The Earth-worm (with a letter from Lajos Kossuth (1802-1894), Hungarian statesman

While this may seem to be one of  Tweddell's nature poems, note the letter from Lajos_Kossuth (Father of Hungarian Democracy, Hungarian Statesman, Freedom Fighter, 1848–1849".)

The Earth-worm.
I
Scorn not the Earth-worm, nor e’er deem it vile:
Harmless as useful it has ever been
In e’vry land; for it has help’d, I ween,
To form the soil which it has loved to pile
O’er barren wastes, till the green grass has grown 5
Where all before was bare. Where now the corn
On meadow waves in beauty—trees adorn
The landscape—yea, wherever seed is sown
By man or bird—the Earth-worm has been there
Before them, to prepare for them the soil. 10
But for the Earth-worm, vain had been the toil
Of all our husbandry; for everywhere
It has been Earth’s first cultivation: we
Owe e’en the food we eat to its great industry.
II
Great is the lesson that we all should learn 15
From lowly Earth-worms! Let us not despise
The wisdom which throughout creation lies
For all to study. E’vry mind should burn
With warmest love of Nature’s noble laws:
And if mere Worms can play so great a part
In her economy, then, Man, thou art,
However humble, call’d to aid the cause
Of Progress, and no longer can maintain
That thou art Powerless.* Ev’ry effort made
In a good cause is potent, it will aid 25
The work which needeth ev’ry hand and brain
To bring it to completion. Let the Worm
Teach us to labour on alike in calm and storms.

George Markham Tweddell

 Louis Kossuth
* This great truth is so beautifully illustrated in a Letter which I had the honour to receive from the
illustrious patriot, Louis Kossuth, in 1855, that I am sure the reader will be glad of the extract:
“Thanks for the warm interest you take in the cause of the down-trodden nations. You are quite right
in saying that every man has some influence in the world,— were that all men were penetrated by
that conviction; and would take it for an incitement to do as much as they can; many an evil would
be prevented by it. There is nothing more serviceable to the success of evil-doers that the common
error of many a well-disposed man, that he who cannot do much is justified in not doing anything.
Men should go to school to the ant, or listen to the lesson taught by the falling drop.— Yours
affectionately, Kossuth[§]
pp. 7 & 8 [Sonnets on Birds, Insect, etc]
Leeds Mercury Weekly Supplement, April 12/84. The Freemason, Sydney, New South Wales, April
11th, 1887. Northern Weekly Gazette, September 4th, !897.
[§ Lajos Kossuth (1802-1894), the Hungarian statesman, orator, and the foremost leader of the
Hungarian Revolution of 1848-49.]
..........................................

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lajos_Kossuth Read more on this site
Extracts..
"Louis Kossuth; Ľudovít Košút in Slovak; 19 September 1802 – 20 March 1894) was a Hungarian lawyer, journalist, politician and Regent-President of the Kingdom of Hungary during the revolution of 1848–49. He was widely honored during his lifetime, including in the United Kingdom and the United States, as a freedom fighter and bellwether of democracy in Europe. Kossuth's bronze bust can be found in the United States Capitolwith the inscription: "Father of Hungarian Democracy, Hungarian Statesman, Freedom Fighter, 1848–1849".

In England around 1851 he .....He went thereafter to Winchester, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham; at Birmingham the crowd that gathered to see him ride under the triumphal arches erected for his visit was described, even by his severest critics, as 75,000 individuals...

Back in London he addressed the Trades Unions at Copenhagen Fields in Islington. Some twelve thousand 'respectable artisans' formed a parade at Russell Square and marched out to meet him. At the Fields themselves, the crowd was enormous; the Times estimated it conservatively at 25,000, while the Morning Chronicle described it as 50,000, and the demonstrators themselves 100,000."