TENNYSON AND THE 'ORIGIN' 9 



In tliis association between the struggle for 

 existence waged by individuals and the extinction 

 and succession of species we seem to approach 

 the central idea of Darwin and Wallace. A few 

 years before Tennyson's death I asked Dr. Grove, 

 of Newport, in the Isle of Wight, if he would 

 point out the parallelism, so far as it existed, to his 

 illustrious patient, hoping that some light might 

 be thrown on the source of the inspiration. Nor 

 was I disappointed. 'Stay,' said the aged poet 

 when Dr. Grove had spoken, ' In Memoriam was 

 published long before the Origin of Species' ' Oh ! 

 then you are the man,' replied the doctor. ' Yes, 

 I am the man.' There was silence for a time ; 

 then Tennyson said : ' I don't want you to go 

 away with a wrong impression. The fact is that 

 long before Darwin's work appeared these ideas 

 were known and talked about.' From this deeply 

 interesting conversation I think it is probable 

 that, perhaps through mutual friends, some echo 

 of Darwin's researches and thoughts had reached 

 the great author of In Memoriam. 1 



The light which has been recently thrown 2 

 upon Philip Gosse's remarkable book, Omphalos, 

 indicates that its appearance in 1858 was 

 connected with the thoughts that were to arouse 



1 In a valuable letter on Darwin and Tennyson in The Spectator 

 for Aug. 7, 1909 (pp. 197, 198), the Rev. E. St. John Thackeray 

 points out that the poet was from his youth deeply interested in 

 evolution, and that in 1837 he studied Lyell's Principles. It is 

 shown above, however, that the appreciation of the struggle for 

 existence is an essentially Darwinian idea. 



1 In Father and Son, London, 1907. 



