from his poetical works. But to these matters we can only give a passing allusion here. As we have seen above, it is not, as with Byron, the sterner, or, as with Scott, the wilder aspects of Nature that Tennyson loves to depict; he wooes her rather in her calm and disciplined moods. And the same tendency may be observed in his treatment of the intellectual phenomena of the day-in his social and political faith and teaching. In both, his ideal is a majestic order, a gradual and regular development, without rest indeed but above all without haste. Enthusiasm may be well, but self-control is better.

"Forward, forward, let us range,

Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change."

But at the same time,

"Let knowledge grow from more to more,

But more of reverence in us dwell."

Tennyson is always sincere; his poetry is throughout inspired by elevated thought and noble sentiment; and he too, like Wordsworth before him, will hand down to his successor the Laureate's wreath

"Greener from the brows

Of him who uttered nothing base."

SELECTIONS FROM TENNYSON.

RECOLLECTIONS OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS.

WHEN the breeze of a joyful dawn blew free

In the silken sail of infancy,

The tide of time flow'd back with me,

The forward-flowing tide of time ;
And many a sheeny summer-morn,
Adown the Tigris I was borne,
By Bagdat's shrines of fretted gold,
High-walled gardens green and old;
True Mussulman was I and sworn,

For it was in the golden prime
Of good Haroun Alraschid.

Anight my shallop, rustling thro'
The low and bloomed foliage, drove
The fragrant, glistening deeps, and clove
The citron-shadows in the blue :
By garden porches on the brim,
The costly doors flung open wide,
Gold glittering thro' lamplight dim,
And broider'd sofas on each side:

In sooth it was a goodly time,
For it was in the golden prime
Of good Haroun Alraschid.

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Often, where clear-stemm'd platans guard
The outlet, did I turn away

The boat-head down a broad canal

From the main river sluiced, where all
The sloping of the moon-lit sward
Was damask-work, and deep inlay
Of braided blooms unmown, which crept
Adown to where the water slept.
A goodly place, a goodly time,
For it was in the golden prime
Of good Haroun Alraschid.

A motion from the river won
Ridged the smooth level, bearing on
My shallop thro' the star-strown calm,
Until another night in night

I enter'd, from the clearer light,
Imbower'd vaults of pillar'd palm,

Imprisoning sweets, which, as they clomb

40

Heavenward, were stay'd beneath the dome
Of hollow boughs.-A goodly time,

For it was in the golden prime
Of good Haroun Alraschid.

Still onward; and the clear canal
Is rounded to as clear a lake.

From the green rivage many a fall
Of diamond rillets musical,
Thro' little crystal arches low

Down from the central fountain's flow
Fall'n silver-chiming, seemed to shake
The sparkling flints beneath the prow.
A goodly place, a goodly time,
For it was in the golden prime
Of good Haroun Alraschid.

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30

:

Above thro' many a bowery turn
A walk with vary-colour'd shells
Wander'd engrain'd. On either side
All round about the fragrant marge
From fluted vase, and brazen urn
In order, eastern flowers large,
Some dropping low their crimson bells
Half-closed, and others studded wide
With disks and tiars, fed the time
With odour in the golden prime
Of good Haroun Alraschid.

:

Far off, and where the lemon grove
In closest coverture upsprung,
The living airs of middle night
Died round the bulbul as he sung;
Not he but something which possess'd
The darkness of the world, delight,
Life, anguish, death, immortal love,
Ceasing not, mingled, unrepress'd,
Apart from place, withholding time,
But flattering the golden prime
Of good Haroun Alraschid.

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70

Black the garden-bowers and grots

Slumber'd the solemn palms were ranged

Above, unwoo'd of summer wind:

80

A sudden splendour from behind

Flush'd all the leaves with rich gold-green,
And, flowing rapidly between

Their interspaces, counterchanged
The level lake with diamond-plots

Of dark and bright. A lovely time,
For it was in the golden prime

Of good Haroun Alraschid.

A