Do they not prove the Scripture true,
And throw a light on history?

The twenty-five years that have elapsed since the poem was written must
have convinced those innocent persons who 'saw nought' in our Israelitish
compatriots. I never heard before that Prince Bismarck or Mozart was of
Jewish extraction!

Mrs. Farrer was, of course, an evangelical, somewhat old-fashioned for so
late a date; and fairly early in her volume she warns us of what we may
expect. She is anxious to damp any undue optimism as to the lightness of
her muse. When worldly, foolish people like Whistler and Pater were
talking 'art for art's sake,' she could strike a decisive didactic blow:--

My voice like thunder may appear,
Yet oft-times I have shed a tear
Behind the peal, like rain in storm,
To moisten those I would reform.

Then pardon if my stormy mood,
Instead of blighting, does some good.
Sooner a thunder-clap, think me,
Than sunstroke sent in wrath on thee.

With a splendid Calvinism, too rare at that time, she would not argue
beyond a _certain_ limit; there was an edge, she realised, to every
platform; an ounce of assertion is worth pounds of proof. Religious
discussion after a time becomes barren:--

Then hundredfolds to sinners