284 " England 1 'Twas not thy pomp of martial power To which I gave thee homage of my heart. I saw thee in thy brightest, darkest hour, Guarding the great World's peace, thy destined part. The vision of thy glory in mine eyes Was thy true self, a power ordained by Fate To strive for Good as Glory's noblest prize ; This taught me, while a boy, to hail thee great. God made thee guardian of the rights of man, God gave thee of His power to raise mankind Trod in the dust. He fixed thee in his plan As warder of the Trust to thee assigned. I1 / The brute in man has risen from his lair ! To make God's peaceful earth a Hell of strife ; - The poison of his breath is in the air; His claws are closing round the heart of life. : England awake ! And be thyself once more, The land of chivalry that Shakespeare owned, j When faith and honour gave thee righteous power, j And saw thee on the Ocean world enthroned." He concluded with the assurance that if England would " keep Honour's torch alight," the Indian Mos- lems could continue to believe in England as the bul- wark between mankind and the Satanic evils threaten- ing and undermining the wreckage of reason, justice, dignity, faith, security, and every attribute which marks the difference between civilisation and sava- gery. At the outbreak of the war in 1939 and the sub- sequent European disasters in 1940 he did not appear surprised ; but wrote to an English friend, c Though the tragedy and confusion seem like an apotheosis of Evil, and though God is mocked and man degraded, let us comfort ourselves with the assurance that God has not abdicated."