Page:The Five Nations.djvu/139

Rh For remember (this our children shall know: we are too near for that knowledge)

Not our mere astonied camps, but Council and Creed and College—

All the obese, unchallenged old things that stifle and overlie us—

Have felt the effects of the lesson we got—an advantage no money could buy us!

Then let us develop this marvellous asset which we alone command,

And which, it may subsequently transpire, will be worth as much as the Rand:

Let us approach this pivotal fact in a humble yet hopeful mood—

We have had no end of a lesson: it will do us no end of good!

It was our fault, and our very great fault—and now we must turn it to use;

We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse!