an. Tennyson, though
part of a hereditary system, sees with perfect clearness how ancestry
accounts for no man, and how every man must make his own room in the
world; how nobility depends, not on a family's past, but on the
individual's present; how wealth and service are the credentials of
character society will accept, and the only credentials. This view is
scarcely English, but is fully American. And Tennyson was not
sympathetic with America. Democracies possessed not the flavor of the
fruit he loved. When, however, the biography of greatness is to be
written, who writes the story, if he write it truly, must tell a story
of democracy. Tennyson is unconscious democrat when he writes Arthur's
biography, because as poet he saw. His intuitions led him. He spoke,
not as a lover of a certain social and political system, but as a
discerner of spirits. The poet is not his best as a planned
philosophizer; for in that role he becomes self-conscious; but is at
his best when the wheel of his burning spirit, revolving as the planets
do, throws off sparks or streams of fire. To the accuracy of this
observation witness both Browning and Tennyson. When they were
"possessed," as the Delphic oracle would say, they marched toward truth
like an invincible troop. Truth seemed the missing half of their own
sphere, toward which, by a subtle and lordly gravitation, they swung.
When Tennyson's instincts speak, he is democrat; when his reason and
his prejudice (for he was surcharged with both) speak, he is hot
aristocrat. When he is biographer for royal Arthur, his instinct
speaks, and his conviction holds that character and deeds do and shall
count for more than blood; and this is no isolated idea advanced
touching Arthur, but is prevalent throughout his verse. In "Lady Clara
Vere de Vere," his heart speaks, full of eagerness, saying:

"Howe'er it be, it seems to me,
'T is only noble to be good.
Kind hearts are more than coronets,
And simple faith than Norman blood."

Nor is the Laureate's subsequent acceptance of the peerage a retraction
of these earlier sentiments; for he did but accept the ribbon of an
order which was part of the political system of his native land.
Himself was self-made. Who were the Tennysons? Who are the Tennysons?
He made a house. And in the list of lords, does any one think there is
a name whose device one would rather wear than that of Lord Tennyson?
Holland has this bit of verse, w