true, in essence to those which men had discussed in former days, but seen in the light of the poet's own time. Hitherto Tennyson's pieces had all been short. In 1847 he published his first long poem, the medley of _The Princess_. This serio-comic production on what is called 'the woman question' will probably not hold for long a high place among Tennyson's works. The main body of it contains no great illuminating thought. The reflexions upon the position of women and the relations of the sexes are not beyond the range of an intelligence considerably short of genius, and the jest and earnest are not very happily mingled. The poem is remarkable rather for fine passages than for greatness as a whole. In point of length it was the most important experiment Tennyson had yet made in the most difficult but most flexible form of English metre, blank verse. There is however no part of _The Princess_ of similar length which can be ranked as equal to _Morte d'Arthur_; and its best feature, the lyrics between the parts, were a subsequent addition. But whatever may be the intrinsic merit of _The Princess_, it is valuable as a symptom. The poet who had at first held so far aloof from the interests of everyday life is now found devoting his longest work to a social question of the day. He is at least endeavouring to be what Sir Henry Taylor says the great poet must be, a philosopher as well as an artist. If 'art for art's sake' be the proper creed of the poet, then Tennyson is wrong, and he remains wrong all the rest of his life. We must rank him among those poets who seek to base their work on an intellectual foundation, not among those who hold that feeling alone is sufficient. He seeks to see Truth as well as Beauty, instead of resting satisfied, like Keats, with their ultimate identity. [Sidenote: Robert Browning (1812-1889).]