A DREAM OF FAIR HYDRONE 499 



its object a vivid and simple representation of ordinary objects 

 in pastoral nature or of scenes or events of pastoral life. 

 Tennyson, however, has written the Idyls of the King. Kings 

 are scarcely common objects of the seashore, whilst water 

 certainly is prominent among these and a true king among 

 earthly materials : therefore it may well form the subject of 

 an idyl, and this: story may be added to the many other 

 marvellous tales that are told of its mysterious ways and 

 wondrous doings. 



Being thus brought into Wonderland, we may well recall 

 the classical assertion of the Duchess, " Tis love, 'tis love, that 

 makes the world go round." Had she lived in these days, 

 having studied physiography at school and college, she would 

 have been aware perhaps that water is the primary moving 

 spirit on our globe; that even love is not possible without 

 water — indeed, that the part which water plays in conditioning 

 life and in the maintenance of life is such that its importance 

 cannot be exaggerated. 



Yet it is daily and hourly used and wasted entirely without 

 thought ! 



The poetry of moisture must some day take its place along 

 with that of motion — when all see that the earth gives forth 

 her fruits in due season and in due measure only when fair 

 hydrone, descending from the air above, clasps her in warm- 

 and beneficent embrace. 



