7 
So the great cause flashes by ; 
Nearer and clearer its purposes open, 
While louder and prouder the world-echoes cheer us : 
Gentlemen sportsmen, you ought to live up to us, 
Lead us, and lift us, and hallo our game to us— 
We cannot call the hounds off, and no shame to us— 
Don’t be left staring alone! 
There is plenty of vigorous life in that. Kingsley was 
of course very much alive. He enjoyed life and reverenced 
it. Hesawa holy mystery in all of it, and especially in its 
fruitfulness. Again and again he expresses that thought, 
sometimes with startling directness, as in ‘‘ The Watch- 
inan ’’: 
‘Watchman, what of the night ?’ 
‘ The stars are out in the sky ; 
And the merry round moon will be rising soon, 
For us to go sailing by.’ 
‘Watchman, what of the night ?’ 
‘ The tide flows in from the sea ; 
There’s water to float a little cockboat 
Will carry such fishers as we.’ 
‘Watchman, what of the night ?’ 
‘ The night is a fruitful time ; 
When to many a pair are born children fair, 
To be christened at morning chime.’ 
This again is a poem of which the meaning does not 
lie on the surface, and is not exhausted by a first 
interpretation. But it certainly joins the idea of fruitfulness 
with the idea of renewal. Life renewing life is at the heart 
of all the ancient doctrines of sacrifice. It is ever inspiring 
Kingsley. It is the source of that perpetual revival of his 
hope in darkest hours, which appears in ‘‘ A Christmas 
-Carol,’”’ ‘‘ The Dead Church,’’ ‘“‘ Old and New,’’ and Best 
of all in ‘‘ The Tide River ’’ from ‘‘ The Water-Babies :”’ 
Clear and cool, clear and cool, 
By laughing shallow, and dreaming pool ; 
Cool and clear, cool and clear, 
By shining shingle, and foaming wear ; 
Under the crag where the ouzel sings, 
And the ivied wall where the church-bell rings, 
Undefiled, for the undefiled ; 
Play by me, bathe in me, mother and child. 
Dank and foul, dank and foul, 
By the smoky town in its murky cowl ; 
Foul and dank, foul and dank, 
By wharf and sewer and slimy bank ; 
