an is
the more readily does he perceive and more magniloquently acknowledge
greatness. Apart from In Memoriam, Tennyson's recorded utterances about
Arthur Hallam are expressed in terms of almost hyperbolical laudation.
I once was fortunate enough to have the opportunity of asking Mr.
Gladstone about Arthur Hallam. Mr. Gladstone had been his close friend
at Eton and his constant companion. His eye flashed, his voice gathered
volume, and with a fine gesture of his hand he said that he could only
deliberately affirm that physically, intellectually, and morally, Arthur
Hallam approached more nearly to an ideal of human perfection than
any one whom he had ever seen. And yet the picture of Hallam at Eton
represents a young man of an apparently solid and commonplace type, with
a fresh colour, and almost wholly destitute of distinction or charm;
while his extant fragments of prose and poetry are heavy, verbose, and
elaborate, and without any memorable quality. It appears indeed as if
he had exercised a sort of hypnotic influence upon his contemporaries.
Neither does he seem to have produced a very gracious impression upon
outsiders who happened to meet him. There is a curious anecdote told
by some one who met Arthur Hallam travelling with his father on the
Continent only a short time before his sudden death. The narrator says
that he saw with a certain satisfaction how mercilessly the young
man criticised and exposed his father's statements, remembering how
merciless the father had often been in dealing summarily with the
arguments and statements of his own contemporaries. One asks oneself in
vain what the magnetic charm of his presence and temperament can have
been. It was undoubtedly there, and yet it seems wholly irrecoverable.
The same is true, in a different region, with the late Mr. W. E. Henley.
His literary performances, with the exception of some half-a-dozen
poetical pieces, have no great permanent value. His criticisms were
vehement and complacent, but represent no great delicacy of analysis
nor breadth of view. His treatment of Stevenson, considering the
circumstances of the case, was ungenerous and irritable. Yet those
who were brought into close contact with Henley recognised something
magnanimous, noble, and fiery about him, which evoked a passionate
devotion. I remember shortly before his death reading an appreciation
of his work by a faithful admirer, who described him as "another Dr.
Johnson," and speaking of h