4 
full of significance. They call up a wealth of associations 
round the poems. ‘The poems become a kind of fragmentary 
diary, in which Kingsley has recorded great moments in his 
life, and the record is most intimate and sincere. ‘Think of 
the lines ‘‘ On the death of a certain Journal,’’ which begin, . 
So die, thou child of stormy dawn, 
and end 
Failure? While tide-floods rise and boil 
Round cape and isle, in port and cove, 
Resistless, star-led from above: 
What though our tiny wave recoil ? 
The Journal was the ‘‘ Christian Socialist,’? and the 
poem marks the end of a stirring chapter in Kingsley’s 
career, wherein he was associated with F. D. Maurice, 
Hughes, and others, who tried to guide instead of stemming 
the tide of the Chartist riots. The whole story is told in 
the ‘‘ Life and letters,’? and the poem gains when it is 
placed in this proper setting. 
It will be worth while to begin our study by sketching 
Kingsley’s life. He was born on June 12th, 1819, at Holne 
Vicarage, Devon. His father was afterwards appointed to 
the parish of Barnack, in the Cambridge Fens ; then to. 
Clovelly ; then to Chelsea. Charles often visited Clovelly 
in later life, and wrote poems about it. He has celebrated 
the Fens in one of his best ‘‘ Prose Idylls,’’ and perhaps 
reminiscences of them colour some of the poems, but he 
probably learned the Fen country from Cambridge, where 
he went (to Magdalene College) in 1838. In 1842 he was 
ordained and went as Curate to Eversley. A year or two 
later he was married and settled at Eversley as Rector ; 
Eversley was his home for the rest of his life. In 1848 he 
published his dramatic poem, ‘‘ The Saint’s Tragedy,” to 
which Maurice wrote an Introduction. Then comes the 
period of the Chartist Riots, to which belong the two 
““ Socialist ’’ novels, ‘‘ Yeast’? and ‘‘ Alton Locke.’’ In 
1851 this period closed with the ‘‘ Christian Socialist ’’ and 
a holiday in Germany. How far the close was an end, how 
far-a beginning of his labour for social reform has been 
indicated by the lines quoted above. : 
A new period, from 1853 to 1860, is marked by the 
Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny. During these years 
he published ‘‘ Hypatia,’’ ‘‘ Westward Ho!’’ and ‘‘ Two 
vears ago ;’’ “‘ Glaucus ’’ on the natural history of the sea ; 
‘The Heroes,”’ tales from Greek mythology ; and ‘‘ The 
Schools of Alexandria,’’ lectures given in Edinburgh in 
which the materials collected for ‘‘ Hypatia’’ were 
arranged in another and (I think) very attractive form. We 
noticed above that Kingsley put ‘‘ Hypatia *’ on a higher 
level than the rest of his novels, and that time will endorse 
