Perhaps the faults and the excellences of Mr. Mayhem, his fruitful limitations, and his energetic inspirations, can be best appreciated if we quote the following sonnet; the exercise will also afford us the opportunity (which we are sure Mr. Mayhem will not resent in such an old friend) of pointing out the dangers into which his new tendencies may lead him. “England, if ever it should be thy fate By fortune’s turn or accident of chance To fall from craven fears of being great, And in the tourney with dishevelled lance To topple headlong, and incur the Hate Of Spain, America, Germany, and France, What will you find upon that dreadful date To check the backward move of your advance? A little Glory; purchased not with gold Nor yet with Frankincense (the island blood Is incommensurate, neither bought nor sold), But on the poops where Drake and Nelson stood An iron hand, a stern unflinching eye To meet the large assaults of Destiny.” Now, here is a composition that not everyone could have written. It is inspired by a vigorous patriotism, it strikes the right note (Mr. Mayhem is a Past Seneschal of the Navy League), and it breathes throughout the motive spirit of our greatest lyrics. It is the execution that is defective, and it is to execution that Mr. Mayhem must direct himself if he would rise to the level of his own great conceptions. We will take the sonnet line by line, and make our meaning clear, and we do this earnestly for the sake of a young poet to whom the Anglo-Saxon race owes much, and whom it would be deplorable to see failing, as Kipling appears to be failing, and as Ganzer has failed. Line 1 is not very striking, but might pass as an introduction; line 2 is sheer pleonasm--after using the word “fate,” you cannot use “fortune,” “accident,” “chance,” as though they were amplifications of your first thought. Moreover, the phrase “by _fortune’s_ turn” has a familiar sound. It is rather an echo than a creation. In line 3, “craven fears of being great” is taken from Tennyson. The action is legitimate enough. Thus, in Wordsworth’s “Excursion” are three lines taken bodily from “Paradise Lost,” in Kipling’s “Stow it” are whole phrases taken from the _Police Gazette_, and in Mr. Austin’s verses you may frequently find portions of a _Standard_ leader. Nevertheless, it is a license which a young poet should be chary of. All these others were men of an established reputation before they permitted themselves this liberty. In line 4, “dishevelled” is a false epithet for “lance”; a lance has no hair; the adjective can only properly be used of a woman, a wild beast, or domestic animal.