Excerpt from The Garden and the Fire In Time of War. (To H. D. H.) Ah! if we lose - if this fair countryside, Where sleep our fathers, where our children play, Lay dumb beneath the footsteps of the foe; If here, our English liberty o'erthrown, Ruled foreign harshness, foreign pride of race; And all the heritage that we might leave our sons Were slavery, and shame to face the foe - What comfort then in books, or work, or ease, Or summer twilight on a rose-bowered lawn, And whispering winds among the dreaming elms! Crimson and gold of sunset on the sea Would seem the fires of Hell, were England dead - These fields her grave, our tears her memory. But if we win, and with our victory Gain lands and gold and hatred of the foe, Lust of this world, and blood-stained pride That holds Thy white humility in scorn, Better forego such spoils; - nay, best to know The utter blinding shame of sheer defeat. Lay Thou, O Lord, Thy lash across our backs, Bow these our stubborn heads, and from our hands Strike down the sword. Cut short our triumph-songs And bind our souls with helplessness and fear. Then from the ruins of the land we love, We Thy sad people, scourged with slavery, Perchance might lift our ravaged hearts to Thee. And had we neither house nor home nor king, Nor any name save much as serfs might bear, About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.