I was much touched and pleased with this little anecdote to the purpose. Speaking casually to a bright-looking boy of the Shoeblack Brigade about Lord Shaftesbury (the boy didn't know me from Adam), to find out how far he felt for his lost friend, with tears in his eyes he quoted to my astonishment part of the above, and told me that he and many of his mates knew it by heart, having seen it in some paper. I never said who wrote it (probably he wouldn't have believed me if I had) but left him happy with some pears.
Perhaps I may here add (and all this has been part of "My Life as an Author") a couple of stanzas I wrote, (but never have published till now) on another worthy specimen of humanity, mourned in death by our highest:—
In Memoriam J. B.
"Simple, pious, honest man,
Child of heaven while son of earth,
We would praise, for praise we can,
Thy good service, thy great worth;
Through long years of prosperous place
In the sunshine of the Crown,
With man's favour and God's grace
Humbly, bravely, walked John Brown.
"Faithful to the Blameless Prince,
Faithful to the Widowed Queen,
Loved,—as oft before and since
Truth and zeal have ever been,—
His no pedigree of pride,
His no name of old renown,
Yet in honour lived and died
Nature's nobleman, John Brown."
Also, I will here give, as it appears nowhere else, a few lines to a dying brother, for the sake of recording his hopeful last three words:—
Dear Brother Dan's Latest Whisper.
"'Life unto life!' This was the whispered word
That from my dying brother's lips I heard
Faintly and feebly uttered, in the strife
Of Nature's agony,—'Life—unto—life!'
Yea, brother! for thou livest; death is dead,
And life rejoiceth unto life instead;
No sins, no cares, no sorrows, and no pains,—
But deep delights, unutterable gains,
Now are thy portion in that higher sphere,
The heritage of God's own children here
Who loved their Lord awhile on earth, and now
Live to Him evermore in love—as thou!"
And in this connection I will print here a psychological poem of mine, not to be found in any other of my books:—
Memory.