It was a sublime and unparalleled occasion, and yet it is not too much to say that the most splendid and perhaps the most enduring souvenir of the Queen's Jubilee was Rudyard Kipling's poem--the _Recessional_. The editor of the London _Times_, in which journal it was first published, declares that it is the greatest poem of the century, and it is quite possible that such may be the verdict of the next generation. This great poem came at the close of the Jubilee exercises and struck the world with a surprise. While Mr. Kipling has long been regarded as a great writer of fiction, and a strong poet, the deep note of strength, the undertone of volcanic earnestness, as well as the profound religious faith of the _Recessional_, were qualities which had not been attributed to Mr. Kipling by the majority of people. Yet, as Dr. George Horr, one of our brightest editors, has clearly set forth, Kipling, both as novelist and poet, has always portrayed the manly, strenuous side of life. He does not falter at putting before us ugly representations of vice, but beneath all the roughness and viciousness of men whom he describes, he reveals to us the real bedrock of genuine manliness. He never seeks to make us admire a cheat, a sneak, or a mountebank of any kind. Even in his most unconventional stories there is a Puritan strain in his temper, both in mental and moral quality, which holds him to the great essential moralities. It is certainly appropriate that such a man should have eyes to see the profound religious side of the Queen's Jubilee, for at the bottom, everything that is real, that is manly and heroic, is also religious. It is not to be marveled at that this keen student of human nature and of human history should have been able to perceive that "the far-flung battle line," "the dominion over palm and pine," "the tumult and the shouting," "the captains and the kings," and "the far-called navies" are only dust and ashes, unless God lives in the hearts and controls the character of those who wield these instruments; and that "the frantic boast," and "the foolish word" may pull a national structure down upon the heads of a people drunken with their own power and riches. The sublime and solemn refrain of the poem,-- [Illustration: _HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT_] "Lest we forget--lest we forget," called back not only the British people in all parts of the world, but the conscience of all civilization, to the one abiding source of human power.