Pond. — On Tennyson and Broioning. 559 



and in one of the best of his " Men and Women," Andrea 

 del Sarto, the so-called faultless painter, confesses that his 

 faultlessness is the work of the craftsman rather than of the 

 artist. Eafael's drawing is not so good as his : — 



That arm is wrongly put, — -and then again — 

 A fault to pardon in the drawing's lines- 

 Its body, so to speak ; its soul is right ; 

 He means right— that, a child may understand. 

 Still, what an arm ! and I could alter it, 

 But all the play, the insight, and the stretch 

 Out of me, out of mo. 



One point more and I have done. What is the general 

 tendency of their thought ? In answer I should say that both 

 are profoundly optimistic ; both ahke believe that mankind is 

 progressing to something nobler. Tennyson, however, while 

 liberal in theory, is, owing to his love for law and order, con- 

 servative in practice. He can look forward to the war-drums 

 rolling no longer and the federation of the world, but he 

 does not altogether like the preliminary steps, and is ready to 

 acquiesce in things as they are. Tennyson looks to the pro- 

 gress of society ; Browning, on the other hand, looks for the 

 progress of the individual, through aspiration and free play 

 of passion, until there is accomplished 



the ultimate angels' law 



Indulging every instinct of the soul. 



There where law, life, joy, impulse, are one thing. 



Such are, in a few words, the views of these great 

 poets upon life. A little examination will show that their 

 views, opposite as they seem, are not so much opposite as 

 complementary. Truth is one, but wears many aspects ; and 

 each of them insists upon truth as he sees it from his own 

 standpoint. 



I have throughout dwelt upon the clearly-marked differ- 

 ences between the two men. Let me, in conclusion, point 

 out the curious similarity in the little poems in which each, 

 in extreme old age, contemplates the death that must soon 

 meet him — Tennyson's " Crossing the Bar" and Browning's 

 " Epilogue to Asolando." Each can behold death nobly, 

 tranquilly, serenely. Short as they are I prefer to leave you 

 to read them for yourselves rather than to quote them. 

 When the "clear call" comes for Tennyson there is to be 

 " no sadness of farewell." Browning is even readier for death : 

 in words as noble as have ever been written, he will " greet the 

 unseen with a cheer." 



