46 Social Environment 



conservatism of Tennyson's England. Luxu- 

 riously clothed and housed, with wealth that 

 expanded while they slept, the English moneyed 

 aristocracy asked only to be let alone. To 

 bother over social evils that the evolutionist 

 had shown to be really necessary was bad form. 

 With serene faith they echoed Tennyson's 

 words, 



Oh, yet we trust that somehow good 

 Will be the final goal of ill, 



while the poet, having cast this radiant blossom 

 of hope to the slum dwellers, soothed his own 

 sorrows with a coronet. 



8. The Dilemma of English Thought 



In his greatest poem Tennyson has, how- 

 ever, gone further and suggested the logical 

 difficulties in which English philosophical 

 thought was halted. He speaks of man, 

 Nature's latest work, 



Who trusted God was love indeed, 

 And love creation's final law — 

 Tho' Nature, red in tooth and claw 



With ravine, shrieked against his creed. 



Now the spirit of English commercial com- 

 petition as justified by the evolutionist, and 



