"I believe it was composed in compliment to you," laughed Gerta, bringing a blush to the sensitive young author's face by her words. But his father seconded Amy's request, so Garth read—
"There are two races of men who have retained their peculiar characteristics through long ages and through many vicissitudes. They have wandered over the whole globe, and become part of almost every people now existing. They have conquered and been conquered. Their blood has mixed with that of all the other tribes of earth. As independent nations they no longer exist, and yet the personality of the Jew and the Norseman is as distinct to-day as it was when they were mighty ruling powers on the earth.
"The Egyptian of old, the Greek and Goth, where are they now? They have left grand memories, but have become 'mixed races,' and the peoples of to-day who bear their names have few, or any, of their attributes.
"Not so have the wandering Arab and the restless Scandinavian obeyed the law of nature that says—
'The old order changeth, yielding place to new,
And God fulfils Himself in many ways,
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.'
"Like the two currents that roll side by side in one channel, distinct in their nature, those two great races have come down the ages bearing to all lands and all peoples a God-derived power and a God-given message. They have not been lost in each other; and in blending with those among whom they dwelt they have yet never ceased to leave indelible traces, which have made them recognisable always. They have absorbed, but never been absorbed.
"When our hearts thrill to some glowing page of Eastern imagery, when we listen enraptured to some sacred song, some impassioned speech of one filled with religious fervour; when we read of suffering borne patiently, of fortitude unequalled amid awful tribulation, of quiet perseverance conquering difficulty—we recognise the strength of the Hebrew race. When we are told of some venturesome band daring the dangers of iceberg and darkness in penetrating to the secret haunts of Nature; when we learn that gallant seamen are guiding civilisation to the farthest corners of the earth, are doing deeds of heroism that stir our deepest feelings of reverence; when we know that our explorers and sailors laugh at peril and face death without fear; when we see numbers of our boys, from the prince who stands by the throne to the city outcast who begs at our door, prefer and seek sea-life rather than any other—we acknowledge with pride that the power of our sea-king sires is dominant yet.
"The Jew and the Norseman have surely been chosen of Heaven to keep the human race from degenerating, for the soul of the Jew rules our moral being, and the spirit of the Norseman controls our intellectual nature. The nursery of our faith was the tent of an Arab shiek, and the cradle of our fame was the bark of a northern Viking."