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that age. Not anything escapes him. He takes a scientific 
view of nature, and in this he differs from Shelley, Keats, and 
Wordsworth alike, for with him nature is the embodiment and 
manifestation of law, and the fulfilment of those vast purposes 
which are part of our universal order. At the same time his 
accuracy of observation in detail is most remarkable, telling us 
precisely what he has seen, showing that he has written with his 
eyes on the things themselves rather than on the paper. 
Tennyson is here in touch with every movement of his fellows ; 
sees the larger political influence of Free Trade in commerce ; 
sees its attendant possibilites of universal peace, in the federation 
of the world, when war shall be no more. 
Again, in the scientific realm we find him abreast of ‘‘ Modern 
Thought,” and like Goethe possessing that rare faculty of insight 
which foretold of later discoveries pertaining to Evolution, years 
before its enunciation, as shown in the lines: 
‘All nature widens upward. Evermore 
The simpler essence lower lies; 
More complex is more perfect, owning more 
Discourse, more widely wise.” 
In 1847, three years before he became Poet Laureate, Tenny- 
son made a diversion in giving to the world, not a lyric or an 
epic, but an idyll called ‘‘ The Princess,” constructed of ancient 
and modern material: a show of Middle Age pomp and moyve- 
ment observed through an atmosphere of latter day thought and 
emotion. Its defined purpose and object is the illustration of 
woman’s struggles, aspirations, and proper sphere in modern life 
in her relation with man. It is a distinct mark of highly 
advanced civilization, and indicates the representative character 
of our poet. Indeed the conclusion of the writer is one in which 
cultured people are so thoroughly in accord that they point to 
the close of the Princess as expressing their view of the 
« Woman’s Question.” 
‘‘ Till at the last she set herself to man, 
Like perfect music unto noble words.” 
It is from teaching contained in such noble lines as those to 
which I refer that Tennyson has contributed so much in placing 
woman on the pedestal she now occupies in modern life. Con- 
trast the estimate of our poet with that of Byron. His deep rever- 
ence for woman springs from that divine quality which Guinevere 
discovered in King Arthur, ‘‘ the pure severity of perfect light.” 
In “The Higher Pantheism,’ we have a poem of very 
exalted order, especially in view of its fine discriminating 
power, which brings the author into relationship with modern 
thought in its pantheistic phase, to indicate how far he has out- 
distanced and overleapt the conceptions of its votaries in making 
plain the line of demarcation between the spiritual essence of 
