IV. Tennyson. IN MEMORIAM. E have seen in the asceticism of Stylites, and in the conventual devotion and ecstasy of St. Agnes, what becomes of human nature when considered as nothing but spirit. We have noted the wreck of the body, and the overthrow of the mind. We have seen in the "Vision of Sin" what became of human nature regarded simply as body: the worship of the senses was shown to be, not only the wreck of the body, but the palsy of the soul and the paralysis of the intellect. We have seen in the "Palace of Art" what became of the culture of the body and the mind-the life of the senses, the intellect, and the imagination, apart from the spirit; we noted how nearly the spirit succumbed to that treatment; we assisted at the desperate struggle. But it remained for us to learn what human nature might be when treated as St. Paul treats it, in body, mind, and spirit. The isolated elements combine at last to make the whole manthe sublime humanity as conceived by God-like God Himself, tripartite and triune. This is the lesson of the "In Memoriam:" the developed humanity stands forth at last, disciplined by loss, purified by suffering, and lifted up into heavenly places through the earth-born love. In the "In Memoriam " you have a man who thrills and kindles to all outward impressions; his senses are keenly alive to every change of the seasons, to all external nature, to every pulse of pleasure and pain; his mind is alert-" who loves not knowledge? who shall rail against her beauty?" his affections are active-they cannot always acquiesce in purely intellectual speculation, the heart stands up and answers, "I have felt;" and above all there is the brooding sense of the infinite mystery about us, and the longing for the infinite love, and the inspired eye which looks through nature up to nature's God-that God who ever lives and loves-" one God, one law, one element, and one far off Divine event, to which the whole creation moves." Now the key-note of this great poem is sorrowsorrow coming out of the shadow of a great loss; and the atmosphere of sorrow is just the atmosphere in which it is the most instructive to study human nature. Do you want to know about the body? It is not best to study it in a state of health, but when it is diseased. Doctors will tell you that is the time to make discoveries and experiments, and to add permanently to our understanding of the human framework; and indeed, most of our medical knowledge is derived not merely from morbid anatomy, but from the diagnosis of various diseases-not the monotonous chronicle of healthy days and nights. And to prove a man, you must find him out in seasons of sorrow and pain: how does he bear it, how does he act? And a man who will note such an experience adds to our stock of knowledge, and thought, and feeling; he is a teacher, and his book is the book of nature, and of life. And what he does for one he does for all: one man's inner life is really a thousand inner lives; he reads them the open secrets of their hearts, by showing them his own; he and they are no longer solitary units, but are seen, in a great work of art-a |