Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/382

 They ran panting in haste to lay waste and embitter for ever The wellsprings of Wisdom and Strength which are Faith and Endeavour. They nosed out and digged up and dragged forth and exposed to derision All doctrine of purpose and worth and restraint and prevision:

And it ceased, and God granted them all things for which they had striven, And the heart of a beast in the place of a man's heart was given. . ..

When they were fullest of wine and most flagrant in error, Out of the sea rose a sign out of Heaven a terror. Then they saw, then they heard, then they knew for none troubled to hide it, An host had prepared theirdestruction, but still they denied it. They denied what they dared not abide if it came to the trial, But the Sword that was forged while they lied did not heed their denial. It drove home, and no time was allowed to the crowd that was driven. The preposterous-minded were cowed they thought time would be given. There was no need of a steed nor a lance to pursue them; It was decreed their own deed, and not chance, should undo them. The tares they had laughingly sown were ripe to the reaping. The trust they had leagued to disown was removed from their keeping. The eaters of other men's bread, the exempted from hardship, The excusers of impotence fled, abdicating their wardship, For the hate they had taught through the State brought the State no defender, And it passed from the roll of the Nations in headlong surrender!