ABSTRACT
Had he seen the modern Imperialists listening, little need would there have been for him to write "The Recessional "-also is he, in a \vay, the greatest practical empire-maker we have with us. Men away, far from home and England, feel thanks to him, that England cares for them, that they matter to her, and that their work seems a work \vorth doing. For has he not sung our song, the song of the likes of me and many better men and "vomen, that of "The Lost Legion"? But when Mr. Kipling the other day sang" The White Man's Burden," he struck a string alien to us, and we liked it as much as a wet slate pencil rubbed against a slate; it was the first line we had ever met of his that we did not understand -it found in our hearts no echo. We old-fashioned Teutons have never felt any amount of Empire any burden, and we do not intend to rule "sullen, silent people"; such things are not in our line, we want and we will have all the world we can, and we will have it no burden to us ; nor will we calmly allow England to be a burden on those we gather beneath the shadow of her wings. Our watchword is Egmont's "Fruchtheit und Freiheit! Froheit und Ruhe !" We know no white man's burden save of white man's making; we can manage the rest. Supposihg this is so, you remark. You have only said that Mr. John Morley and his group are really helping Imperialism, and that Mr. Kipling has only once failed to please your group. vVhere is the
danger of these men aiding a general policy-moulding outburst on anti-Imperialism? That is soon demonstrated. Mr. John Morley's group are like unto medical books-bad reading for the unprofessional. You know how a sound healthy man, may be with just a touch of gout or dyspepsia on him, will, on perusing a physician's vade 11leCU1Jl, straightway fall into the belief that he has everything in it the matter with him, barring the spotted diseases, and those he fears may be coming on. Of course, he does not from imagination really get any organic disease, but nevertheless he gets ill for a day or so and is a pestilent nuisance to his family, for he thinks they do not realise the difficulty of his position. They think he is making a fool of himself, and that he is perfectly able to attend to his business-their interests -energetically, ifhe chose, and things are said during this crisis which are not forgotten by either party for years.
