The Theory of Evolution 45 



an outburst of youthful enthusiasm for the 

 rights of man, suddenly awakened to the sinis- 

 ter aspects of commercial freedom, and hence- 

 forth devoted himself to the pathos of humble 

 life. Matthew Arnold voiced his pessimism 

 over 



.... this strange disease of modern life, 

 With its sick hurry, its divided aims, 

 Its heads o'ertaxed, its palsied hearts. 



But it was Tennyson who best reflected the 

 spirit of nineteenth-century England. Through- 

 out his chastened verses runs a minor tone of 

 gloom whenever he deals with human society, 

 as is seen, for example, when he makes one of 

 his characters thus refer to the Deity: 



I found Him in the shining of the stars, 

 I marked Him in the flowering of His fields. 

 But in His ways with men I find Him not. 



Yet the poet does not altogether despair. He 

 looks forward in words that now appear almost 

 prophetic to a great debauch of war with " the 

 nations' airy navies grappling in the central 

 blue," but after that, as he thinks, "the kindly 

 earth shall slumber." Whether the latter phrase 

 of the prophecy is likely to be fulfilled or not, 

 it is at least expressive of the respectable 



