A Key to Lord Tennyson's 'In Memoriam' Part 24

Drink every one.

Pile up the coals, Fill the red bowls, Round the old tree."

[77] "All stone I felt within," Dante's Inferno, x.x.xiii. 47. Wright's translation. "My heart is turned to stone," Oth.e.l.lo, act iv., s. 1. Eloisa says, "I have not quite forgot myself to stone."

[78] Lucan has, "_ulularunt tristia Galli_."

[79] "Nearest" in later editions.

 

[80] Sir Thomas Browne, in his "Christian Morals," says, "the true heroick English gentleman hath no peer."

[81] In _Measure for Measure_, act iii., s. 1, we read

"To be imprison'd in the viewless winds."

"Sightless" and "viewless" are alike used for "invisible."

"O, therefore, from thy sightless range."

P. xciii., 3.

[82] "_Caelum mutant, qui trans mare currunt._" Hor. Ep. xi., 27.

[83] "The work begun by Nature is finished by the Supernatural--as we are wont to call the higher natural. And as the veil is lifted by Christianity, it strikes men dumb with wonder. For the goal of Evolution is Jesus Christ. The Christian life is the only life that will ever be completed. Apart from Christ, the life of man is a broken pillar, the race of men an unfinished pyramid."--Drummond's _Natural Law in the Spiritual World_, p. 314.

[84] See Poem xcvi.

[85] What is the difference of meaning in the two words "adieu" and "farewell"? Byron says in _Lara_,

"Farewell to life, but not adieu to thee."

[86] "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." Romans x., 10.

[87]

"But as I rav'd, and grew more fierce and wild At every word, Methought I heard one calling, _Child_, And I reply'd, _My Lord_."

_The Collar_, G. Herbert.

[88] Many years ago, I had a conversation with the Poet in his attic study at Farringford, that lasted till nearly daybreak. He discoursed on many subjects, and when we touched on religion, he said, _I am not very fond of creeds: it is enough for me that I know G.o.d Himself came down from heaven in the form of man_. I cannot resist testifying to the singular frankness and impressiveness of his conversation, especially when talking to my wife, who approached much nearer to his intellectual level than I did, and whom he has now joined "on the mystic deeps."--A. G.

[89] Shakespeare says,

"Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead, Excessive grief the enemy to the living."

_All's well that ends well_, act i., s. 1.

[90] The late Sub-Dean Garden said, that E. L. Lus.h.i.+ngton was the most learned man in England, after Bishop Thirlwall. Professor Lus.h.i.+ngton died 13th July, 1893.