j;S MY LIFE 



ami of which she expressed her approval (and agreement) 

 to her physician, Sir James Clark, an old friend of mine, who 

 told me about it. The Glen was thrown open for a time, but, 

 1 believe, has been closed up again with as much rigour as 

 ever." 



In the following year he removed to London for good 

 medical attendance, and wrote me a very flattering letter 

 after reading my ° Malay Archipelago." The next year 

 (1886) I was able to call on him when in London for a day, 

 at his apartments in Longridge Road, South Kensington, 

 wdien we had a long talk, and he afterwards wrote to me as 

 u My dear friend and philosopher." On the occasion of this 

 visit he introduced me to his step-daughter, Miss Marie 

 Corelli, a very pleasant young lady, whose future eminence 

 as a writer I did not divine. 



Charles Mackay is, apparently, hardly classed as a poet, 

 since in Chambers's Biographical Dictionary he is spoken of 

 as a song-writer ; and a modern poet to whom I once mentioned 

 him was ignorant of his existence. Some know him only by 

 his " Emigrant " songs, which were set to music by Henry 

 Russell, and are often thought to have been composed by him. 

 These songs have a charm and a music in the sentiments and 

 the rhythm, which owe nothing to the music. What can be 

 more inspiring than the last lines of " Cheer, Boys ! Cheer ! " — 



"Here we had toil and little to reward it, 

 But there shall plenty smile upon our pain, 

 And ours shall be the mountain and the forest, 

 And boundless prairies ripe with golden grain." 



Or the first verse of " To the West "— 



" To the West ! to the West ! to the land of the free, 

 Where mighty Missouri rolls down to the sea, 

 Where a man is a man if he's willing to toil, 

 And the humblest may gather the fruits of the soil. 

 Where children are blessings, and he who hath most, 

 Hath aid for his fortune and riches to boast; 

 Where the young may exult, and the aged may rest, 

 Away, far away, to the Land of the West ! " 



