And a fancy as summer-new
As the green of the bracken amid the gloom of the heather.’
The following paper left by Lady Tennyson concerning her husband might seem almost too intimate to quote here, if it did not give so truly the atmosphere at Farringford that one does not venture to omit it.
‘... He felt intensely the sin and all the evils of the world and all its mystery, and still kept an unshaken faith in the God of perfect love, perfect wisdom and infinite power, with that confident assurance of man’s immortality which pointed to a hereafter where all would be reconciled. “Be ye perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect.” In the life of Christ he found his Christianity; undisturbed by the jarring of sects and creeds. Politics were to him patriotism, and passionately did he feel for all that concerned the welfare of the Empire. Party, as far as his own personal opinion went, was unintelligible. That all should work conscientiously and harmoniously for the common good, each with such differing powers as God has given to each, recognising the value of the difference, this was his highest idea of Empire. He honoured all honest work.’
FOOTNOTES
[1] He did most of his work for the Colonial Office from his sick bed, and few Secretaries of State have done more important work than he.
[2] Tennyson would say, ‘some of those stupid critics say that King Arthur is meant for Prince Albert. I never thought of him.’
DUBLIN DAYS: THE RISING.
LETTERS FROM MRS. HAMILTON NORWAY.