LITEEART AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 339 



agitate the surface of society, but -which, I hope, will soon subside 

 into a calm, and leave the country peaceful as before."* 



I fear, however, his political opponents, in that time of madness, 

 did not look upon his words with the same loving eyes as his ami- 

 able correspondent, as I see in a letter of my father's at this time a 

 reference to a rhyming criticism of the Conservative proceedings any 

 thing but flattering, from which I give two lines as a specimen : — 



" The Professor got up and spoke of sobriety, 

 Religion, the Bible, and moral propriety." 



" I need not point out to your disgust," parenthetically observes the 

 Professor to a friend, " the insinuations conveyed in that wretched 

 doggerel, nor express my own that they could have been published 

 by a man who has frequently had the honor of sitting at my table, 

 and of witnessing my character in the domestic circle." 



In this excited period I find ladies writing strongly on political 

 matters. For example, even the gentle spirit of my mother is 

 roused. She says to my aunt : — " I hope you are as much disgusted 

 and grieved as we all are with the passing of this accursed Reform 

 Bill. I never look into a newspaper now ; but we shall see what 

 they will make of it by and by." 



Among my father's contributions to the Magazine this year, there 

 appeared in the May number an article which attracted considerable 

 attention. It was a review of Mr. Tennyson's Poems,f the first 

 edition of which had appeared two years previously. The critique 

 was severe, yet kindly and discriminating. The writer remarking 

 good-humoredly at its close, " In correcting it for the press, we see 

 that its whole merit, which is great, consists in the extracts, which 

 are 'beautiful exceedingly.' Perhaps in the first part of our article 

 we may have exaggerated Mr. Tennyson's not unfrequent silliness, 

 for we are apt to be carried away by the whim of the moment, and, 

 in our humorous moods, many things wear a queer look to our aged 

 eyes which fill young pupils with tears ; but we feel assured that in 

 the second part we have not exaggerated his strength, and that we 

 have done no more than justice to his fine faculties." It says much 

 for the critic's discriminating power that he truly foretold of the 

 future Laureate, that the day would come when, beneath sun and 



* Edinburgh Advertiser, Nov. 29, 1S31. 



t Poems, chiefly Lyrical. By Alfred Tennyson. London : E. Wilson. 1S30. 



