society, and especially in his home-life. It was the source of the truest courtesy, one which was marked by the candour inseparable from his truthfulness, but which never forgot the considerateness of a genuine kindliness. Dr. Mackennal, in The Independent, spoke with perfect justice of the rare combination in him of a critical faculty of mingled directness and subtlety, and of a conscience of great scrupulousness, qualities which may easily lead to a harsh censoriousness, but in him were tempered by simplicity of affection and breadth of sympathy. To this rare combination was perhaps mainly due his remarkable influence over the younger ministers of the district, and the students of the neighbouring theological college. They were drawn to him by the feeling that they were sure to find a clear understanding of their difficulties, whether practical or speculative; and an absolutely candid, but at the same time most sympathetic, judgment as to their course of action. One of them wrote: "A person who went to him in any case for counsel or sympathy or assistance might sometimes be surprised, and—at first-not quite agreeably. He may have gone thinking him to be mere 'sweetness'; but he finds 'light' as well, and very searching light too. He receives real kindness—such probably as a more effusive friend would not take the trouble to give-but he also gets insight; he is made to view impartially and justly the matter he has come about, and his own relation to it." The same old friend, Dr. Mackennal, with delicate intuition, pointed to another very noteworthy feature in his life. He must have known that he had the intellectual gifts needed for rising to eminence, and that only the coming on of physical weakness hindered this.

Yet

'He

he never repined or lost his cheerful brightness. lived so much with God that he could not but be content." And here in truth lay the secret of his great, though often unconscious, influence. "The stillness of the eternal was round about him; he made our noisy years seem moments in the being of the eternal silence.' With such a man reverence was the only conceivable attitude of the soul; flippancy was as impossible as untruth or meanness. And so all who were privileged to know him felt that great as was the blessing of the teaching, so fresh and elevating and true, there was something more than the preacher in the man. He dwelt himself so constantly in the presence and the power of spiritual things that his life appeared the strongest proof of their reality. Of all the chapters of the New Testament there was none which he chose more frequently as a lesson than the beginning of the First Epistle of St. John; and no words recall so well, to those who knew him, the aim and the significance of his life :

"That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life (and the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare unto you the life, the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us); that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you also, that ye also may have fellowship with us; yea, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ."

TENNYSON'S "IN MEMORIAM."

[Delivered in Rusholme Public Hall, Manchester, March 24th, 1871, and on various subsequent occasions.]

IN a volume of criticism recently published, Tennyson comes in for a large share of the critic's scorn. Even his physiognomy is described with an affectation of supercilious contempt. As a poet, he is called “ sugar sweet" and "pretty, pretty"; and then (by way of compliment, I suppose, to the ladies) it is added that he is "full of womanly talk and feminine stuff!" This volume is entitled "Modern men of letters honestly criticised." Verily, honesty and wisdom do not always go together. "Dogberry was doubtless an honest enough man in his way; at least, the word 'honest' was very often in his mouth: but, for all that, Dogberry was very nearly "written down an ass!" A similar fate may possibly lie in store for the honest' critic who speaks of the author of the "Idylls of the King" as a mere drawing-room poet," a "half-hearted and polished rhymester," "full of womanly talk and feminine stuff." But indeed-to say the truth-it is difficult to believe that there is not more spite than honesty in this kind of “talk,” which is certainly not "womanly." Whether it be

A

even "gentlemanly" is a question which ("appealing from Philip drunk to Philip sober") we might perhaps leave to be decided by the author of "The Gentle Life."

6

Let Tennyson be tried by his peers,' and a very different verdict is recorded. Thus, Robert Browning, in a preface to some selections from his own poems, published by Moxon-who had just previously issued some selections from the works of Tennyson-says regarding his own little volume: "This contentedly looks pale beside the wonderful flower-show of my illustrious predecessor-dare I say? my dear friend; who will take it, all except the love in the gift, at a mere nosegay's worth." Now, there you have words. both manly and womanly-a compliment at once dignified and graceful. Browning may be, in some respects, a greater poet than Tennyson: he has certainly more at least of the dramatic faculty: but he is too much of a man to allow any petty jealousy to blind him to the manifold and real merits of the Laureate's productions. And, in likening his own selections to a "pale nosegay," as contrasted with the "wonderful flower-show" of his friend, he hits the most characteristic feature of Tennyson's poetry-its richly-coloured, variegated, and highly-cultured beauty. The forest, with its strong oaks and its sweet wildflowers, has a grandeur and beauty peculiarly its own: but we need not therefore refuse our admiration to the rich and noble garden, with its beautiful shrubberies, its skilfully-arranged borders, its rare and costly plants. To read the works of Tennyson is like walking through such a garden. Not but that there is strength as well as beauty in his writings. The garden is a very