By virtue of this golden mean Tennyson remained at an equal distance from revolution and reaction in his ideas, and equally remote from extravagance and insipidity in his work. He is essentially a man of the new time; he begins his career steeped in the influence of Shelley and Keats, without whom he would never have attained the height he did--a height nevertheless, in our opinion, appreciably below theirs, if he is regarded simply as a poet. But he is a poet and much else; he is the interpreter of the Victorian era--firstly to itself, secondly to the ages to come. Had even any poet of greater genius than himself arisen in his own day, which did not happen, he would still have remained the national poet of the time in virtue of his universality. Some personal friends _splendide mendaces_ have hailed him as our greatest poet since Shakespeare. This is absurd; but it is true that no other poet since Shakespeare has produced a body of [Illustration: _From a drawing by George W. Rhead_ MERLIN AND VIVIEN (Reproduced from the Illustrated Edition of “Idylls of the King,” by kind permission of Messrs. Macmillan & Co., Ltd.)] [Illustration: A FACSIMILE TENNYSON’S MANUSCRIPT, “CROSSING THE BAR” (Reproduced from “Tennyson: A Memoir,” by kind permission of Messrs. Macmillan & Co., Ltd.)] poetry which comes so near to satisfying all tastes, reconciling all tendencies, and registering every movement of the intellectual life of the period. Had his mental balance been less accurately poised, he might have been the laureate of a party, but he could not have been the laureate of the nation. As an intellectual force he is, we think, destined to be powerful and durable, because the charm of his poetry will always keep his ideas before the popular mind; and these ideas will always be congenial to the solid, practical, robust, and yet tender and emotional mind of England. They may be briefly defined as the recognition of the association of continuity with mutability in human institutions: the utmost reverence for the past combined with the full and not regretful admission that The old order changes, giving place to new, And God fulfils Himself in many ways; the conception of Freedom as something that “broadens down, from precedent to precedent”; veneration for “the Throne unshaken still,” so long as it continues “broad-based upon the People’s will,” which will always be the case so long as Statesmen at the Council meet Who know the seasons. [Illustration: _From a water-colour drawing by Mrs. Allingham_ THE GLADE AT FARRINGFORD (Reproduced by kind permission of the Artist)] Philosophically and theologically, Tennyson is even more conspicuously the representative of the average English mind of his [Illustration: _From a photo by Messrs. F. Frith & Co., Reigate_ FRESHWATER] [Illustration: _From a photo by Messrs. F. Frith & Co., Reigate_ FRESHWATER BAY]