was the voice of his age in speculative matters, he only represented the thought of the 'sixties.' Maud may have helped to free England from the shackles of Manchesterthum. His later incursions into polemics, In the Children's Hospital and the unfortunate Promise of May, were best forgotten. Direct didacticism is likely at all times to lead to priggishness. The teaching of the true poet is indirect—a sort of induction of the poetic temper and attitude, far more subtle and penetrating in its effects than all your direct teaching. The pictures of still and cleanly English life in the earlier idylls, of sturdy heroism in the ballads, even the somewhat namby-pamby chivalry of the epical Idylls—these were the teachings of Tennyson, so far as he was a teacher. It is noteworthy that, in almost all these aspects, he was carrying on the tradition of his predecessor on the poetic throne.
There were so many Tennysons that one would never have done in attempting to deal with all sides of his multifarious poetic activity. But throughout the five acts of his poetic life there is one common element that binds them into an organic unity. His lyrics were as sweet last as first. They run through and connect together, like a string of pearls, all his poetic phases, even his bronze and iron periods. They give unity to The Princess; they relieve
