The Irish standard., 1905-10-28
THEIR FIRST PUBLICATION.

THEIR FIRST PUBLICATION.
The Two New Letters by Cardinal
| Newta an.
Those students and admirers of
| Newman-and their NAM, is legion
who have been puzzled as to lae mean
ing OF the two last lines of that ex-
cesdingly popular hymn of his, Lead,
Kindly Light will he glad to know
that clue has just come 10 light in
two letters written by him some time
| before he had penned this immortal
! little prayer-poen, and now published
fcr the first time. In one of the let
;ei's he a!!udes TO enc Of his little sis
ters as an angel and in the second
re refers TO the other young sisters
angel face The death of both sis.
tors deeply affected his sensitive ma
ture, and one can readily imagine that
it was of them that he was thinking
when he wrote:
"And with the morn those angel faces
smile
Which have loved long since, and lost
awhile"
1t is difficult, however, to understand
the somewhat severe tone-mildly
severe, of course-of the reply which
he wrote to one who inquired of him
what he meant by the two lines quoted.
1T would" this latest great doctor of
the Church said, "be positive tyran-
ny" to compel a man to describe the
mood ie which he was when he wrote
certain poem sixty years before.
In connection with the poems of the
same illustrious Cardinal, the follow
ing lines, in which readers of his works
will readily see the Newmanesque style
of his and tone, may be quoted:
Time was I shrank from what was
right
From fear of what was wrong;
would not brave the sacred fight
Because the foe was strong.
And sorer shame aside;
Such dread of sin was Incidence,
Such aim at Heaven was pride.
So, when my Saviour calls, rise,
And calmly do my best;
Leaving to Him, with silent eyes
OF hope and fear, the rest"
He repeated a similar thought in
one of his prose works, in a passage
in which he tells us that if we were to
refrain from writing on certain sub
jects lest we should make a mistake
in what we wrote, we would never
write anything that was of value.
1t may not be inappropriate to recall
a couplet from Tennyson's "Locksley
Hail. as to the meaning of which
many of the late poet-laureate's adj
mirers are still in doubt These are the
lines:
Its the place. and all around it, as
of old, the curlews call,
Drcary CLEANS along the meadows, fly
ing over Locksley Hail.
1t is generally supposed by these ad-
mirers that the light-colored breasts
of the curlews flying over Locksley
Hail. are the "dreary CLEANS" to which
the poet refers. But in a letter, writ
ten in answer to query as to whether
this was his meaning, Tennyson de-
clared that it was not-that "Dreary
CLEANS along the meadows" is a paren-
thetical phrase, and means "dreary
CLEANS being along the meadows"
Talking of "Locksley Hail." it is a
pity that the poet, grown old and
wealthy and famous should have
marred its effect by writing the much
inferior "Locksley Hall Sixty Years
Afterwards" The mind of the aged
bard had grown impervious to the
clear, strong rays of truth which had
fllumined it when he was in the first
flush of his poetic genius.
The reception which is everywhere in
the South being accorded to Roosevelt
on his present trip through Dixie
Land shows that the people of the
South have fully forgiven the President
for the Booker Washington incident.
Roosevelt is a man who naturally en-.
dears himself to the gallant people of
the South. The fact that his mothe,
was a Southerner and lived in the
South until her marriage is another
fact which makes the President popu-
lar in the South.
Mrs. Mackay, Senior.