If, Sweden, _you_ were the smaller, Were young your freedom's renown, Had _your_ flag a mark of union That pressed you still farther down By saying that you, as little, Were set at the greater's board (For this is the mark's real meaning, By no one on earth ignored), Yes, if it were you,--and your freedom Not hallowed by age, but young, And a century's want and weakness Still heavy in memory hung, The soul of your nation harrowed By old injustice and need, By luckless labor and longing, --And did you its meaning heed; Yes, if it were you, whose duty To teach your people were tried, To honor their new-born freedom, To find in their flag their guide: Would longer you suffer it sundered, Leave foreign a single field? Would you not claim it unplundered, Your independence to shield? Would not to yourself you say then: "If one has high lineage long, If greater his colors' glory, The more alluring his song. Oh, tempt not him who from trouble Is rising with new found might; With pure marks direct him, rather, To honor's exalted height." Thus _you_ would speak, elder hero, If _you_ in _our_ home abode; Your wont is the way of honor, You fare on the forward road. From eighteen hundred and fourteen, And down to the latest day, So oft for our independence We stood like the stag at bay, Brave men have risen among you, And scorning the strife that swelled Have talked for our cause high-minded, Like Torgny to them of eld. VI ANSWER TO THE AGED RIDDERSTAD You say, it is "knightly duty," The fight for the flag to share,-- I hold you full high in honor, But--_that_ is our own affair! For just because we encounter The storm-blasts of slander stark, It's "knightly duty" to free now The flag from the marring mark. The "parity" that mark preaches Flies false over all the seas; A pan-Scandinavian Sweden Can never our nation please. From "knightly duty" the smaller Must say: I am not a part; The mark of my freedom and honor Is whole for my mind and heart. From "knightly duty" the greater Must say: A falsehood's fair sign Can give me no special honor, No longer shall it be mine. For both it is "knightly duty," With flags that are pure, to be A warring world's bright example Of peoples at peace, proud and free. TO MISSIONARY SKREFSRUD IN SANTALISTAN (See Note 67) I honor you, who, though refused, affronted, Have heard the voice, and victory have won; I honor you, who still by malice hunted, Show miracles of faith and power done. I honor you, God-thirsting soul so driven, 'Mid scorn and need the spirit's war to wage; I honor you, by Gudbrand's valley given, And of her sons the foremost in this age. I do not share your faith, your daring dreaming; This parts us not, the spirit's paths are broad. For, all things great and noble round us streaming, I worship them, because I worship God. POST FESTUM (See Note 68)