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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE PROGRESS .OF SCIENCE 



TENNYSON AND THE SCIENCE OF 

 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

 The hundred years which began with 

 the births of Darwin, Tennyson and 

 Gladstone, and closes with the deaths 

 of Meredith and Swinburne, has been 

 a notable period in English history. 

 Its two chief movements — the growth 

 of science and the growth of democracy 

 — are adequately represented by Dar- 

 win and Gladstone. Tennyson was the 

 most widely read and perhaps the 

 greatest poet of the period. The scien- 

 tific man may be permitted to moralize 

 over the world-wide extension and per- 

 manence of Darwin's contribution as 

 compared with Tennyson's. Fifty 

 years ago Darwin's name was almost 

 unknown, whereas Tennyson's was a 

 household word in England. A little 

 later a man was not thought to have 

 made himself ridiculous by saying that 

 he sided with God against Darwin and 

 the devil. Now Tennyson's reputation 

 is being defended; no one would think 

 of defending Darwin. The University 

 of Cambridge lavishes its academic 

 ceremonial on the man of science rather 

 than on the poet. Tennyson wrote: 



The man of science himself is fonder of 



glory, and vain, 

 An eye well practised in nature, a spirit 



bounded and poor. 



But Darwin's personality and charac- 

 ter are comparable with his services 

 to science. 



We may place the science of the 

 nineteenth century before its poetry 

 and Darwin before Tennyson; but to 

 do so it is not needful to depreciate 

 the poetry or the poet laureate. In- 

 deed a scientific journal may well call 

 attention to the fact that Tennyson 

 was largely influenced by the science 

 of his period and permitted it to be- 

 come part of his poetry. Poetry based 



j on the classical tradition can not make 

 | a wide or deep appeal to a world in 

 which it is no longer living; the future 

 of poetry depends on the possibility of 

 its adjusting itself to science and mod- 

 ern life, and Tennyson should receive 

 honor for his efforts to this end. 



The well-known verses of " In Me- 

 moriam " were printed nine years be- 

 fore the " Origin of Species." The 

 geology may have have come from 

 Lyell, but it was twenty years before 

 Lyell would have been willing to accept 

 the last verse of the stanza: 

 The solid earth whereon we tread 

 In tracts of fluent heat began, 



And grew to seeming random forms, 

 The seeming prey of cyclic storms, 

 Till at the last arose the man. 



The doctrine of evolution is frequently 

 used, as in " Maud," where the first 

 verse is scarcely less significant than 

 the second in the couplet: 



As nine months go to the shaping an 

 infant ripe for his birth, 



So many a million of ages have gone to 

 the making of man. 



There will also be found in Tennyson 

 an adequate conception of physical sci- 

 ence and an attempt to put even its 

 practical achievements into poetical 

 form. Thus the age is told to 



Rift the hills, and roll the waters, flash 

 the lightnings, weigh the sun. 



and we even hear of 



The nations' airy navies grappling in the 

 central blue. 



Scientific knowledge is assumed or 

 taught continually in the pages of 

 Tennyson from the first lines of the 

 " Lady of Shalott," which reawakened 

 the spirit of English poetry — 



On either side the river lie 

 Long fields of barley and of rye . . . 

 Willows whiten, aspens quiver 

 Little breezes dusk and shiver. 



to his last poem with 



