_e. Character Study_--King Arthur. The best estimate of King Arthur's character is made from his own words and those of Bedivere, not from Tennyson's description. 1. He has been a devout man. He has fought for Christ and searched for Christ and "found Him in the shining of the stars, Mark'd Him in the flowering of His fields." 2. He is now discouraged. He has not found Him in His ways with men, and now it seems to him, "As if some lesser god had made the world, But had not force to shape it as he would." "My God, thou hast forgotten me in my death." 3. Yet he is hopeful, and he feels that perchance the world is wholly fair, and that his doubts come because he has not the power to see it as it is, and may not see it to the close. 4. He desires to be just, and feels that in the coming battle in the west he may not have the right on his side: "Ill doom is mine To war against my people and my knights. The king who fights his people fights himself." 5. Yet courage and confidence are not all gone: "Yet let us hence, and find or feel a way Thro' this blind haze." 6. After the battle, he grows more confused: "I know not what I am, Nor whence I am, nor whether I be King. Behold, I seem but King among the dead." 7. He must be noble, kingly, to have inspired such devotion as Bedivere shows. Hear what the latter says: "My King, King everywhere! and so the dead have kings, There also will I worship thee as King." 8. He is a warrior to the last. Listen to his reply to Bedivere: "King am I, whatsoever be their cry; And one last act of kinghood shalt thou see Yet, ere I pass." 9. He is resigned: "Let what will be, be." 10. He is faithful to the trust imposed upon him when he acquired Excalibur. Three times he sends Bedivere to cast the sword into the mere. The last time he says: "But, if thou spare to fling Excalibur, I will arise and slay thee with my hands." 11. He loves truth and reveres it: "This is a shameful thing for men to lie." 12. Though he appears to fear death, rather is his fear that he shall die before he reaches the water where he expects something. 13. At the last his philosophy bears him up, though still he calls for devotion from his faithful knight. The whole speech is matchless. Note these fine passages: "The old order changeth, yielding place to new, And God fulfils himself in many ways." "And that which I have done May He within himself make pure!" "More things are wrought by prayer Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice Rise like a fountain for me night and day."