF ENGLAND

[In March, 1849, Lord Palmerston dilated as follows upon the moral greatness and influence of England.]

I say, in contradiction to the honorable gentleman, that this country does stand well with the great majority of the foreign powers; that the character of this country stands high; that the moral influence of England is great—a moral influence that I do not take credit to this government for having created, but which is founded on the good sense and the wise and enlightened conduct of the British nation. Foreign countries have seen that in the midst of the events which have violently convulsed other countries in Europe, and which have shaken to their foundations ancient institutions, this country has held fast to her ancient landmarks, standing firm in her pride of place: