“I a weaponed warrior was! now in pride bedecks me A young serving man all with silver and fine gold, With the work of waving gyres! Warriors sometimes kiss me. Sometimes I to strife of battle, summon with my calling Willing war-companions; whiles, the horse doth carry Me the march-paths over, or the ocean-stallion Fares the flood with me, flashing in my jewels-- Often times a bower maiden, all bedecked with armlets, Filleth up my bosom; whiles, bereft of covers, I must, hard and headless, (in the houses) lie! Then, again, hang I, with adornments fretted, Winsome on the wall where the warriors drink. Sometimes the folk fighters, as a fair thing on warfaring, On the back of horses bear me; then bedecked with jewels Shall I puff with wind from a warrior’s breast. Then, again, to glee feasts I the guests invite Haughty heroes to the wine-- other whiles shall I With my shouting, save from foes what is stolen away, Make the plundering scather flee. Ask what is my name!” _Riddle_ xv. We do not say a word about the literary value and importance of Mr. Stopford Brooke’s great work; that is duly appraised elsewhere. ‘There is nothing like leather,’ and to us here all things present themselves as they may tell on education. Here is a very treasure-trove. FOOTNOTES: [13] “History of Early English Literature,” by Stopford A. Brooke, 2 vols. Macmillan & Co. CHAPTER XV _IS IT POSSIBLE?_ The economic aspects of the great philanthropic scheme[14] which brought timely relief to the national conscience before the setting in of the hard winter of 1891, are, perhaps, outside our province, but there are educational aspects of it which, we are in some measure, bound to discuss. In the first place, the children in many homes hear, “I do not believe that”--it is possible for the leopard to change his spots. ‘General’ Booth’s scheme brings this issue before us with startling directness, and what the children hear said to-day at the table and by the fireside will probably influence for all their lives their attitude towards all philanthropic and all missionary endeavour. Not only so, but we ourselves, who stand in some measure _in loco parentis_ to the distressed in mind, body, or estate, are compelled to examine our own position. How far do we give, and work, for the ease of our own conscience, and how far do we believe in the possibility of the instant and utter restoration of the morally degraded, are questions which, to-day, force themselves upon us. We must be ready with a yea or a nay; we must take sides, for or against such possibilities as should exalt philanthropic effort into a burning passion. The fact is, this great scheme forced a sort of moral crisis upon us.