43 



ever to the summer side of doubt, and cling to faith beyond the 

 forms of faith." 



The doubtful poet interjects 



" And since — from when this earth began 



The nameless never came 

 Among us, never spake with man 

 And never named the name." 



The Sage repUes 



" Thou can'st not prove the Nameless, my son, 

 Nor can'st thou prove the world thou movest in. 

 Thou can'st not prove that thou art spirit alone. 

 Nor can'st thou prove that thou art body alone. 

 Nor can'st thou prove that thou art immortal, no. 

 Nor yet that thou art mortal — nay my son, 

 Thou cans't not prove that I, who speak with thee 

 Am not thyself in converse with thyself ; 

 For nothing worthy proving can be proven 

 Nor yet disproven ; wherefore thou be wise. 

 Cleave ever to the summer side of doubt, 

 And cling to faith beyond the forms of faith ! " 



The poem closes with an eloquent expression of resignation 

 to fate's awards — that deep recognition of the duty of universal 

 benevolence, of self dominance, and of faith in the principle of 

 goodness at the heart of nature. 



(2.) By FRED. J. GRANT. 



The volume is dedicated to Browning. Thus are linked to- 

 gether two poets whose names are destined to hve to remote 

 ages. Different in thought, in mode of expression, in style of 

 subject, they are aUke rich in the truest poetical instincts, both 

 interpret the spirit of the age, and both offer to this generation 

 the spectacle of an old age which the muse has not ceased to 

 visit and inspire. In the clever use of single words and the 

 repetition of simjple phrases is found one great secret of the 

 charm of the Laureate's writings. In the stanza on Virgil, 

 Tennyson has, perhaps unconsciously, described his own poetry: 

 — " all the charm of aU the muses often flowering in a lonely 

 word." The spirit of poesy is the same in all ages — the spirit 

 finely touched to fine issues, the i^rophetic note of a glorious 

 futm-e trembling in its voice. The federation of our colonies 

 was shadowed forth in "Hands all round," first published over 

 twenty years ago. The preponderance of local feeling which 

 many have supposed to be one of the characteristics of the re- 

 formed parliament is thus rebuked : — 



" To both our Houses, may they see 

 "Beyond the borough and the shire." 



The lines on the charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaclava were 

 not hkely to want admhers in the town where he lived to whom 



