On the cover of each issue of The Germ appeared this poem by William Rossetti, the mastery of which, some one said, would require a Browning Society’s united intellects:
When whoso merely hath a little thought
Will plainly think the thought which is in him—
Not imaging another’s bright or dim,
Not mangling with new words what others taught;
When whoso speaks, from having either sought
Or only found,—will speak, not just to skim
A shallow surface with words made and trim,
But in that very speech the matter brought:
Be not too keen to cry—“So this is all!—