A soul shall draw from out the vast, And, moved through life of lower phase, Of those that, eye to eye, shall look Thus, with a simplicity and purity of thought, more than worthy of the age, does this minstrel of the nineteenth century dignify every attribute of our human nature. In other hands these ideas might be low and even sensual, but with Tennyson they are what God intended them to be. A false modesty would fear to approach them, but to the mind of our poet every mental and physical development through which the immortal must pass in its contact with the mortal and perishing, has a purity peculiarly its own. To him, man is a being of angelic dignity of birth, but one wandering over the rugged and thorny path which the primal curse has decreed that all men through life shall follow. He sums up the whole of human speculation, and shows that it is vanity so far as it attempts to unravel the mystery of existence. Let man know all of human science, let him descend into the tombs of the Past, weigh the ashes of its heroes, and reason on the rise and fall of nations, let him follow Newton's footsteps through the brilliant deserts of the heavens, and steal from the bosom of earth every secret of its history; and withal what is he still, has he at all unveiled the mystery of his own being, or can he learn from Nature the attributes of Nature's God? Can he look behind the veil of death, and say to what unknown land his own spirit shall pass when it has done with earth? No! Fallen or imperfect, man is to himself the great mys. tery. And yet our poet would not that man should shrink from thinking and reasoning for himself. He says— There lives more faith in honest doubt, Reason has not been given to man as a snare, a trap to catch his faltering steps. If rightly used, it is a true and faithful teacher. With it he must meet the ghostly forms of doubt, and lay them as noble men ever have done and will do. His reason will teach him at the last, the beauty and dignity of his Divine slavery. Like Jacob of old, if he wrestle he shall obtain the wished for blessing; remembering that now he sees “as through a glass darkly," but behind the veil, he shall see "face to face;" that death, "that shadow cloaked from head to foot that holds the keys of all the creeds," shall make all clear to his vision. · We have thus attempted, in a hurried and cursory manner, to glance at some of the leading characteristics of the spirit of Tennyson's poetry. A sublime philosophy taking within its ken all of human learning, united with a fancy, brilliant in its imaginings, characterize the "In Memoriam," and render it a study to the scholar, and a source of pure pleasure to the lover of Genius. If our words shall cause any one to study more closely the writings of Prince Alfred,' or to look with a more critical eye upon what might otherwise be the mere pastime of an idle hour, our end is more than attained. It is to the young men, the thinking men of our day, those on whose thoughts and opinions the future of our country and our race depends, it is to these we commend the pages of Tennyson. In these times of hard and exciting toil, when many of the finer feelings of the heart must yield to the claims of a successful future, it will at least be grateful to the young to see so noble an offering as the "In Memoriam," made at the shrine of friendship. Surely our poet's friend will live forever in this immortal song; and others, perhaps, drawn by the fragrant memory of that holy friendship, shall learn to know the joys of a generous love, that bond between two manly spirits, now becoming every day more rare among the children of men. B.. American Sympathy for Russia. An extraordinary and portentous phenomenon is presented by the tone of the American press on the subject of the Eastern War. Three years ago the country rang with execrations of Russia, and the English language was ransacked for abusive epithets to be heaped on the Czar. Now the majority of the leading papers of the country make no secret of their Russian sympathies. Even our quarterlies find room for labored articles, in which every effort is made to whitewash the civil and religious despotism of Russia, and to justify the insolent demands of Menschikoff and the seizure of the Principalities. We have seen that in a crowded meeting in New York city, three cheers were given for the Emperor of Russia, amid enthusiasm such as has not been witnessed there since the visit of Kossuth. Soon we may expect to see bonfires lighted and cannon fired in honor of every petty advantage gained by the Russian despot over the only free government in Europe. Strange spectacle, the great Anglo-Saxon Republic sympathizing with the great bulwark, the propagandist and exemplar of tyranny in the Old World! Who, we ask, is this Czar Nicholas to whom incense is offered so freely by Americans? Is he a friend of genuine civilization, a promoter of general intelligence, of freedom of the press, of progressive and liberal institutions! Descended from a family, the Romanoffs, whose whole history is but a series of cruelties and unnatural crimes, only paralleled by those of the Roman Emperors, we look in vain for anything in his life which should recommend him to the lovers of liberty and justice. Does not Poland owe to him the extinction of her nationality? Does not Hungary owe to his piratical interference her subjection to the detested house of Hapsburg, Schleswig-Holstein her degrading submission to Denmark, the Liberal party throughout Germany their disastrous overthrow, and Italy her prostration under the iron heel of Austria? Is he not a foe to education and freedom, and a fanatical devotee to Legitimacy? Does not his overwhelming force in the background embolden every petty tyrant and dishearten every oppressed nation? Does not his Court Journal proclaim that it is the mission of Russia to promote "Conservatism," and to crush England as being the perpetual fountain of “radicalism," and "disorganizing principles ?" And in the present war, who was the aggressor? Who claimed the right to exercise a virtual sovereignty over six millions of the subjects of an independent Power, and seized on the fairest provinces of his empire to enforce the demand? The same man to whom American Democrats are bidding God speed. It is often said on the other side that the Turkish government is as despotic as that of Russia. No assertion could be less warranted by facts. In the matter of toleration, Turkey is in advance of most civilized nations. There is not only toleration for all religions, but the government does not interfere in their religious concerns, and leaves them entirely to their own control, while the Czar makes of religion a political tool, and by his persecutions in Poland, as well as in Livonia and Esthonia, has blackened the Russian name with infamy. In the words of an eloquent liberal," he forced the United Greek Catholics of the Polish Provinces by every imaginable cruelty to abjure their connection with Rome, and carried out at a far greater expense of human life than Ferdinand and Isabella, or Louis XIV, the most stupendous proselytism which violence has yet achieved. More than a hundred thousand human beings had died of misery or under the knout, as the Minsk nuns were proved to have been killed, before he terrified these unhappy millions into a submission against which their consciences revolted." A similar but less severe system of proselytism was carried on among the Lutherans of Livonia and Esthonia. Again, Turkey respects municipal institutions, she grants self-government to her provinces of Servia, Wallachia and Moldavia, and allows a good degree of freedom to the press. The fact is, that the numerous reforms in Turkey, during the last twenty-five years, the growth of her army and navy, the establishment of educational institutions, the introduction of the arts and ideas of the West, especially the growth of Protestantism in the East, protected as it is by the Sultan from the per. secuting fury of the Greek clergy; all this has long been watched with jealousy by the Czar, who has taken advantage of a contemptible dispute about the keys of the Holy Sepulchre to precipitate war, crush Turkey, and fulfill the dream of his house for the last hundred years. Aside from these considerations, the generous protection extended by the Sultan to the Hungarian patriots, when Austria and Russia, flushed with victory, were demanding their surrender, and the heroic resistance which his troops have offered the invader at Oltenitza, at Citate and Silistria, may justly claim our sympathy and admiration. Again, we ask, what is the nation that we are called on specially to hate? It is England! England, connected with us by the ties of a common blood, a common language and literature, and a common Protestantism; whose commerce alone is worth more to us than that of all the world besides; to whom we owe the germs of almost all that is good and noble in our institutions, our habeas corpus, our trial by jury, our freedom of the press, our representative system: England, the refuge of all the political exiles of Europe, the only spot beyond the Atlantic where thought and speech are free, is to be hated and vilified, and the defeat and disgrace of her arms, desired by American Democrats! The existence of such a feeling in our country, surely calls for an explanation. How is it that a country which should be the home of all that is generous and noble, should give birth to sentiments worthy of Naples or Siberia. First, then, there is a party in the country whose political vision is bounded by Cuba. Every movement among the nations is to be estimated by its bearing on Cuban annexation. But the alliance of France and England is thought to bode no good to the schemes of fillibusters or of the victors of Greytown. There is also an obvious analogy between Cuba and Turkey, Havana and Constantinople, Sinope and Greytown. Mingled with this feeling there remains a good deal of old, traditional, British hatred. Many circumstances indicate the existence of an unfortunate degree of blind passion and fratricidal malice, which unscrupulous politicians have ever cherished and traded in for the basest purposes. The large immigration of Irish Catholics among us has done much to keep alive this feeling. Again, there is a large party consisting of ardent admirers of Kossuth and Mazzini, and sympathizers with the Red-Republicans of France, who desire to see Russia triumphant because the Allies do not make war in the name of Democracy. We propose to consider briefly some of the arguments by which these different parties justify their Pro-Russian sympathies. 66 First, efforts are made to excite distrust and fear of the Anglo-French alliance. It is hinted, that should Russia be humbled our turn to be regulated" will come next. "Russia," it is said, "does not stand in our way, England does." This is as false as it is short-sighted and selfish. Is there not room on earth for two nations of Anglo-Saxons? Are we to fear more from England and France than from a combination of all the despotic powers of Europe under Russia? Does any one believe that republicanism and absolutism can peaceably divide the world between them? Suppose Russia triumphant, France deprived of all influence on the Continent, England pent up within her island home, the Mediterranean a Russian lake, and the Czar master of Europe and Asia, can Americans believe that the spirit of absolutism would be appeased? Those fanatical admirers of Kossuth, who exult over every reverse that attends the allies, would do well to remember his words in 1852. In a speech delivered at Syracuse, said he, "If this opportunity be lost-I say it with the inspiration of prophecy-there are many in this hall who will see the day when the United States will have to wrestle for life and death with all Europe, absorbed by Russia." He went on to say that Russia's first attempt would be to exclude our commerce from Europe, her second, to foster domestic discord by her secret diplomacy and her gold. Again, at Syracuse, he said, "The whole Anglo-Saxon race is bound by every consideration of policy, to check the encroachments of Russia. It is not in |