Onward serene like Crusader to battle, faith and the Bible thy armour-of-mail,

Restfully calm 'mid the roar and the rattle; trusting that God would be sure to prevail.

Galahad thou-waging war 'gainst Saladin-with Galahad's strength and with Galahad's heart;

Embodied soul of a noble Paladin, henceforth from heroes no more to depart.

Guerdon for self-thou hast ever rejected-as for the Militant Church thou didst strive,

Offering all, now, thy God hath elected thine own most wished for reward to arrive.

Ring out, ye bells, with a strain pure and tender, comfort ye all that are sorely bereaved;

Divinity loves thus true service to render; a soldier of Christ from on-guard is relieved.

O! single soul, full of spiritual leaven, prophet, saint, warrior, alway confest,

Now, on the shore of the river of Heaven, vanquished, yet victor, rejoice thee at rest!

ALFRED DOMETT, C.M.G.

[According to the European Mail, born in Surrey, May 20, 1811, and matriculated at Cambridge, as a member of St. John's College, in 1829. After three years' residence, left the University without graduating, and was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1841. So early as 1832 published a small volume of poems, and six or seven years afterwards contributed short poetical pieces to Blackwood's Magazine, one of which— "A Christmas Hymn"-w '-was much admired. It attracted the favourable notice of Longfellow. In 1842 went, among the earliest settlers, to Nelson, in New Zealand. His literary

abilities soon obtained for him three eminent distinctions. His account of the Wairau Massacre in 1843, and the petition which he wrote at the request of the Nelson settlers for the recall of Governor Fitz-Roy in 1845, may well rank as valuable State papers. Appointed a member of the Legislative Council in 1846, and on the introduction of the Constitution of 1847, Colonial Secretary of the province of New Munster, and in 1851 Civil Secretary of New Zealand. From 1854 to 1856 the sole management of a new and extensive district at Hawke's Bay was entrusted to him; and he admirably discharged new and laborious duties. While so employed, elected without his knowledge, after a contest, to represent the town of Nelson in the House of Representatives. In 1862 and 1863 was Premier of the colony. Afterwards, from 1864 to 1871, Secretary for Crown Lands; and in that difficult office so distinguished himself, that in 1870, when he held a seat in the Legislative Council, he was specially excepted, while he continued Secretary of Crown Lands, from the law of Parliamentary disqualification. Nor did he confine himself to official duties: his love of literature led him to the devotion of his leisure to the organisation and classification of the Parliamentary Library; and the colony is specially indebted to him for his efforts in that work. Came to England in 1871, and resided there till he died in 1887. Made in 1880 a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George.

Soon after his return to England published Ranolf and Amohia (Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co.), a poem in which he described the scenery of New Zealand and the legends and habits of the Maoris; and in 1877, Flotsam and Jetsam (Smith, Elder, & Co.)

THE PRELUDE TO RANOLF AND AMOHIA.

WELL! if Truth be all welcomed with hardy reliance,
All the lovely unfoldings of luminous Science,
All that logic can prove or disprove be avowed:

Is there room for no faith-though such evil intrude-
In the dominance still of a Spirit of Good?

Is there room for no hope-such a handbreadth we scanIn the permanence yet of the Spirit of Man ?

May we bless the far seeker, nor blame the fine dreamer?
Leave Reason her radiance-Doubt her due cloud;
Nor their Rainbows enshroud?

From our Life of realities-hard-shallow-hearted,
Has Romance has all glory idyllic departed—
From the workaday world all the wonderment flown?
Well, but what if there gleamed, in an Age cold as this,
The divinest of Poets' ideal of bliss?

Yea, an Eden could lurk in this Empire of ours,
With the loneliest love in the loveliest bowers ?—
In an era so rapid with railway and steamer,
And with Pan and the Dryads like Raphaël gone-
What if this could be shown?

O my friends, never deaf to the charms of Denial,
Were its comfortless comforting worth a life-trial—
Discontented content with a chilling despair?—
Better ask as we float down a song-flood unchecked
If our sky with no Iris be glory-bedecked?
Through the gloom of eclipse as we wistfully steal
If no darkling auréolar rays may reveal
That the Future is haply not utterly cheerless:
While the Present has joy and adventure as rare
As the Past when most fair?

And if, weary of mists, you will roam undisdaining
To a land where the fanciful fountains are raining
Swift brilliants of boiling and beautiful spray

In the violet splendour of skies that illume

Such a wealth of green ferns and rare crimson tree-bloom; Where a people primeval is vanishing fast,

With its faiths and its fables and ways of the past:

O, with reason and fancy unfettered and fearless,
Come plunge with us deep into regions of Day-
Come away-and away!-

MIROA'S STORY.

"ALAS, and well-a-day! they are talking of me still:
By the tingling of my nostril, I fear they are talking ill;
Poor hapless I!-poor little I !—so many mouths to fill-
And all for this strange feeling, O this sad sweet pain!

O senseless heart-O simple! to yearn so and to pine
For one so far above me, confest over all to shine-
For one a hundred dote upon, who never can be mine!
O'tis a foolish feeling-all this fond sweet pain!

When I was quite a child—not so many moons ago—
A happy little maiden-O then it was not so!
Like a sunny-dancing wavelet then I sparkled to and fro;
And I never had this feeling, O this sad sweet pain!

I think it must be owing to the idle life I lead

In the dreamy house for ever that this new bosom-weed Has sprouted up and spread its shoots till it troubles me indeed

With a restless weary feeling-such a sad sweet pain!

So in this pleasant islet, O no longer will I stayAnd the shadowy summer-dwelling I will leave this very day;

On Arapá I'll launch my skiff, and soon be borne away From all that feeds this feeling-O this fond sweet pain! I'll go and see dear Rima-she'll welcome me, I know, And a flaxen cloak-her gayest-o'er my weary shoulders throw,

With purple red and points so free-O quite a lovely show

To charm away this feeling-O this sad sweet pain!

Two feathers I will borrow, and so gracefully I'll wear, Two feathers soft and snowy for my long black lustrous hair;

Of the albatross's down they'll be-O how charming they'll look there

All to chase away this feeling-O this fond sweet pain!

Then the lads will flock around me with flattering talk all day

And with anxious little pinches sly winks of love convey; And I shall blush with happy pride to hear them

dare say And quite forget this feeling, O this sad sweet pain!"

I

LOVE AND NATURE LUXURIANT.

FROM "RANOLF AND AMOHIA," BOOK IV. CANTO III.

1. The Happy Lover. 2. Love's Young Dream. 3. A Latter-day Eden. 4. A suitable Home for the fascinating dread Deity.

I.

A KING-a God-a little child

Your happy Lover is; a Saint

With all the Eternal Powers at one

Serene confiding-reconciled:
He thinks no ill-believes in none;
There is for him no sin, no taint,
No room for doubt, disgust, complaint,
Misgiving or despondence faint:
Life's mystery flies, her secret won,
Like morning frost before the sun;