w period of life fraught with a different spirit.

Thus many elements go to make up the whole, and readers of _In Memoriam_
can choose what suits their mood. To some, who wish to compare the
problems of different ages, chief interest will attach to that section
where the active mind wakes up to the conflict between science and
faith. It was a difficult age for poets and believers. The preceding
generation had for a time been swept far from their bearings by the
tornado of the French Revolution. Some of them found an early grave
while still upholding the flag; others had won back to harbour when
their youth was past and ended their days in calm--if not
stagnant--waters. But the advance of scientific discoveries and the
scientific spirit sapped the defences of faith in more methodical
fashion, and Tennyson's mind was only too open to all the evidence of
natural law and the stern lessons of the struggle for life. To
understand the influence of Tennyson on his age it is necessary to
inquire how he reconciled religion with science; but this is too large a
subject for a biographical sketch, and valuable studies have been
written which deal with it more or less fully, by Stopford Brooke[26]
and many others.

[Note 26: _Tennyson_, by Stopford Brooke (Isbister, 1894).]

To Queen Victoria, and to others who had been stricken in their home
affections, the human interest outweighed all others; the sorrow of
those who gave little thought to systems of philosophy or religion was
instinctively comforted by the note of faith in a future life and by
the haunting melodies in which it found expression.

Many were content to return again and again to those passages where the
beauty of nature is depicted in stanzas of wonderful felicity. No such
gift of observation had yet ministered to their delight. Readers of Mrs.
Gaskell will be reminded of the old farmer in _Cranford_ revelling in
the new knowledge which he has gained of the colour of ash-buds in
March. So too we are taught to look afresh at larch woods in spring and
beech woods in autumn, at the cedar in the garden and the yew tree in
the churchyard. We are vividly conscious of the summer's breeze which
tumbles the pears in the orchard, and the winter's storm when the
leafless ribs of the wood clang and gride. As the perfect stanza lingers
in our memory, our eyes are opened and we are taught to observe the
marvels of nature for ourselves. Here, more than anywhere else, is he
the t