It is hoped that a selection like this will have the desirable effect of stimulating and fostering the too latent taste in the young colonial mind for the best in poetry which his country has hitherto produced, or may ultimately produce.
Certain it is that no country should oftener pause in its ardent materialistic pursuits to find in poetry that relief and support in its strenuous life, than South Africa. We cannot be too often reminded of Matthew Arnold's assurance, that "more and more mankind will discover that we have to turn to poetry to interpret life for us, to console us, to sustain us." That is a duty ore owe to ourselves. True, South African poetry at present may not be able to satisfy this demand in its entirety. "The breath and finer spirit" are often wanting, but "the light that never was on land or sea"—the poet's dream—has been felt, and is striving for utterance. Whether the voice will be a lasting one depends largely upon the demand made by the people. They have, consciously or unconsciously, the destiny of the poetry of the future in their hands. Given sympathy, and a high standard demanded, the poet's lyre will respond; ignored, stifled—the result will be silence, possibly death, and the loss South African.
Then again, it is felt that there is a large and growing field of readers across the water who, interested probably by ties of kinship, would welcome a volume of verse resonant of the voices and sentiments of those living under Southern skies. To them, such a selection
