The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1904-10-30

It would be vain o ignore the warning
voices which tell us. on either side Of
tho Eea, OF a certa In dccadence in tho
definitely religious life OF tho ordinary
home-a falling of, that is, in the very
force which gave It's distinctive inspira-
ton and distinctive power to SO much OF
our. grandsires life.
II that be true-apd In optic of all
explanatory qualifications nobody. will.
think say It is wholly false-it surely
! behoovcs us all to consider we'll what
We can do to safeguard the men and
women and. above all, the children OF
america and OF England from a peril
whose gravity It Is impossible to over
estimate because 1t affects the very
founda tons OF our Christian lie.
For Did and young folks aike-and not
least for the busy. active folk in middle
H lie on whose energy much depends-we
need TO get down to what Kipling calls
"rhe imperishable plinth OF things
Seen and unseen which touch our peace.
THOUGHTS AT 1TAsH1NcfrON's
GRAVE.
Among the many privileges which have
& been mine, none was greater than that
and being there allowed to leave me-
mento Of my having stood there by plant
Ing a tree which shall remain.
And as I was there, there came into
my mind the recollection. OF verses WHICH
II believe to be az little known In thiselapd
Gas sthey are in our Oyn-verses written
sDy poet who will be better remembered
some day than re Is known now: when
Tho has Just passed away -Frcderi
Meyers, who while still boy. wrote a
poem in 1861 upon the visit OF the Prince,
OF Wales. standing by the grave OF WASH
ington.
t5 1t was a boyish production. and there
I is not much OF II that Is worthy OF more
than that kind OF Immortality that be-
longs at school to the ordinary prize
poet. But there are two verses in It
which seem 10 me to have ring which
makes them worth remembering, and n
significance which Is appropriate to-day
washington Is supposed-the shadow Of
SWashington-to be addressing the young
Prince:
81 crave no pardon, Prince, that, led
by me.
&Is This grand result was from your, fathers
wrought
1t was not that set the people free
1t was not i. but God.
Neither can one consent forever bind
Parent and offspring. but they shall at
length
"A closer union in dlsunion find;
In separation. strength.
MODERN KNIGHTS AND KNIGHTS OF
OLD.
chivalry Is here To-day, but 1t has
taken, as NO believe. another meaning
than that which 1t had in former times
Perhaps that other meaning, II we could
get below the surface, had more OF a
place In those early days than we are
apt to remember.
1t was my Office for some years Of my
life to be connected with the great order
OF chlvalry, the Order of the Garter.
which was founded In 1913, as the en-
bodiment of the deals Of knightliness at
that period-knlghtliness and chiyalry.
And II we look at the actual record OF
what the man who was then enlisted
as knight was really obliged to do.
the oath no had to take, the obligations
he had to assume. We find this-that his
primary and central obligation was that
no bear the arms, the red cross on the
white shield, the sword with the cross
at Its hilt and tho crest, for tho just
and necessary defence OF all that are op.
pressed and needy.
It gives different thought. different
tone, to tho records OF those days. when
VIC come realize that the underlying i'm
pulse was meant to be that; and all
though men then md since have failed
to justify tho ideal under which they
were enlisted that Is not peculiar to
sthe age Of feudalism or to the knights
Of chiyalry,
DUTY" A SPECIFIC ENGLISH WORD
z. i do not know whether It is true to
say. as Is sometimes said, that the ENGLISH
word DUTY" In all that 1t signifies In
the highest sense, has no quite corre-
r------------------