- tion to them. We, as a nation, may no longer wear
the lightly proffered laurel, but must expect the older, civilized nations will judge us by our wisdom, equity, and success in discharge of our new responsibilities. In Kipling's "McAndrew's Hymn" many years of hardship, sternly borne in obedience to duty, atone for misspent days under the influence of the soft stars in the velvet skies of the Orient. In "The 'Eathen" the author refers to the native inhabitants of India, whose most familiar household words are "not now," "to-morrow," "wait a bit," and whose chief traits are dirtiness, laziness, and "doin' things rather-more-or-less." He describes the raw English recruit, picked out of the gutter, recounts the stages of discipline that make him a good soldier, and finally a reliable non-commissioned officer—a man that, returned to his country, would prove a good and useful citizen.
"The 'eathen in 'is blindness bows down to wood 'an stone
'E don't obey no orders unless they is 'is own;
'E keeps 'is side arms awful: 'e leaves 'em all about,
An' then comes up the regiment an' pokes the 'eathen out.
The 'eathen in 'is blindness must end where 'e began,
But the backbone of the Army is the non-commissioned man."
"L'Envoi" of "The Seven Seas" suggests the creed of a healthy soul: to accept true criticism; to find joy in work; to be honest in the search for truth; to believe that all our labor is under God, the Source of all knowledge and all good.
Robert Louis Stevenson is great as a novelist; he is greater in his brief writings and his letters. He presents some plain truths with attractive vigor. He says: "To have suffered, nay, to suffer, sets a
