420 ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON. 



occurred when Owen was passing out of middle age. It is no 

 wonder that he looked at the matter conservatively. In the 

 early days of the theory it was not so clear as now that all 

 evolution is not Darwinism. Many evolutionists would now 

 hesitate to say that he was wrong. The tendency of earlier and 

 cruder evolution was to throw utterly aside all respect for such 

 works as that on the "Archetype." Indeed, the extravagances 

 of visionaries like Oken had paved the way for a reaction. 

 Professor Owen was essentially a devout man. He saw in 

 nature plan and law, and through these the Creator. He wrote 

 as follows in the Preface to his Comparative Anatomy: "In 

 the second aim, the parts and organs, severally the subjects of 

 these chapters, are exemplified by instances selected with a view 

 to guide or help to the power of apprehending the unity which 

 underlies the diversity of animal structures; to show in these 

 structures the evidence of a predetermining Will, producing 

 them in reference to a final purpose ; and to indicate the direc- 

 tion and degrees in which organization, in subserving such Will, 

 rises from the general to the particular." In spite of his single- 

 ness of purpose Owen's strong point was neither in controversy 

 nor in philosophy. He excelled in his powers of observation 

 and in his capacity for work. Theories and systems may rise 

 and fall, but his descriptions of living and extinct forms may 

 remain the standard of instruction for generations. 



1893. Thomas Dwight. 



ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON. 



Alfred, Lord Tennyson, a Foreign Honorary Member of the 

 Academy in Class III., Section 4, since 1876, died at Aldworth 

 in Surrey on the 6th of October, 1892. 



Alfred Tennyson was born at Somersby Kectory in Lincoln- 

 shire on the 6th of August, 1809, the son of the Reverend 

 George Clayton Tennyson. He early showed a love of poetry, 

 and when little more than eighteen years old found a publisher 

 for a volume of poems written in connection with his brother. 

 This poetic flight was promptly followed by others, including, 

 in 1829, a college prize poem on the subject of Timbuctoo. 

 These early poems are smooth and pleasant, good-boyish verses, 

 far better than most productions of the kind. 



In 1830 appeared " Poems, chiefly Lyrical, " — a volume con- 



