484 LEAVES THEY HAVE TOUCHED. 



is Taylor that we quote wlien we say, " The world knows nothing of 

 its greatest men." 



The late Lord Lyfcton I here rank as a poet. He was, besides, as 

 we all know, one of the greatest of modern writers of prose fiction. 

 He prided himself on his poem entitled " King Arthur." " What- 

 ever worth I have put into this work of mine," he says in relation to 

 this poem, " comprising, in condensed form, so many of the influences 

 which a life divided between literature and action, the study of books 

 and the commerce of mankind, brings to bear upon the two elements 

 of song — Imagination and Thought— that degree of worth must 

 ultimately be found in it, and its merits and its faults be gauged by 

 different standards of criticism from those which experience teaches 

 me to anticipate now. I shall indeed be beyond the reach of 

 pleasure and of pain in a judgment thus tardily pronounced. But 

 he who appeals to Time must not be impatient of the test which he 

 invites." In my copy of King Arthur, Lord Lytton has wi-itten 

 with his own hand the first line of that poem, with his name and the 

 date, thus : 



"Our land's first legends, love and knightly deeds." — LTTTOisr. 1871. 



The last of the seven poets represented by autographs in my 

 collection is the present laureate — Alfred Tennyson. I transcribe 

 the following words from a note in his handwriting : " It is very 

 gratifying to me to receive your volume, not only for its own sake, 

 but as a proof that I have not altogether spoken in vain. Yours 

 faithfully, A. TEKNYSOisr.'' — The allusion in the closing expression is 

 to his address to the. Queen at the close of a new edition (1874) of 

 his Works — in which he averred that the enthusiasm of England on 

 the occasion of the recovery of the Prince of Wales from a dangerous ■ 

 sickness was evidence of the attachment of the empire to the crown i 

 and for further evidence of the same thing he appealed to 



"The silent cry, 

 The prayer of many a race, and creed, and clime — 

 Thunderless lightnings striking under sea 

 From sunset and sunrise of all thy realm." 



And especially he cited the feeling shown by British America on the 

 same occasion — 



"That True North, whereof," he says, "we lately heard 

 A strain to shame us. Keep you to yourselves : 

 So loyal is too costly ! Friends, your love 

 Is but a burden : loose the bond and go ! " 



