Page:Songs, Legends, and Ballads.djvu/150

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138
SONGS, LEGENDS, AND BALLADS.

A NATION'S TEST.


READ AT THE O'CONNELL CENTENNIAL IN BOSTON, ON AUGUST 6, 1875.


I.


A NATION'S greatness lies in men, not acres;
One master-mind is worth a million hands.
No royal robes have marked the planet-shakers,
But Samson-strength to burst the ages' bands.
The might of empire gives no crown supernal—
Athens is here—but where is Macedon?
A dozen lives make Greece and Rome eternal,
And England's fame might safely rest on one.

Here test and text are drawn from Nature's preaching :
Afric and Asia—half the rounded earth—
In teeming lives the solemn truth are teaching,
That insect-millions may have human birth.