xii Preface 



Thou art become a by-word for dissembling, 



A beacon to thy neighbors for all fraud. 

 Thy deeds of violence men count and reckon. 



Who takes the sword shall perish by the sword. 



The Empire thou didst build shall be divided. 



Thou shalt be weighed in thine own balances 

 Of usury to peoples and to princes, 



And be found wanting by the world and these. 



Thy Empire shall be parted and thy Kingdom. 



At thy own doors a Kingdom shall arise, 

 Where freedom shall be preached and the wrong righted 



Which thy unwisdom wrought in days unwise. 



Truth yet shall triumph in a world of justice. 



This is of faith. I swear it. East and West 

 The law of Man's progression shall accomplish 



Even this last great marvel with the rest. 



Thou wouldst not further it, Thou canst not hinder. 



If thou shalt learn in time thou yet shalt live. 

 But God shall ease thy hand of its dominion, 



And give to these the rights thou wouldst not give. 



The nations of the East have left their childhood. 



Thou art grown old. Their manhood is to come; 

 And they shall carry on Earth's high tradition 



Through the long ages when thy lips are dumb. 



The wisdom of the West is but a madness, 



The fret of shallow waters in their beds. 

 Yours is the flow, the fulness of Man's patience, 



The ocean of God's rest inherited. 



I think when London fashion turned against him for his support 

 of the Egyptians who fought for freedom, his good looks were a positive 

 annoyance to his enemies. All had not the good humour of Lord 

 Houghton who said to me in his whimsical way "The fellow knows he 

 has a handsome head and he wants it to be seen on Temple Bar." Those 

 good looks on the other hand and perhaps his love of horses softened 

 the sternness of magistrates who visited him according to their duty 

 when he was picking oakum as a prisoner in a cell of Galway gaol. For 

 in the Land League days, turning from the East he had taken up the 



